John Gerard Ruggie

Constructing the World Polity brings together in one collection the theoretical ideas of one of the most influential International Relations theorists of our time. These essays, with a new introduction, and comprehensive connective sections, present Ruggie's ideas and their application to critical policy questions of the post-Cold War international order. Themes covered include: International Organization. How the 'new Institutionalism' differs from the old. The System of States. Explorations of political structure, social time, and territorial space in the world polity.* Making History. America and the issue of 'agency' in the post-Cold Was era. NATO and the future transatlantic security community. The United Nations and the collective use of force.

In this much-anticipated exploration of global politics in the post-cold war world, John Gerard Ruggie presents a compelling vision of American foreign policy into the next century, at once historically grounded, theoretically informed and eminently practical. In an age when anti-communist alliance-building no longer sustains American engagement in support of a stable world order, what goal can act as the guiding principle of this nation's foreign policy? Ruggie cautions that a combination of unilateral case-by-case accounting of American interests abroad, an "all-or-nothing" military doctrine, and the domestic insecurity bred by the forces of globalization are likely to tilt the U.S. foreign policy toward neo-isolationism. Winning the Peace persuasively argues for an alternative agenda. Ruggie builds on the strategies that America's leaders had designed to maintain international stability before the cold war broke out, calling for the promotion of cooperative security relations, economic multilateralism, and a new domestic social contract. This timely, provocative book contends that, in order to succeed in a continued international leadership role, America must come to grips again with a fundamental challenge of self-definition: what it is and what it ought to become as a nation.

The state-based system of global governance has struggled for more than a generation to adjust to the expanding reach and growing influence of transnational corporations, the most visible embodiment of globalization. This paper reviews two recent chapters in this endeavor, focused specifically on human rights : the "Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights," adopted by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights but not by its parent body, the UN Human Rights Commission (since replaced by the Human Rights Council); and the author's subsequent UN mandate as Special Representative of the Secretary-General "on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises." The paper analyzes key conceptual flaws of the draft Norms, noting the pitfalls of imposing on corporations, directly under international law, the same range of human rights duties that states have; it presents an empirical mapping of current international standards and practices regarding business and human rights, ranging from the most deeply rooted international legal obligations to voluntary initiatives; and it proposes a strategy for building on existing momentum in order to reduce human rights protection gaps in relation to corporate activities.