Global Governance

"In this visionary and insightful book, Professor Kolodziej brings to bear his lifelong formidable expertise in world politics to raise the alarm over the retreat of the liberal democratic model among nation states in the face of the rising challenge and growing influence of the competing authoritarian model, driven and promoted by China and Russia. The analysis of the root causes of this phenomenon and the resulting robust threat it poses to the betterment of humanity is innovative. It consists of an original analytic framework, referred to as OWL (Order, Welfare and Legitimacy). The trilateral constellation of these variables at any point across time and space captures the causal explanation for the turbulent contestation among the major powers, the US, China and Russia, for imposing their preferred shape and rules of world order. This elegant interdisciplinary, analytic frame of reference is parsimonious but not reductionist. Reading the book will be highly rewarding to students and practitioners of international politics in pursuit of foresight and insight into the evolution and transformation of the international system, the great powers’ competitive attempts at shaping it, and the resulting end-state of global governance."

Yaacov Vertzberger, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"A penetrating and provocative look at liberal-democratic and authoritarian approaches to the challenges of geo-political order, global economic systems and welfare, and contending claims of legitimacy. The author comes down squarely on the side of liberal-democratic global governance."

Janice Gross Stein, Founding Director, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management, University of Toronto, Canada

"Successful societies are based on order, welfare, and legitimacy. The liberal democratic model has been more successful than any other in meeting these criteria. In this tightly reasoned, compelling, and clearly written book, Kolodziej asks how the Westphalian system might be more effectively infused with democratic values in the face of challenges from a rising China and revanchist Russia."

Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, Department of War Studies, King’s College London, UK

"In a post-pandemic world, our emerging global society cries out for governance — providing order, welfare, and legitimacy to the anarchic trends of the present. Steering between the current competition between democracy and autocracy, Kolodziej envisions new forms of democratic governance that rise above national interests to deal with worldwide crises. Thoughtful, stimulating, and future-oriented, this book will become even more relevant in the years to come."

Mark Juergensmeyer, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, Founding Director, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

"Global Governance has a very large virtue—it grounds the current Sino-American contest over approaches to international order in a comparative framework. All national and international systems face the needs to achieve order, welfare, and legitimacy. China and America have chosen different approaches to global governance and the contest between them will be a critical determinant of how the Twenty-First Century unfolds."

David M. Lampton, former Dean of Faculty and Professor and Director of China Studies Emeritus, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), USA. He currently is Senior Research Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, Washington, D. C.