Glocal Governance – The local answer to fading Nation States

Think global – act local, be glocal! …is the subject of this paper and current research project. Glocal Governance is a multi-stakeholder local governance approach following global human rights norms and democratic principles. The interaction between local actors following a political economy approach focuses on global change. In an ever more local and at the same time global world, driven by climate change, digitalization and migration, seeking local solutions to global challenges, has accelerated the process of glocalization and new modes of governance, such as Glocal Governance. Glocal governance is discussed as a part of an ongoing global transformation process, overall in the theoretical and academic debate about the quality of democracy, governance, IR, change theories, and Social Movements; starting in the 1990s, when democracy and individualizing responsibilities through business and CSOs to governance became the dominant political system worldwide until today's dawn of a New Cold War between those countries which democratized and those who did not. In this paper, I will discuss glocal governance as a conceptual framework aiming to understand new modes of governance, between global organizations, national governments, and local/urban governance. It is a concept at the crossroad between Internationalization/ Globalization, and localization/urbanization of public affairs. It assesses issues of failed state-building, backsliding of democracies and autocratization, globally, as well as glocal social movements and the replacement of governmental institutions as well as public affairs, by private actors, non-state actors, international donors, CSOs, and business, locally. It is a conceptual framework to understand political and social paradigm shifts and explains the local-global connectivity and implementation of global norms and concepts, such as human rights and democracy, on local and community levels. Thus far, International Relations (IR) has best responded to the global paradigm shift in national and local governance. For IR scholars, the Nation-State is no longer the key actor in IR, and hence it should be called Glocal Relations (GR) instead. GR encompasses all possible levels and stakeholders that govern when solving cross-border conflicts. They reckon that state authorities and national governments play a less significant role in managing border conflicts, consequences of climate change, or cyber security, let alone a pandemic. Instead, local actors adhere to global norms and principles and best practices when solving problems, as seen during the 2020-2022 global pandemic, and in return, international organizations and agencies address their problem-solving strategies directly toward local actors, as can best be seen in the 2015 - 2030 SDG Agenda. Global governance theorists, illustrate that global principles based on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law adopted by national and local authorities can lead to norm contestations and conflicts. That can lead to faster solutions locally. In this paper, I will give examples from my empirical research and case studies on glocalization and glocal governance in weak democratic, autocratic and failed states in Central Asia, Middle East, and Europe.