By Aoife O’Donoghue, Ruth Houghton and Cher Weixia Chen

In the opening chapter of this new Research Handbook on Global Governance, Aoife O’Donoghue asks, “why bother?” In an age when international cooperation and collaboration is on the decline, attempts to work together to cut worldwide carbon emissions or to bring about the end of prolonged conflict are pathetic at best and failing at worst, and faith in international institutions and organisations is dwindling, there seems little desire for global governance. Indeed, the fierce return of the rhetoric of state sovereignty in the last decade, and the performance of isolationist nationalism by right-wing, authoritarian populist governments around the world lessens the need for any mechanisms of governance beyond the state. A Research Handbook on global governance, which seeks to proffer new research agendas across the field, might feel too late in the circumstances.

And yet, the very timeline of the development of this Handbook sheds light on the importance of studying global governance – perhaps now more than ever. The process of writing the chapters of this book has taken place against the backdrop of a “Grotian moment” for the world – the Covid-19 Pandemic – when the various authors around the globe were placed in isolation, stuck in their homes, juggling multivarious caring responsibilities and work, dealing with personal and collective grief, and trying to stay alive. The need for global responses to manage the spread of the virus, the legal and political implications of border closures and lockdowns, the geopolitics of the privatisation and outsourcing of care and the stark inequalities of such provision, are inherently questions for global governance. Sitting on Zoom calls in preparatory author workshops, we felt the effects of this global challenge. It is no surprise then that themes of care, welfare and inequality are central to several chapters in this Handbook (chapter 6; chapter 8).   

This Handbook was developed as people experienced numerous outbreaks of violence around the world. Whether we mean the second invasion of Ukraine by Russia, after the 2014 invasion of Crimea, on 24 February 2022, the genocidal policies of the State of Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, or civil wars and conflicts including in Sudan, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Part VI of the Handbook is dedicated to exploring the changing face of global responses to conflict. From the need to reconceptualise how international law frames questions of war (chapter 21; chapter 22), to the role of the UN in peace-mediation (chapter 23), chapters in this Handbook showcase the need for ongoing discussions of the legitimacy, efficacy, and expediency of global governance mechanisms when it comes to preventing conflict and promoting peace. As traditional, outdated international law mechanisms struggle to respond to the gross human rights violations that accompany such conflicts, chapters in Part IV of the Handbook call for new thinking on the functions of global governance. Bana Abu Zuluf and Alice Panepinto’s chapter critiquing the role of international law and international institutions in the question of Palestinian self-determination, demonstrates the need for cross-disciplinary interrogation of the foundations of global governance (chapter 16). Looking to the underpinning theoretical, conceptual and political assumptions of global governance through critical lenses can help in the search for understanding the current backlash against these international institutions.

As the world seemingly sits and watches ongoing environmental degradation, the colossal melting of sea-ice, exponential rising sea levels, and devastating fires from unprecedented temperatures, not bothering seems to sum up the contemporary disposition. But, as chapters in Part V of this Handbook demonstrate, apathy is no longer an option. If the international legal frameworks and institutions have repeatedly fallen short of expectations in delivering meaningful change, and if global governance mechanisms cannot adequately account for the multiplicity of actors involved in perpetuating climate change and environmental destruction, then new “global” frameworks, ideas, and methods are necessary. Critical, interdisciplinary scholarship on law and global governance is necessary to both understand the historical processes and structures that led to this present moment, and to facilitate radical reimaginings of the possibilities of borderless governance. And it is these necessary objectives that the Handbook promises to deliver on. 

Across 27 chapters, and a team of 38 authors, the Research Handbook on Global Governance provides critical reflections on the state of global governance scholarship and offers novel ways of responding to the real, practical and academic challenges within the field. Across the Handbook, the chapters weave together explorations of the fundamental questions on the theoretical underpinnings of global governance with contemporary issues, threats and challenges. Operating across multiple different scales of governance (be it local, domestic, regional, international or transnational), the Handbook interrogates the very meaning of “global” in global governance. One of the unique features of the Handbook is its commitment to interdisciplinary research; the study of law within global governance would be incomplete without a fuller understanding of the role of economic, social, and political factors, and historical developments. Authors in the Handbook worked together to write interdisciplinary chapters, with expertise spanning across multiple disciplines: including, history, literature, media ecology, sociology and international relations.   

Asking “why bother” might seem like a counter-intuitive way to draw in an audience for a Research Handbook, but as this blog post hopes to show, the challenges the world faces – the inequalities, the violence, the poverty, and death and destruction – as well as the opportunities of innovation and development that come with globalisation, require a return to the study of global governance. A critical, interdisciplinary (re)turn that interrogates the past, present and future directions of the scholarship and practice of global governance. Un-apathetically, the Research Handbook on Global Governance aims to provide this intervention in the field.

Research Handbook on Global Governance

Edited by Aoife O’Donoghue, Professor of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, School of Law, Ruth Houghton, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University, UK and Cher Weixia Chen, Associate Professor, School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University, USA

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