Introduction

Global inequality and mass poverty persist in spite of recent attempts by states and international organizations to promote economic growth and development through global integration. Indeed, the phenomenon of globalization has made this injustice within and across states even more apparent. Citizens and activists have mobilized across borders – in international forums, such as the United Nations' world conferences on human rights, population, environment, and women, and the World Social Forums. They have also mobilized on the streets of Seattle, Porto Alegre, Washington, Melbourne, Prague, Genoa, and Mumbai, demanding that multilateral institutions address their lack of democratic accountability and redress global injustice. And these ideas are being heard. For instance, the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration established eight development goals and fifteen targets that put the social and economic well-being of peoples on the international political agenda. In 2005, global poverty and inequity were key themes of the elite World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, and spokespeople from citizen movements were speaking inside the forum, not out on the streets. At the United Nations' conference on global poverty held in Monterey, Mexico (March 2002), world leaders acknowledged that globalization has done far less to raise the incomes of the world's poorest people than they had hoped. As a result of the conference, these leaders agreed to a new, expanded role for foreign aid to the developing world.

Mirroring these real world transformations in global politics, the study of International Relations (IR) has also been undergoing significant change.