This text examines the nature and dynamics of modern global governance and its institutions, from their inception in the mid-1940s to their current forms.

The Long Battle for Global Governance charts the manner in which largely excluded countries, variously described as 'ex-colonial', 'underdeveloped', 'developing', 'Third World' and lately 'emerging', have challenged their relationship with the dominant centres of power and major institutions of global governance across each decade from the 1940s to the present. The book offers a fresh perspective on global governance by focusing in particular on the ways in which these countries have organised themselves politically, the demands they have articulated and the responses that have been offered to them through all the key periods in the history of modern global governance. It re-tells this story in a different way and, in so doing, describes and analyses the current rise to a new prominence within several key global institutions, notably the G20, of countries such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa. It sets this important political shift against the wider history of longstanding tensions in global politics and political economy between so-called 'Northern' and 'Southern' countries. Providing a comprehensive account of the key moments of change and contestation within leading international organisations and in global governance generally since the end of the Second World War, this book will be of great interest to scholars, students and policymakers interested in politics and international relations, international political economy, development and international organisations.

'Buzdugan and Paynehave done the study of global governance a huge service, supplying in their new book an unusually thought-provoking consideration of where we are now and how we got here. Written with immense clarity of thought and argument, and combining wide sweep and careful detail, readers ?will find here a fresh and challenging take on the evolution and the politics of global governance, which deserves our fullest attention as we navigate what they call the 'Great Uncertainty' of the contemporary period.' - Nicola Phillips, Professor, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK 'This co-authored book is an academic tour de force. The work is impressive both in its thematic reach and rich detail. Key events over the last seven decades are reconfigured in terms of the evolution of global governance, with a careful eye to the struggles still ahead. In an era of uncertainty, Buzdugan and Payne offer clear insights about the historical record and recommendations concerning future advances.' - Andrew F. Cooper, Professor, the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo 'Buzdugan and Payne have written an authoritative and comprehensive account of the shifts of power in the global order that both underpin global governance and reshape it. Tracing the changing nature and form of global governance since the 1940s the book provides an ideal text for all those who wish to explore the reorganisation and contestation of global politics.' -David Held, Professor, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, UK