More than at any other time in history, the future of humankind is being by issues that are beyond any one nation's ability shaped to solve. Climate change, avian flu, financial instability, terrorism, waves of migrants and refugees, water scarcities, disappearing fisheries, stark and seemingly intractable poverty of these are examples of global issues whose solution requires cooperation among nations. Each issue seems at first to be little connected to the next the problems appear to come in all shapes and from all directions. But if one reflects a moment on these examples, some common features soon become apparent: