Global governance: Why bother?

Abstract

It may seem like a slightly rhetorical or cynical question to ask, why bother with global governance? With so many global crises, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and dismiss global governance as a useless pursuit. Whether it is the relentless wars in Gaza, Sudan or Ukraine, full of death and unimaginable and irreparable harm, or the fact that global inequality appears to be growing, global governance seems a bygone conversation. Yet, the unrelenting march of people driven climate change and the quite apparent transformation of the world around us require us to reflect on, even what has, on many counts, failed. The continued gaps in wealth between individuals, regions and countries and the resultant life expectations and opportunities that emerge from those gaps, may make pondering global governance indulgent, yet it is also these reasons that make it essential