Transgovernmental networks

Transnational governance is undertaken not only through private regimes and partnerships of business and corporations and nongovernmental organizations, but also through networks of state-based actors that operate transnationally–transgovernmental networks. Although work on transnational networks began to be explored in the 1990s, it has only been over the past decade that it has grown to be a major theme within the study of global environmental governance. While originally developed to analyze national level governmental agencies and their transboundary activities, the term “transgovernmental” can also be applied to those networks that have been formed between subnational state-based agencies. In the climate change domain transgovernmental activity is therefore often the result of cooperation between local and subnational governments and not necessarily arising from cooperation between nation-states. This form of transnational governance appears to be on the decline as alternative private and hybrid forms proliferate.