The world faces increasingly complex problems that have taken on global significance – including conflict and peace-building, humanitarian crises and intervention, international economic inequality and instability, and global environmental change. How are these problems addressed at the global level? And are the mechanisms adopted to address them effective and just?
Global governance as a subject field entails an interdisciplinary examination of power and authority in the global arena and examines the variety of actors, institutions, ideas, rules, and processes that contribute to the management of global society, exploring their origins, their evolving roles, as well as their political, economic, social, environmental, and ethical consequences. In addition to considering international organizations and inter-state interactions, global governance gives critical focus to various non-state actors, formal and informal networks, and broader transnational, supranational, and sub-national realities of contemporary life that increasingly contribute to the establishment and functioning of global rules, norms and institutions.
The study of global governance is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field of research where scholars and practitioners from various academic and professional backgrounds come together to focus on governance issues relating to fundamental problems in global affairs. In this field, policy-relevant research and teaching about problems of global governance go beyond the rigidities and formalities of established disciplinary boundaries to be effective. Global governance issues are complex, which demands an interdisciplinary approach. This interdisciplinary program is designed to meet these needs.