ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been an increasing interest in issues such as 'global civil society', 'transnational NGOs' and 'issue networks'.1 Rather than conceptualising globalisation only as the expansion of productive activities and the increased influence of global capital owners, it is also possible to envisage increased supraterritoriality as a means of empowerment of 'global civic networks' (Kaldor, 2000, p. 106). An example of the effectiveness of such networks - whose activities attracted massive public attention - were the demonstrations that took place in Seattle, Washington, Prague and Melbourne (Mittelman, 2000, p. 383). These had an anti-globalist discourse but their contribution, according to Kaldor (2000, p. 106), was to trigger a debate about the nature of the global system.
