Structural Shifts
Featured Emerging Countries and New Global Governance: Contemporary Challenges of the International Institutional Framework
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Gabriel Rached
Since 2008, and especially in the last decade, the multilateral institutions derived from Bretton Woods have been under check denoting that the international order has reached a critical stage. This process can also be evidenced by the increasing criticism concerning the role and performance of the international institutions in force. This issue addresses to the emergent countries and their movement towards reviewing their participation in the international arena. At this point, the rise of China and the willingness of these intermediate countries (such as Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa) to revisit their insertion on global governance scope, led to the conformation of the BRICS - aiming to cooperate and reach a higher level of development accompanied by a repositioning in the international arena. In this context, what is the role of the global community to move forward and contribute to the process of designing relevant institutional guidelines to overcome contemporary demands within the international arena? Which dynamics should be revisited to face the present challenges and how do domestic politics and actors interfere in shaping global governance? These are some questions related to this study, taking into account the interests and features that affect the policy-making processes. By rethinking contemporary features of Global Governance through the International Political Economy approach - debating which kind of measures and shapes for the international organizations would be suitable and fit better the contemporary challenges for cooperation - this research intends to debate the key features for structuring a “New Global Governance” institutional framework.
Agents and Structures: Rethinking Sovereignty, Regional Integration and Development in the New Globalization Era
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Annita Montoute
The world is rapidly changing, prominent among the shifts is the onset a new era of globalization characterized by a multipolar distribution of global power, greater economic fragmentation, climate change, rapid advancements in technology and digital integration. These changes inevitably fuel the need to revaluate the validity and utility of old concepts and practices in this new context. This paper interrogates the idea of sovereignty as it relates to regional integration as a tool of development in this new dispensation. It seeks to fill a paucity in the literature by examining the idea of sovereignty as a key contributor to usurping regionalism and by extension compounding development challenges. Using a case study methodology and on the basis of documentary analysis, the paper examines Caribbean regionalism as a unique example to advance this argument. The Caribbean consists of vulnerable small island developing states, with open economies which were pawns in, and have been at the forefront of the globalization agenda from the beginning. Traditionally, Caribbean nations embarked on regional integration as a method of overcoming development constraints. Today, development is under siege by the sovereign choices governments make at the expense of pooling resources and regional cooperation. The paper thereby makes a contribution to the international relations literature by reevaluating sovereignty and inter – governmentalism as viable concepts for the advancement of regionalism and the development of small states in this new dispensation.
