New governance and processes

We study these new challenges and states' responses to them in the international arena. We also analyze how this gives, or should give, rise to new institutional or legal arrangements. This means that we have a historical as well as a future perspective.

By institutional arrangements we mean here how arrangements in the form of various agreements and more formal contracts guide how, by whom and in what ways common problems are addressed.

It is therefore important to ensure that new problems are dealt with both within the institutional arrangements that exist today and, at the same time, global discussions are needed on whether and how new arrangements should be designed.

We also examine how new forms of governance have developed, or should develop in the future, at local and regional level in the light of social and technological change processes such as the expansion of the welfare state, urbanization and information technology developments.

Today, these processes are guided by a quest for collaboration in new forms. At the same time, it is a difficult balancing act between the pursuit of common core values and the ability to respect differences between states.