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ISA Roundtable: Towards a Third Generation of Global Governance Scholarship

23 May 2018

At this year's International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in San Francisco (4-7 April 2018), the GGI brought together leading scholars for a roundtable on global governance.

Global Governance Third Generation

Participants discussed the history and evolution of global governance research and practice, current challenges and promising future lines of inquiry. 

The roundtable built upon the call for a 'third generation' of global governance research, first made by the GGI directorship in a commentary in the journal Governance and recently expanded upon in a special issue of the journal Global Policy. A first generation of global governance research, principally in international relations (IR), has focused almost exclusively on formal mechanisms of interstate relations within public multilateral institutions. A varied second generation of scholarship has begun to investigate new forms of public and private global governance as a response to multilateral gridlock and the limitations faced by states in tackling pressing transboundary challenges. Going forward, much could be gained from advancing a convergence, already underway, across this theoretically and empirically rich scholarship, towards a 'third generation' of global governance research, distinguished by a concern for the complexity of global public policy delivery and the potential for more systematic inter- and cross-disciplinary learning.

Roundtable participants included Michael Barnett (George Washington University), Ann Florini (Singapore Management University), Virginia Haufler (University of Maryland), Beverley Loke (Exeter University), Tom Pegram (University College London), and Michael Zürn (WZB, Berlin Social Science Center). The roundtable was chaired by Miles Kahler (American University).

To find out more and read about the individual contributions to the roundtable discussion, please refer to this GGI Commentary.