Despite the proliferation of texts devoted to global governance, there is no one single text that guides both students and established professionals through the bewildering and often imprecise ways in which 'global governance' is now used. This text is designed to complement the existing literature by providing clearly themed studies of the most common understandings and applications of the term. Ranging across the actors, arenas, means and purposes of global governance, this authoritative and incisive collection is unique in bringing order and clarity to the full span of a literature that has burgeoned in recent years. The focus on established understandings of global governance as a distinct form of political activity and the clear thematic ordering of the material gives the book consistency and coherence. And because it consolidates such a rich and often confusing field of scholarship, it is set to become a standard text.