Despite the lack of a global government, many important global problems have been tackled by national governments, usually acting together through intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and by nongovernmental actors such as Amnesty International, the World Federation of Trade Unions, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The actions taken by such organizations to resolve global problems have been referred to as forms of “global governance.” In almost all of the global governance literature, it is assumed that the distinction between intergovernmental and nongovernmental actors is clear-cut, consequential, and self-evident.