HOW are good ideas for enhancing global governance converted into policy initiatives and international institutions? One major route has been via international commissions. The names of many are well known : Brandt, Palme, Brundtland, Kosovo, the Commission on Global Governance, and the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Yet, as an expression of the power of ideas, in the search for a better world, they remain under-analyzed.

International Commissions and the Power of Ideas situates the Commissions as an inter-connected process shaping the mind — and the architectural body — of global governance. The influence of these Commissions has been varied, and these differences make this book particularly relevant. The character and record, and style and substance of a wide variety of International Commissions receive detailed analysis on an individual basis, while the generalized context and impact of International Commissions receives rich comparative appreciation.

“This is the first volume that really focuses on the nature and impacts of the international commission, it addresses the ration-ales and impacts of a very interesting and important development in international politics, and that is the creation of international commissions of experts and politically notable figures to try to break logjams in thinking with regard to major policy issues. The influence of the commission has been quite varied, and it is precisely because of these differences that this book is a very valuable volume for government and international organization officials as well as academic scholars. This book is likely to stand as the most significant study of international commissions for some time.”

Mark W. Zacher
Centre of International Relations, University of
British Columbia Liu Institute, Canada

“This book addresses an interesting question that has not been adequately covered: ideational factors in world politics and the role of international commissions. Its focus on the context and contents of those commissions' work is new. It brings new insights into new concepts and ideas as products of changing times and their impact as agencies of change. It therefore makes a useful contribution to the study of global governance in key issue areas.”

Professor Tatsuro Kunugi,
International Christian University, Tokyo,
and former UN Assistant Secretary-General

Ramesh Thakur is the Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan, (Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations).

Andrew F. Cooper is a Professor in the Depart-ment of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, and Associate Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada.

John English is Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada.