Actors and Global Governance

Classical theory once treated the sovereign state as the only actor that mattered in world politics. Today the stage is crowded. Global politics is shaped by a dense network of state and non-state actors interacting through what scholars call global governance. This lesson surveys the main actors and examines how the world is governed in the absence of a world government.

States and intergovernmental organisations

States remain the primary actors. They alone possess sovereignty, control territory and populations, command military force, and sit as full members of international organisations. Their pursuit of the national interest is the starting point of most analysis. Yet states increasingly act through intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), bodies created by treaties among states to pur