The globalization of international trade and the increasing number of supranational regional and world organizations are contributing to the emergence of elites with a global reach. Although most of these elites remain anchored in national political institutions, armed forces, private sector companies, business associations, public interest groups and other NGOs, their activities and reach are not closely controlled by such parent organizations. This poses a standard principal-agent issue because the emerging global elites are developing distinctive networks of interaction and informal norms of cooperation for dealing with conflicts that arise among them.
