The Commission on Global Governance has been established at a time of profound, rapid and pervasive change in the international system-a time of uncertainty, challenge and opportunity. Freed from East-West tensions, the world's nations have more favourable conditions for working together to build a better world for all. The need for co-operation among them has also increased. They have become more interdependent in many respects. New problems have appeared that call for collective action.
Global society faces the forces of both integration and division.
These trends pose fresh challenges to the existing structures of international co-operation. It is therefore necessary to reassess their capacity and the values and concepts that underlie them. It is time to review the arrangements for the governance of our global society. Five decades after World War II and in the aftermath of the Cold War, a new world is taking shape. It could give new meaning to the common rights and responsibilities of nations, peoples and individuals.