The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance

by Rodney Bruce Hall, Thomas J. Biersteker

Overview

The emergence of private authority is now a feature of the post-Cold War world. The contributors to this volume examine the implications of the erosion of the state's power in global governance. They analyze financial institutions, multinational corporations, religious terrorists and organized crime operations. Relating directly to debates concerning globalization and the role of international law, this study is of interest to scholars and students of international relations, politics, sociology and law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521818612
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/12/2002
Series:	Cambridge Studies in International Relations , #85
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.91(d)
Lexile:	1640L (what's this?)

About the Author

RODNEY BRUCE HALL is Assistant Professor of International Politics at the Department of Political Science of the University of Iowa.

THOMAS J. BIERSTEKER is Henry R. Luce Professor of Transnational Organizations and Director of the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: Theorizing Private Authority: 1. The emergence of private authority in the international system Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker; 2. Private regimes and inter-firm cooperation A. Claire Cutler; Part II. Market Authority: Globalization and 'Globaloney': 3. Economic governance in an electronically networked global economy Stephen J. Kobrin; 4. Global markets, national authority and the problem of legitimation: the case of finance Louis W. Pauly; 5. The state and globalization Saskia Sassen; Part III. Moral Authority: Global Civil Society and Transnational Religious Movements: 6. 'Regulation for the rest of us?' Global civil society and the privatisation of transnational regulation Ronnie D. Lipschutz and Cathleen Fogel; 7. The global dimensions of religious terrorism Mark Juergensmeyer; Part IV. Illicit Authority: Mafias and Mercenaries: 8. Transnational organized crime and the state Phil Williams; 9. The return of the dogs of war? The privatisation of security in Africa Bernadette Methuen and Ian Taylor; Part V. Conclusions and Directions: 10. Private authority as global governance Thomas J. Biersteker and Rodney Bruce Hall.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume posits a fresh research agenda that enrices globalisation discussions in danger of becoming stale and redundant." Journal of International Relations and Development

From the Publisher

States have historically been the dominant source of authority in international relations thanks to monopoly on the legitimate use of force. As this evocative book points out, however, authority has begun to take root in nonstate societal and transnational spheres — particularly in the global economy, where private transnational regimes have been devised by banks and firms to regulate transactions. Centuries-old traditions of self-regulatory merchant law have grown into a highly institutionalized semiprivate commercial legal order in which states participate only indirectly to provide enforcement. Other chapters explore the moral authority of transnational religious movements and nongovernmental organizations, and the final chapters examine the authority exercised today by influential nontraditional private actors such as mafias and mercenary armies. Relations between authorities are multifaceted and difficult to pin down — and, indeed, the privatization of specific jobs is now often promoted or welcomed by the state. Nonetheless, the authors succeed in illuminating the many dimensions and shifting terrain of state and nonstate authority, even if the extent and consequences of private governance remain ambiguous.

Foreign Affairs