This thesis argues that the concept of 'good governance' provides a new and significant conduit, which will facilitate discourse based on equality, reciprocity and respect between Islamic and non-Islamic states aimed at successful state building in the 21 st Century. It does so by examining the discourse of good governance and showing that the concept is not confined in its relevance to developed Western democracies and that it is certainly not incompatible with the precepts of Islam. Of importance to the thesis is an analysis of the historic norms and the constitutions of a number of Muslim countries that strongly suggest an ideological commitment to principles of good governance and which call into question the 'significance of the dislocation of constitutional principle from government practice. The ,thesis suggests that such an analysis . may also not be irrelevant even to Western democracies and that even here dislocation is not insignificant. By considering in depth. the relationship between liberalism and democracy, and the arguments in international law for a developing right to democracy, the thesis is able to show that democracy is merely one method of legitimating good governance, and one not necessarily attractive to Islam. Equally important is the range of attributes found in the recent expression of post-conflict constitutions and from which internationalised norms of good governance in state-building are being derived and applied to Islamic states. The thesis argues that overlaying such historical and modern attributes of good governance provides a potential framework with which to project a new mode of governance for the Islamic World. Such conclusions should help the elimination of the Islamic inferiority complex concerning state governance, and the attitude of superiority frequently inferred from the language of the developed democracies. Moreover, application of a 'principle of good governance' has the potential to lead to a path of consensual and cooperative state-building to the benefit of those for whom constitutions were first written - the peoples themselves.