Beyond States

Today the majority of the peoples of the planet live in nation-states, based upon the idea, if never the reality, of a single people, a single culture, a single rule of law and a single source of sovereign authority. But will they continue to do so in the future? None of the major challenges that confront humanity today ¿ from climate change to disease, from terrorism to mass migration ¿ can be handled effectively by single nation-states, no matter how powerful. The world is no longer made up only of states but also of an ever-increasing multitude of inter-state networks and organizations which recognise no borders. Today we are beginning to see the emergence of a new, unprecedented, cosmopolitan order conceived in such terms as ¿transnational justice¿, ¿trans-national governance¿, ¿multi-level sovereignty¿. Today, we are beginning to be able to imagine the very real possibility of a new global civil society. But what political form should this take? This book, by examining the history