In Altered States, the authors provide practical recommendations for improved governance and for strengthening and reforming the United Nations. They explore the dynamics of globalization and discuss what makes today’s globalization distinct. They test the prevailing wisdom about sovereignty and state capacity, and sort out the humbug. They consider whether sovereignty itself is an impediment or a requirement to security and prosperity. And, in three urgent areas ripe for progress – preventing deadly conflict, providing opportunities for the young, and managing the many harms of climate change – they advance plans of action by which states, with others in the global community, can govern successfully in the future.

Introduction : GLOBALIZATION: HOPE AND WARNINGS: Globalization challenges and reinforces the power of the state. Governance is tested in a turbulent confusion of opportunity, insecurity, and anxiety. The Millennium Assembly of the United Nations offers the opportunity for productive debate on how humankind will govern itself in the global village.

Part 1 .SOVEREIGNTY AND GLOBALIZATION: GOVERNMENT IN A STATE OF CONFUSION :What do the World Bank, Microsoft, and Greenpeace have in common? The noisy town square of world politics is populated by all manner of nonstates. Part 1 explores how failures of governance are related to pressures of globalization. It then suggests how governments might respond to urgent problems of peace and security, social equity,and protecting the global environment.

Part 2. FOR THE MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY: THREE IMPERATIVES OF GOVERNANCE: Preventing deadly conflict, providing opportunities for the young, and managing climate change - three urgent obligations of governance. Part 2 examines these imperatives in their complex dimensions: South-North; foreign-domestic; public-private. Practical recommendations for improved governance are proposed for the consideration of the Millennium Assembly.

Conclusion. GOVERNING PRINCIPLES: THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY: Globalization demands that we develop new forms of governance. And, as a natural nexus to the growing global networks of governance, the United Nations can lead in this process. Just as in 1944 at Bretton Woods, in Manhattan at the turn of the millennium, we can seize the opportunity to reconstruct our future.