The post-Cold War era has witnessed the rise to prominence of many types of nonstate players on the international stage, including international, regional and subregional organizations, trade regimes, multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations. The last group has perhaps drawn the most attention.

In recent months, NGOs have made headlines wherever there has been an international gathering, be it Seattle, Washington or Bangkok, getting blamed for street protests and violence. The recent G8 summit held in Kyushu and Okinawa offered a slightly different image of NGOs, as Japan gave them official recognition with the opening of the Japanese NGO Center for International Cooperation in Okinawa. That move enabled 40 NGOs to coordinate their activities to urge G8 countries to give priority to eliminating poverty and supporting children across the world. They also met Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori just prior to the summit and extracted promises from him to make their views known at the summit.

As international recognition of the important role that NGOs play has grown, they have come under increasing scrutiny. The wide range of NGOs in existence appear to have widely contrasting images ranging from "do-gooders" to "evil." In certain areas of international life, NGOs have supplemented state functions, overshadowed state actors and even taken governments to task.