Privatizing International Governance

Abstract

Public-private partnerships of all kinds are increasingly common in the international system. Since United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s launch of the Global Compact in 2000, the United Nations has increasingly opened up to business entities. Now, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Global Compact, and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights all encourage engaging with business entities as partners in developing and executing global governance agendas. These partnerships are seen by some as indispensable to sustainable development, international business regulation, climate change mitigation, and other global governance agendas. At the same time, UN climate change bodies have been criticized for cozying up to corporate fossil fuel lobbies, global financial governance institutions are charged with leaning toward the interests of the large banking and financial industry they are meant to regulate, and the pharmaceutical industry has been accused of exerting outsized influence in health-related international standard-setting, sometimes against public health objectives. Reforms seek to restrain the dangers of mission-distortion and capture by business groups. The theme of this panel is “Privatizing International Governance," and this brief framing essay lays out history, context, and the questions these partnerships present.

Keywords: United Nations, Global Governance,International Organizations, Public-Private Partnerships, Multinational Entities, Lobbying, Participation, Capture, NGOs, Industry Associations, Trade Associations, Sustainable Development, Global Compact

JEL Classification: K30, K33, F23, F53, F55, F63