Global Governance Networks Page 1 of 29 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 28 April 2017 Abstract and Keywords This chapter analyzes the dynamics and political consequences of an ongoing proliferation of global governance networks in areas such as global environmental protection and sustainable development. The chapter begins by clarifying the theoretical concept of networked governance. It discusses how actors within global governance networks relate to one another, how different network structures serve to empower or disempower particular actors, and how different types of global governance networks—or differently structured networks—may vary in terms of performance and outputs. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by drawing on empirical examples from global governance networks in the fields of sustainable development, maritime conservation, and environmental protection broadly speaking. Keywords: global governance, power, network performance, social network theory, network analysis Introduction Since the 1990s a growing literature in politics and international relations has depicted a shift from government-centered, interstate relations to a more complex system of global governance. The cross-border, cross-sectoral, and multi-stakeholder nature of many global governance initiatives has in turn meant that governance has become increasingly synonymous with “networked politics.” It is not only political scientists who appear enamored of the concept of governance networks. Major intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, have launched extensive partnership projects, bringing together IGOs, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector actors in bring so-called ‘multi-stakeholder networks’. The Global Governance Networks Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni The Oxford Handbook of Political Networks Edited by Jennifer Nicoll Victor, Alexander H. Montgomery, and Mark Lubell Subject: Political Science, International Relations Online Publication Date: Dec 2016 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190228217.013.30 Oxford Handbooks Online