Origins of transnational governance in the nineteenth century

The last century has seen the growth of an interconnected world. Diplomatic, economic and social conversations now take place across national borders to an unprecedented extent. Economic pressures, social and political movements, and military engagements are recognised as having both a local and also a global impact. Attempts to regulate and govern the effect of these movements and pressures are increasingly conducted on a global level, either led by international organisations that transcend nation states, or brought about through a coordinated international response. The fact that this trend has increased in pace over the past few decades is well-recognised. David Levi-Faur and Jacinta Jordana have noted that 'In recent decades, regulatory reforms have spread around the globe, accompanied by new institutions, technologies, and instruments of regulation that have had a profound impact on the social and economic fabric' (Levi-Faur and Jordana 2004:6). Similarly, Marie-Laure Djelic and Kerstin Sahlin-Anderson discuss the 'rise' of transnational regulation and state that 'The proliferation of regulatory activities, actors, networks or constellations leads to an explosion of rules and to the profound re-ordering of our world' (Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson 2006:1 ). As the following chapters indicate, the increased importance and prevalence of transnational governance clearly raises unique challenges. However, the obvious, and growing, interconnectedness of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries should not mask the fact that transnational governance has a long history. That history provides an important context within which to consider the growth of transnational institutions and transnational governance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.