On 4 November 2022, Jan Aart Scholte presented a paper on 'Individual Sources of Legitimacy in Multistakeholder Global Governance at ICANN' at a workshop at the Global Policy Institute, University of Durham on 'Legitimacy and Legitimisation of Global Governance in Crisis'. Click here to find out more about the event.

Welcome to Leiden University's Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) programme! GTGC explores how innovative policies and governance arrangements can address global challenges in democratic, effective, fair, peaceful and sustainable ways.

The Multistakeholder Global Governance (MGG) Project is a four-year project which explores how far, and under what circumstances, multistakeholder constructions of global governance operate well, in terms of having capacity, effectiveness, and legitimacy.

The greatest challenges facing humanity today have significant global dimensions that require substantial policy responses at a planetary scale. In this context, the Multistakeholder Global Governance (MGG) project aims to understand to what extent and under what circumstances multistakeholder global organisations work well in regards to their capacity, effectiveness, and legitimacy. MGG has officially started, and celebrated its first advisory board meeting on 8 and 9 May 2025.

On 13 December 2022, Jan Aart Scholte and Soetkin Verhaegen presented to the German Institute of Global and Area Studies on 'Citizens, Elites, and the Legitimacy of Global Governance'. Click here to find out more about the event.

Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) at Leiden University aims to advance knowledge and practice on how we govern – and could govern – major world-scale changes in contemporary society. These global transformations include hegemonic and other geopolitical shifts, ecological changes, technological innovations, pandemics, demographic trends, economic restructuring, reconfigured identities, and altered forms of violence and peacebuilding.

Past event: On 21 April 2023 Jan Aart Scholte and colleagues presented their report Global Governance: Fit for Purpose? to 80 policy practitioners in Stockholm at the headquarters of SNS, Center for Business and Policy Studies.

On 10 May, GTGC Chair Prof. Jan Aart Scholte, presented the paper ‘Legitimacy in Global Governance: A Cross-Level Analysis’ at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy.

On 31 May, GTGC Chair Prof. Jan Aart Scholte, together with Carolina Aguerre and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, launched their book 'Global Digital Data Governance: Polycentric Perspectives' at the University of Groningen.