The United Nations meets the twenty-first century: confronting the challenges of global governance

Abstract

There is no global government. Yet, on any given day, mail is delivered across borders; people travel from one count1y to another via a variety of transport modes; goods and services are freighted across land, air, sea and cyberspace; and a whole range of other crossborder activities take place in reasonable expectation of reliable, safe and secure service for the people, groups, firms and governments involved. Disruptions are rare - indeed, in many instances less frequent in the international domain than in some countries that should have effective and functioning governments. That is, international transactions are typically characterized by order, stability and predictability. This is puzzling: How is the world governed even in the absence of a world government in order to produce norms, codes of conduct and regulato1y, surveillance and compliance instruments? How are values allocated quasi-authoritatively for the world and accepted as such, without a govermnent to rule the world.