On the Problem of ‘the Global Problematique’: What Roles for International Organizations? *

Finding that the connotation of the term ‘the global problematique’ is vague and amorphous, the paper puts forth a working definition that takes into account the indivisibly related complex of processes and problems within the world system that is generated by the increasing scale of human activity, viewed in the context of planetary life-support systems. It then examines the pattern of activities of international organizations in response to ‘the global problematique’, as also their significance for, and impact on, the broader pattern of global governance. It notes that international organizations play significant roles in developing holistic perspectives of the global problematique, institutionalizing new areas of concern and new constituencies, defining the issues that constitute the collective policy agenda, and expanding the collective knowledge base to facilitate appropriate decisions. Yet the existing structure of the world system conditions and shapes the character, and circumscribes the limits, of this intervention in such a way as to produce rule-governed change within rather than transformation of the intergovernmental political system.