Description:
The opening contribution introduces the reader to concepts, discussions and practices related to the pitfalls of communally and privately exploited resources on a global scale. It offers a historical perspective and suggests understanding the global commons as markers for competing visions of world order in the course of the 20th century. To throw light onto a complex field of research, the chapter gives an outline of what has been discussed in the social sciences as global commons and sketches the contexts of the international conventions which have established these commons under the legal principle of Common Heritage of Mankind in international law. In a second part, the authors situate the subject in the wider framework of global history. The global commons serve as an analytic instrument tochallengemaster narratives of thepost-war era. The chapter advocates a nuanced approach that explores the way global commons were connected with space and territoriality, global integration and statehood, law and international organisations. It emphasises border crossings and sets out the diversity of agencies pursued by states, international communities, non-governmental interests and multinational corporations alike.