Global Policy and Transnational Administration: Intellectual Currents in World Making

In the scholarly lexicon, neither ‘global policy’ nor ‘transnational administration’ are consensual ideas or well established. There is considerable debate over these terms which do not fit well within dominant frames of methodological nationalism. Yet, the terms hold a constructivist propensity for ‘world making’. The first part of this chapter concentrates on academia and evaluates the development of the idea of global policy and transnational administration in scholarly journals and other academic publications. The second part goes beyond the academy to focus on the roles played by the world’s leading think tanks, international non-governmental organizations, global dialogues, and research institutes as well as their partnerships with key international organizations. The collaborative knowledge networks these actors have built have also been important for conceptual advancement, methodological transnationalism, and policy praxis.