This article analyses the growing importance that transnational, non-state actors are aquiring for international relations theory. More specifically, the author explores three facets of this phenomenon: firstly, the proposition of the category of influence as a political means of transnational NGOs performance; secondly, the insertion of these NGOs in global social processes - such as ecological instabilities, human rights, consumption; and finally, the methods of building consensus around social problems of planetary order. The author concludes that NGOs performance affects interstate, supranational and transnational orders.
transnacional actor; NGOs; influence; inter-State actor; supranational actor; consensus; decentralization