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Abstract

‘Global governance’ has become a key term in academic and policy debates alike. While an Internet search conducted in 1997 revealed only 3,418 references to ‘global governance’ and in January 2004 less than 90,000, in March 2014 the World Wide Web contained over 800,000 pages that mentioned the term. Global governance has become a rallying call for policy advocates who hail it as panacea for the evils of globalization; a global menace for opponents who fear it as the universal hegemony of the many by the powerful few; and an analytical concept that has given rise to much discussion among scholars of international relations (IR), including the launch of the journal Global Governance in 1995.

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© 2014 Frank Biermann

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Biermann, F. (2014). Global Governance and the Environment. In: Betsill, M.M., Hochstetler, K., Stevis, D. (eds) Advances in International Environmental Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137338976_10

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