Editor’s note: E-International relations posted the above-titled article by Molly Ruhlman, which reads in part as follows:
“Global governance is a complex ecosystem of formal and informal institutions. It is formally the domain and responsibility of sovereign nation states, and traditionally studied with a microscope on national interest and state power. Non-sovereign nations and other organizations and associations lack full international legal personality. They are in many ways marginal to central decision-making, diplomacy and negotiation in formal intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). But global governance is much bigger than formal IGOs, and indeed is increasingly composed of multi-stakeholder, complex governance institutions and informal “soft law” agreements. Even within the confines of formal IGO structures, where sovereign nation-states negotiate and decide, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role.”