The 21st century brought with it a Multipolar moment. We now live in a multipolar landscape in which a number of powers including the United States, China, Russia, India, Europe, Brazil have, by virtue of their size and growth, the ability to determine their goals and possess the strategic autonomy to pursue the policies they want. The emergence of new actors and the rise of diverse centres of power has resulted in a new multipolar economic balance which is also shifting the military balances both at regional and global level. The economic transformation in various world regions have made global governance not only more popular but also ever more important. This paper discusses the impact of strategic shift in power and authority from the countries of North America and Europe (‘the West’) to a group of emerging countries and explores the challenges this change poses to global governance. The paper argues that the multiplicity of major powers and actors and the mulitpolarity of global politics is shaping a hybrid world order where both public and private maters and state and non-state actors, formal and informal institutions and organizations such as transgovernmental networks, arbitration bodies and multi-stakeholder bodies overlap and intertwine and play an increasingly active role in shaping the world order.
