CIGI researchers took part in the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Academic Council of the United Nations System (ACUNS), presenting their work on 'frontier' issues of global governance.
Deanne Leifso; Moderator
Geoff Burt; "The Securitization of Global Failed States Policy: Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom on Ungoverned Spaces"
Meagan A. Kay; "The Challenges of Improving Maternal Health: Policy Statements versus Action Realities"
Andrew Schrumm; "Filling the Institutional Vacuum: Emerging Competition in the Governance of Global Energy"
Joseph F. Turcotte; "Pirating Policy? Emerging Challenges in the International Intellectual Property Regime"
Panel Abstract:
While the functions of international institutions are shaped by the issue or constituency being served, the various players, preferences and politics involved can greatly influence the institutional design and the policy tools available. In this context, numerous challenges posed by new or emergent global issues have not found natural policy homes within the nebulas of international organizations, formed decades earlier, and can linger outside institutional domains. These new challenges have forced an expansion of the frontiers of global governance. This panel will explore a set of case studies that draw out such evolving tensions between new challenges and entrenched institutionalism in the areas of global health, security, intellectual property (IP) and energy. A groundswell of private actors has materialized in the area of global health has sped up access to healthcare around the world, but only outside of the purview of UN or national control. Similarly, a proliferation of non-state security threats has prompted a global imperative to impose institutional order on the world’s ungoverned spaces. Rapid social, economic and technological transformations have challenged and outpaced existing IP institutions, such as the WTO and WIPO, leading to the development of new forms of international engagement. Within the domain of global energy, competitive arrangements have led to opposing and often overlapping institutions which continue to privilege energy security over renewables and poverty reduction policies. In each of these cases, ‘multiple multilateralisms’ can be seen as part of the problem and part of the solution. The roundtable will draw conclusions on the potential roles for ad hoc and formal institutions to address such frontier issues in global governance.