About the project
The Global Governance Project (Glogov.org) was a joint research programme of thirteen European research institutions that aimed to advance understanding of the new actors, institutions and mechanisms of global governance. While we addressed the phenomenon of global governance in general, most of our research projects focused on global environmental change and governance for sustainable development.
The Global Governance Project was co-ordinated by the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and included associate faculty members and research fellows from more than thirteen European institutions, including: Sciences Po Bordeaux, University of Bremen, Freie Universität Berlin (Environmental Policy Research Centre), German Development Institute, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) Geneva, London School of Economics and Political Science, Lund University, Oldenburg University, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, and Wageningen University. The Project was created in 2001 with the endorsement of the Institutional Dimensions core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).
Analytically, the project defined global governance by three criteria, which also shape the research groups within the Project.
First, we see global governance as characterised by the increasing participation of actors other than states, ranging from private actors such as multinational corporations and (networks of) scientists and environmentalists to intergovernmental organisations ('multiactor governance'). These new actors of global governance are the focus of our research group Manus-Managers of Global Change.
Second, we see global governance as marked by new mechanisms of organisation such as public-private and private-private partnerships, alongside the traditional system of legal treaties negotiated by states. This is the focus of our research group Mecglo-New Mechanisms of Global Governance.
Third, we see global governance as characterised by different layers and clusters of rule-making and rule-implementation, both vertically between supranational, international, national and subnational layers of authority ('multilevel governance') and horizontally between different parallel rule-making systems. This stands at the centre of our research group Mosaic-'Multiple Options, Solutions and Approaches: Institutional Interplay and Conflict'.
Most topics analyzed by the Global Governance Project have been taken over by the Earth System Governance Project.
IHDP endorsement
The Global Governance Project is endorsed by the "Earth System Governance" core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).
Participating Institutions
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Free University Berlin
- Fridtjof Nansen Institute
- University of Bremen
- Sciences Po Bordeaux
- German Development Institute
- IHEID Geneva
- LSE
- Lund University
- Oldenburg University
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Wageningen University
Our website
This website contains brief outlines of some of the research questions we have recently explored, as well as some publications in downloadable format. To download pdf files, get the Acrobat Reader >>