Rising Powers and Alternative Modes of Global Governance

For the largest emerging economies - Brazil, India, and China (the BICs) - efforts to expand their influence in global governance have centered on key formal institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Trade Organization (WTO). Less attention has been given to the rapid growth of alternative modes of global governance that deviate from the traditional model of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). BIC participation in and influence over four alternative modes are considered: informal groups of governments that produce soft law; informal governance structures within existing IGOs; networked governance in the form of transgovernmental networks (TGNs); and hybrid alternatives that include non-state actors, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Investigation of the logic of BIC participation in these alternative institutions produces three tentative conclusions, supported by illustrative rather than conclusive evidence. The rise of these new powers has coincided with the expansion of alternative modes of global governance, but parallel emergence has not meant alignment or promotion. Only the first of these alternative modes, state-centered production of soft law within ad hoc or informal groups of governments, coincides closely with the preferences of the rising powers. Overall, the governments of these newly influential powers have been conservative in their preference for intergovernmental organizations. Second, in confronting the new landscape of alternatives to intergovernmental organizations, the BICs have found that incumbent powers are often entrenched as deeply as they are in peak IGOs. Finally, the ability of the rising powers to expand their influence in these new forums will accelerate or decelerate depending on domestic political and economic resources that they bring to these new sites of global governance. Brazil, India, and China vary in the resource endowments that their domestic political configurations provide for this purpose