Reclaiming global governance: prospects for an uncertain world

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Acknowledgements

This issue would not have been possible without the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The editors are indebted to the discussants at the workshop “Reclaiming Global Governance: Prospects for an Uncertain World,” held at the Balsillie School of International Affairs on 20–21 March 2013. These individuals include Fred Bird, Simon Dalby, Timothy Donais, Alistair Edgar, Lucie Edwards, Jenna Hennebry, Kathryn Hochstetler, Sue Horton, John Kirton, Bessma Momani, Mark Raymond, Laura Reidel, Robert Rotberg, Pierre Siklos, Debora VanNijnatten and particularly David Welch. We extend our thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers. Production of this special edition owes much to the tireless efforts of Kevin Arthur, and to the support provided by Bente Molenaar Neufeld, Joe Landry and Rory Morrison. The guest editors are especially grateful for the help and support of Canadian Foreign Policy Journal editor David Carment.

Notes

1. In our initial call for papers we asked authors to write on specific governance issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, identify the key strengths and weaknesses of current governance institutions and architecture, cast their imagination forward 20 to 30 years and propose feasible changes that will improve regional and/or global management of the issue in question. Contributors were encouraged, where possible, to identify ways in which Canada might contribute to these changes. Authors were welcome to adopt the methodological approach of their choice. Of the initial 61 proposals, 19 promising emerging scholars doing cutting-edge work on global governance issues were selected to present their research findings at a workshop hosted by the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) in Waterloo, Ontario, on 20–21 March 2013, and organized under the joint auspices of BSIA and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA). Papers were selected for publication following the results of a rigorous peer review process.

2. This categorization bears a very close resemblance to that of Cox (1981), the “three categories of forces” within his “framework for action.” However, our conception of knowledge, having already segregated out the normative, is more fundamentally objective and more akin to Herbert Woodward's idea of intelligence as “the capacity to acquire capacity.” We are indebted to Arne Ruckert for reminding us of Cox's work in this regard.