Transnational actors and international organizations in global politics

The 9/11 attacks and the effects of globalization have notably led to renewed interest in the study of transnational relations and the impact of non-state actors on world politics. With these elements drawn into the picture, it is quite evident that globalization has gradually morphed non-state actors into a game-changing catalyst for outcomes in the realm of international politics. There is no denying that transnational actors — from Transnational Companies (TNCs) to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) — have left their mark on world politics to the effect that we cannot dispense with them as well as refuse to take their influence into account, especially when it comes to gaining an inclusive understanding of the contemporary world. The chapter centers on the functions of transnational actors and international organization in global politics and elaborates on why the state-centric approach is, in reality, impractical amid the sudden emergence of non-state actors mushrooming in the post-Cold War period. Their importance and impact are so immense that they tamper with the relations between states. These actors play a regular part in global politics and each government interacts with a range of non-state actors. Nobody can deny the proliferation of these organizations and the spectrum of their activities, which clearly explains why it is impossible to define international relations as covering only the relations between states. On the contrary, what we need to thoroughly grasp political change in global politics is a more open-ended approach, known as pluralism, as opposed to realism/holism.
The question of how assumptions made about “states” inhibit analysis of transnational actors and international organizations can be outlined in these four major problems. First and foremost, the concept of the state has three very different meanings: a legal person, a political community and a government. Another