John Kirton – författare

The end of the Cold War era has not brought greater security to the world community. Although the likelihood of a global strategic nuclear war has been reduced significantly, we have already witnessed the impact of other challenges to international peace. The Gulf War raised the spectre of expanding regional conflicts adopting the means and methods of the previous superpower confrontation. The disintegration of the Horn of Africa, the Civil War in the Balkans, and the resurgence of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia all reveal the continuing power of historic ethnic, religious, and national rivalries, and the seeming inability of the international community to deal effectively with these tragedies. Weapons technologies, modern telecommunications and transportation, demographic changes and resource imbalances, and the globalization of production together raise enormous challenges as we move into the 21st century. Are the international institutions with which we have lived since the end of the Second World War up to the task? This book addresses many of these basic and profound issues.

For many firms, the opening-up of trade barriers meant unwelcome exposure to tough international competition. In order to protect themselves, many turned to local and national environmental regulations, forming coalitions which enabled them to force out their opponents, even though they were often contravening international environmental agreements in doing so. With the recent emergence of international trade and environment regimes wielding substantial powers, however, comes the opportunity for outward-facing and innovative firms to utilize these regimes and so challenge the discriminatory obstacles which have been becoming ever more common. This adherence to environmental regulations has promoted a broad array of corporate strategies; a fact most visible in North America where firms are making use of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In Environmental Regulations and Corporate Strategy, the authors develop a model of complex institutional responsiveness and demonstrate how this can guide firms through this new era of opportunities for international regulatory capture. They apply the model within North America, identifying the implications for Europe and Asia. Their work is based on 300 confidential interviews with senior executives and officials in North American and European companies, national governments, and North American institutions, and analyses 24 cases of firms who have either benefited or suffered from involvement with international institutions.

The past few decades have witnessed the development of an increasingly globalised and multipolar world order, in which the demand for multilateralism becomes ever more pronounced. The BRICS group established in 2009, has evolved into a plurilateral summit institution recognized both by sceptics and proponents as a major participant in the international system.Addressing the BRICS’s role in global governance, this book critically examines the club’s birth and evolution, mechanisms of inter-BRICS cooperation, its agenda priorities, BRICS countries’ interests, decisions made by members, their collective and individual compliance with the agreed commitments, and the patterns of BRICS engagement with other international institutions. This volume advances the current state of knowledge on global governance architecture, the BRICS role in this system, and the benefits it has provided and can provide for world order.This book will interest scholars and graduate students who are researching the rise and role of emerging powers, global governance, China and India’s approach to global order and relationship with the United States, Great Power politics, democratization as a foreign policy strategy, realist theory-building and hegemonic transitions, and the (crisis of) liberal world order.

Recently global health issues have leapt to the forefront of the international agenda and are now an everyday concern around the world. The war for global health is clearly being lost on many fronts and the massive body count is mounting fast. Re-emerging diseases such as polio and tuberculosis, long thought to be on the verge of elimination, are now coupled with the devastation of newly emerging ones such as SARS and avian influenza. In addition, the shock of bioterrorism has given a tragic poignancy to the importance of studying the failure of the global health governance system. Compiled by renowned specialists, this volume studies the global challenges and responses to these issues, as well as the roles of central institutions such as the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the G8. Health practitioners and clinicians seeking a context for their front-line care provision, as well as scholars and students of global health issues, will find the volume highly valuable.

Today's world is crowded with international laws and institutions that govern the global economy. This post-World War II accumulation of hard multilateral and soft plurilateral institutions by no means constitutes a comprehensive, coherent and effective system of global economic governance. As intensifying globalization thrusts many longstanding domestic issues onto the international stage, there is a growing need to create at the global level the more comprehensive, coherent and effective governance system that citizens have long taken for granted at home. This book offers the first comprehensive look at this critical question of international relations. It examines how, and how well, the multilateral organizations and the G8 are dealing with the central challenges facing the contemporary international community, how they have worked well and poorly together, and how they can work together more effectively to provide badly needed public goods. It is an ideal reference guide for anyone interested in institutions of global governance.

The emergence of a significant new partnership involving Canada, Japan, and the United States has been largely ignored by students of international relations and Canadian foreign policy. This collection, written by scholars and policymakers from the countries involved, explores the evolving alliance and illustrates its growing strength in a collective global leadership.The papers examine the three market-oriented democracies in their changing roles toward each other and show how they have moved beyond their separate, special, bilateral relationships into a dynamic three-way engagement. Their intersections in trade, investment, business negotiations, peacekeeping, and environmental affairs are analyzed from a range of perspectives, including political science, management studies, economics, geography, and history. A powerful view unfolds: in the context of a rapidly globalizing economic system, this new triumvirate can only continue to strengthen and flourish, adding its influence to the creation of a new world order.

The global community confronts a comprehensive and interconnected array of compelling economic, development and security challenges which require effective global governance. At the centre of world governance stand the new plurilateral summit institutions; the G8 and G20, and UN summits on subjects such as sustainable development and climate change. Many observers and participants regard the performance of these summits as inadequate and doubt their ability to cope with increasingly complex and numerous global challenges. This book critically examines how effectively central global institutions comply with their commitments and how their effectiveness can be improved through accountability measures designed to raise compliance and deliver better results. Expert contributors assess compliance and accountability at the key global institutions to provide an important resource for policymakers and scholars in political science, governance and accountability.For additional information and data relating to the book, please visit: http://www.g7g20.utoronto.ca/accountability/

This title was first published in 2001. John Kirton, Joseph Daniels and Andreas Freytag present an indispensable and authoritative collection of papers which examine both the professional economic merits and the underlying politics, of the hotly contested competing initiatives for strengthening the international financial system. Containing the first treatment of China’s relationship with the G7/G8 and comprehensive analysis of the new G20 forum, this volume in the G8 and Global Governance series also looks at the possibilities for the G8 system. It places the work of the G7 within a broader context of global governance and the new challenges facing the international community in the new century. A balanced selection of distinguished experts from the G7 countries and from emerging markets outside, provide an essential addition to the bookshelves of academics, government officials and business and media communities interested in keeping abreast of the ongoing and rapidly expanding work of the G7/G8 system.

This title was first published in 2001. John Kirton, Joseph Daniels and Andreas Freytag present an indispensable and authoritative collection of papers in this volume in the G8 and Global Governance series. This is an essential tool for those interested in keeping abreast of the ongoing and rapidly expanding work of the G7/G8 system. Containing the first treatment of China’s relationship with the G7/G8 and comprehensive analysis of the new G20 forum, this volume in the G8 and Global Governance series also looks at the possibilities for the G8 system. It places the work of the G7 within a broader context of global governance and the new challenges facing the international community in the new century. A balanced selection of distinguished experts from the G7 countries and from emerging markets outside, provide an essential addition to the bookshelves of academics, government officials and business and media communities interested in keeping abreast of the ongoing and rapidly expanding work of the G7/G8 system.

The global community confronts a comprehensive and interconnected array of compelling economic, development and security challenges which require effective global governance. At the centre of world governance stand the new plurilateral summit institutions; the G8 and G20, and UN summits on subjects such as sustainable development and climate change. Many observers and participants regard the performance of these summits as inadequate and doubt their ability to cope with increasingly complex and numerous global challenges. This book critically examines how effectively central global institutions comply with their commitments and how their effectiveness can be improved through accountability measures designed to raise compliance and deliver better results. Expert contributors assess compliance and accountability at the key global institutions to provide an important resource for policymakers and scholars in political science, governance and accountability.For additional information and data relating to the book, please visit: http://www.g7g20.utoronto.ca/accountability/