'Global governance' has become a key concept in the contemporary study of international politics across a variety of usually discrete disciplines (international relations, politics, economics, sociology, development studies). This text provides an introduction to and exploration of the practices of global governance in contemporary international politics. It consists of a series of discrete case studies written by specialists on the most important areas within global governance including: Health Poverty Conflict Finance The Environment Corruption Human Rights Communication The Internet Each chapter is written to a standard template and asks the key questions: What is being governed and why? Who are key actors involved? What are the key mechanisms of governance? What are the problems and issues that arise in this area? In addition each chapter contains several case studies to illustrate the broader issues being discussed. The empirical elements of each case study provides students with a grounding in how to think both in concrete problem-solving terms and apply critical understandings of global governance to its modern day processes.