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The world faces increasingly complex problems that have taken on global significance - including conflict and peace-building, humanitarian crises and intervention, international economic inequality and instability, and global environmental change. How are these problems addressed at the global level? And are the mechanisms adopted to address them effective and just?
The study of Global Governance grapples with these important questions through an interdisciplinary examination of power and authority in the global arena. Governance is conceived in a broader way than in fields such as Public or Business Administration where the focus is on public management or organizational design issues. Global Governance examines the variety of actors, institutions, ideas, rules, and processes that contribute to the management of global society, exploring their origins, their evolving roles, as well as their political, economic, social, environmental, and ethical consequences. It is focused not just on international organizations and inter-state interactions. Also important are the various non-state actors, formal and informal networks, and broader transnational, supranational, and subnational realities of contemporary life that increasingly contribute to the establishment and functioning of global rules, norms and institutions. The study of Global Governance investigates whether the concepts, tools, and assumptions that have served scholars in the past require modification given contemporary challenges and, if so, what form should that modification take.
The PhD Program in Global Governance - jointly administered by Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo - goes beyond the rigidities and formalities of established academic boundaries by drawing on a variety of disciplines, including economics, politics, history, environmental studies, geography, global studies and business. It is the only PhD Program in Canada with a specific interdisciplinary focus on issues and problems of Global Governance.
The City of Waterloo is home to the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), an emerging world leader in the study of international governance. A number of the faculty members associated with the PhD Program in Global Governance are also affiliated with CIGI and students enrolled in the Program can benefit enormously from the proximity to and university collaboration with CIGI.
The PhD Program in Global Governance is one of the core programs of the newly established Balsillie School of International Affairs. For information on the Balsillie School visit the Centre for International Governance Innovation's website.
The PhD Program in Global Governance is designed to be completed in 4 years, and includes coursework, comprehensive exams, and a doctoral thesis. For more details on the program requirements, see the link to Degree Requirements in above menu.
Page last updated by A. Wettig on 2008-07-29