The issues that increasingly dominate the 21st century cannot be solved by any single country acting alone, no matter how powerful. To manage the global economy, prevent runaway environmental destruction, reign in nuclear proliferation, or confront other global challenges, we must cooperate. But at the same time, our tools for global policymaking - chiefly state-to-state negotiations over treaties and international institutions - have broken down.

The result is gridlock, which manifests across areas via a number of common mechanisms. The rise of new powers representing a more diverse array of interests makes agreement more difficult. The problems themselves have also grown harder as global policy issues penetrate ever more deeply into core domestic concerns. Existing institutions, created for a different world, also lock-in pathological decision-making procedures and render the field ever more complex. All of these processes - in part a function of previous, successful efforts at cooperation - have led global cooperation to fail us even as we need it most.

Ranging over the main areas of global concern, from security to the global economy and the environment, this book examines these mechanisms of gridlock and pathways beyond them. It is written in a highly accessible way, making it relevant not only to students of politics and international relations but also to a wider general readership.

David Held is master of University College and professor of politics and international relations at Durham University

Kevin Young is assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Figures viii

Boxes and Tables x

Abbreviations xii

Preface xvii

Introduction 1

The Postwar Legacy 4

Overview 9

1 Gridlock 14

Building the Postwar Order 18

Explaining the Postwar Order: Hegemony versus

Institutions 21

The Effect of the Postwar Order: Self-Reinforcing

Interdependence 25

Roads to Gridlock 34

Conclusion 48

2 Security 49

Introduction 49

CHANGES IN THE NATURE AND FORM OF SECURITY 51

The Interstate System 51

Postwar Developments: From the UN to the Cold War 55

Institutional Developments and Successes 65

Shifting Principles of Global Order 72

Post-9/11 Global Security 81

GRIDLOCK: DYNAMICS OF INSTITUTIONAL DEFICIT AND MALFUNCTION 84

The UN Security Council and the Disarmament Regime 85

Complex Intermestic Issues 93

Paradigm Shift or Realist Status Quo? 105

Conclusion 112

3 Economy 113

Introduction 113

THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE 116

The Imperial System and Its Demise 116

Bretton Woods and the Creation of Multilateral Economic Institutions 120

Self-Reinforcing Interdependence and the End of Bretton Woods 130

GRIDLOCK IN GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE 152

Gridlock in Multilateral Trade Negotiations 154

Gridlock in Global Financial Governance 162

Global Financial Governance Reform 171

Conclusion: A Reembedded Global Market? 182

4 Environment 189

Introduction: A Zanjera for the Globe? 189

GLOBALIZATION OF THE COMMONS AND PARTIAL GLOBALIZATION OF THEIR MANAGEMENT 193

Industrial Globalization and the Origins of Modern Environmental Governance 194

Postwar Internationalization 198

The Modern Environmental Movement 201

An Environmental Bretton Woods? The Stockholm Compromise and UNEP 206

Early Successes, Lingering Challenges 215

A New Foundational Moment? From Compromise to Gridlock at Rio 226

ENVIRONMENTAL GRIDLOCK 232

Self-Reinforcing Interdependence and the Global Environment 232

Forests 237

Climate Change 251

Conclusion: Increasingly Linked Problems, Increasingly Fragmented Governance 269

5 Beyond Gridlock? 273

From Self-Reinforcing Interdependence to Gridlock 276

Trends toward Deepening Gridlock 279

National Trends and Gridlock 286

The Changed Global Landscape 296

Pathways through Gridlock 300

Politics beyond Gridlock 306

Notes 312

References 319

Index 350