ABSTRACT
From human rights to land mines, sustainable development, and democratization, global problemsolving is increasingly being left to an agglomeration of unelected, often unaccountable transnational civil society actors. Nongovernmental organizations, informal associations, and loose coalitions are linking up across borders to playa wide range of roles: participating in treaty negotiations and monitoring how well governments comply; creating broad new expectations about the responsibilities that states and corporations should bear; and altering, sometimes quite specifically, how countries can pursue their goals or corporations can seek their profits. The Union of International Associations lists over 15,000 internationally and regionally oriented nongovernmental organizations (Union of International Associations 1999). Will transnational civil society become a permanent and powerful contributor to solving the world's problems, and should it?
