Introduction

Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium the question of resistances to the liberal project of global governance has come to occupy centre stage in global and international politics. From the mass demonstrations at the Seattle WTO summit in November and December 1999, to the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in September 2001, to the Bush administrations’ ambivalent, if not downright hostile, attitude towards multilateralism — all of these can be thought of especially conspicuous instances of resistance to global governance. If the 1990s were dominated by the collapse of Communism and the consequent resurgence of liberal hopes and political agendas — these encapsulated in the notions of ‘globalisation’, ‘global governance’ and the ‘new world order’ — the period since has been dominated by challenges to and conflicts within this triumphalist liberal project.