Chapter 1 gives an overview of the book and summarizes its key argument. From finance to the environment, economic governance at the global level increasingly takes place through voluntary standards, principles, best practices, and guidance, created in transnational forums and labeled international soft law. The proliferation of international soft law has received relatively little scholarly attention despite widespread recognition of its importance. What does soft law do? Going beyond standard answers about soft law’s ability to solve problems, the book’s central argument emphasizes second-order (that is, temporal) political and distributive effects. In doing so, the book resolves real-world questions about the politics of financial regulation, and offers theoretical contributions to scholars of international law, international relations, and sociology. The Introduction ends with chapter summaries of the book.