The United Nations (UN) world summits have had a pervasive impact on the international community. From the pioneering initiatives of the 1970s, to the intense activity of the 1990s, to the follow-up events and new challenges of the present, UN world summits have addressed global issues, engaged national governments, and opened up a complex and important relationship with civil society organizations (CSOs). Investigating the link between UN world summits and civil society is the objective of this state-of-the-art paper by Mario Pianta, which addresses the concepts and history of, as well as qualitative and quantitative evidence on, the co-evolution of UN world summits and civil society activities on global issues. article link here