The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down.
The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most.
Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.
Figures viii
Boxes and Tables x
Abbreviations xii
Preface xvii
Introduction 1
The Postwar Legacy 4
Overview 9
1 Gridlock 14
Building the Postwar Order 18
Explaining the Postwar Order: Hegemony versus
Institutions 21
The Effect of the Postwar Order: Self-Reinforcing
Interdependence 25
Roads to Gridlock 34
Conclusion 48
2 Security 49
Introduction 49
CHANGES IN THE NATURE AND FORM OF SECURITY 51
The Interstate System 51
Postwar Developments: From the UN to the Cold War 55
Institutional Developments and Successes 65
Shifting Principles of Global Order 72
Post-9/11 Global Security 81
GRIDLOCK: DYNAMICS OF INSTITUTIONAL DEFICIT AND MALFUNCTION 84
The UN Security Council and the Disarmament Regime 85
Complex Intermestic Issues 93
Paradigm Shift or Realist Status Quo? 105
Conclusion 112
3 Economy 113
Introduction 113
THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE 116
The Imperial System and Its Demise 116
Bretton Woods and the Creation of Multilateral Economic Institutions 120
Self-Reinforcing Interdependence and the End of Bretton Woods 130
GRIDLOCK IN GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE 152
Gridlock in Multilateral Trade Negotiations 154
Gridlock in Global Financial Governance 162
Global Financial Governance Reform 171
Conclusion: A Reembedded Global Market? 182
4 Environment 189
Introduction: A Zanjera for the Globe? 189
GLOBALIZATION OF THE COMMONS AND PARTIAL GLOBALIZATION OF THEIR MANAGEMENT 193
Industrial Globalization and the Origins of Modern Environmental Governance 194
Postwar Internationalization 198
The Modern Environmental Movement 201
An Environmental Bretton Woods? The Stockholm Compromise and UNEP 206
Early Successes, Lingering Challenges 215
A New Foundational Moment? From Compromise to Gridlock at Rio 226
ENVIRONMENTAL GRIDLOCK 232
Self-Reinforcing Interdependence and the Global Environment 232
Forests 237
Climate Change 251
Conclusion: Increasingly Linked Problems, Increasingly Fragmented Governance 269
5 Beyond Gridlock? 273
From Self-Reinforcing Interdependence to Gridlock 276
Trends toward Deepening Gridlock 279
National Trends and Gridlock 286
The Changed Global Landscape 296
Pathways through Gridlock 300
Politics beyond Gridlock 306
Notes 312
References 319
Index 350
