Non-governmental organizations

A think tank, or public policy institute, is an organization that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental organizations, but some are semi-autonomous agencies within a government, and some are associated with particular political parties, businesses, or the military. Think tanks are often funded by individual donations, with many also accepting government grants.

Think tanks publish articles and studies, and sometimes draft legislation on particular matters of policy or society. This information is then used by governments, businesses, media organizations, social movements, or other interest groups. Think tanks range from those associated with highly academic or scholarly activities to those that are overtly ideological and pushing for particular policies, with a wide range among them in terms of the quality of their research. Later generations of think tanks have tended to be more ideologically oriented.

Consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is granted by the United Nations to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to allow them to participate in the work of the United Nations. Consultative status is divided into three categories:

• General Consultative Status (formerly Consultative Status 1), the highest level, which may be granted to organizations that are concerned with most of the activities of the council, that are making substantive and sustained contributions in many fields, with a considerable membership, and that are broadly representative of major segments of society in a large number of countries. These organizations are entitled to deliver oral presentations during the council's meetings.
• Special Consultative Status (formerly Consultative Status 2), which may be granted to organizations concerned with only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council.
• Roster, which are "other organizations that do not have general or special consultative status but that the Council, or the Secretary-General of the United Nations in consultation with the Council or its Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, considers can make occasional and useful contributions to the work of the Council."

Twice a year, the United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations reviews new applications for consultative status and makes recommendations to the ECOSOC, which reviews and decides to approve or deny the recommendations. Consultative status, depending on level, gives the organizations a number of rights to participate in the work of the UN, to present their views and deliver testimony.

A non-state actor (NSA) is an individual or organization that has significant political influence but is not allied to any particular country or state.

The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely. For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, labor unions, non-governmental organizations, banks, corporations, media organizations, business magnates, people's liberation movements, lobby groups, religious groups, aid agencies, and violent non-state actors such as paramilitary forces.

Global politics, also known as world politics, names both the discipline that studies the political and economic patterns of the world and the field that is being studied. At the centre of that field are the different processes of political globalization in relation to questions of social power.

The discipline studies the relationships between cities, nation-states, shell-states, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations and international organizations. Current areas of discussion include national and ethnic conflict regulation, democracy and the politics of national self-determination, globalization and its relationship to democracy, conflict and peace studies, comparative politics, political economy, and the international political economy of the environment. One important area of global politics is contestation in the global political sphere over legitimacy.

The United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations is responsible for accrediting non-governmental organizations with consultative status at the United Nations. Established in 1946, it reports directly to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

A peaceworker is an individual or member of an organization that undertakes to resolve violent conflict, prevent the rise of new violent conflicts, and rebuild societies damaged by war.

The term peaceworker is usually reserved for civilian, unarmed members of non-governmental organizations. Peacework is also carried out by many armed organizations such as the UN, but armed personnel are seldom called peaceworkers.