Governance without Governments: The Origins of the Global Scientific Community

Insofar as international governance exists, it has very little to do with governments. In the face of two planetary crises, climate change and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it has not been the United Nations, or the G-8, or any other international union of governments that has organized itself to take stock of the situation and agree upon collective action. Rather it is what since circa 1945 has been called the scientific community that was able to command consensus about what the problem was and how to solve it. How is it such international organizations ever came into existence at all, without state backing, and have been able to bind members in enduring collective agreements, without treaties or hard sanctions?

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