Where Is the Global Commons? On the Public Value of the Global Commons and Its Realization

The most distinctive contribution of PA theory and practice to global governance lies in the proposal and realization of public value. In the governance of the global Commons, there has always been a situation in which concepts determine governance plans, such as the Antarctic, the high seas, the international seabed area, and other well-defined concepts, their governance mechanisms are relatively sound, while the Arctic, cyberspace, and other areas with controversial concepts, their governance mechanisms are relatively fragmented. In the past, there are five methods to define the concept: connotation presumption, extension framing, problem construction, egocentric claim, and term competitive substitution. These methods show the governance of the global Commons to a certain extent, but there is a lack of consideration of public value, there is a mandatory identity of conceptual interpretation. To pay attention to the compulsory identity of the concept interpretation of the global Commons is to prevent the governance parties from falling into the conceptual dispute and suffocating the governance of the entity space with the dispute of discourse space. From the perspective of PA, the public value of global Commons governance has been difficult to emerge. There is an urgent need to find a platform for all parties to participate in the governance of the global Commons—the global public domain. Global public domain is the field of global Commons governance, governance of global Commons must first have public interpretation, in order to achieve public value. This requires the introduction of several theories and methods of public administration, based on the principles of peace, sovereignty, universal benefit, and co-governance. The concept of public value of PA can make up for the lack of articulation of international law and the lack of over-reliance on relations between major powers in international politics.