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Global governance to the rescue: saving international relations?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 20:42 authored by Thomas G Weiss, Rorden Wilkinson
International relations teeters on the edge of an abyss of irrelevance. As an academic pursuit, it has become disparate and fragmented. Those of us in the discipline have ceased to pursue greater clarity in the way that we understand the world around us. Moreover, we have failed as agents of change; that is, as purveyors of opinion and proposals about a better and fairer world order. As such, we no longer serve our students and those practitioners who seek our advice, or, for those of us who take on policy jobs, to push out the envelope of what is considered acceptable. Global governance offers one potentially compelling way of “saving international relations”— though it is not without its problems. This article outlines how and why. The argument unfolds in three parts. The first outlines why and how IR teeters on the edge of an abyss. The second offers a proposal for moving beyond the fragmentation and atomization that afflicts international relations. We suggest that one way of encouraging reengagement is to return to debating grand questions that used to be the sustenance of IR. The third part argues that global governance—appropriately and specifically framed to make it fit for purpose—offers an opportunity to return to these questions and, in so doing, reinvigorate our fragmented and atomized field.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Global Governance

ISSN

1075-2846

Publisher

Lynne Rienner Publishers

Issue

1

Volume

20

Page range

19-36

Department affiliated with

  • International Relations Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-05-07

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-05-16

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-05-16

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