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As part of the Global Benchmarking Project led by André Broome from PAIS and Joel Quirk from the University of the Witwatersrand, a new Global Benchmarking Database has been launched on the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation website.

The prototype Database (version 1.8) compiles summary information on 205 global benchmarks. The Database was constructed using a typology developed by Broome and Quirk in their forthcoming Special Issue of the journal Review of International Studies, to be published in December 2015 on the theme of 'The Politics of Numbers: Normative Agendas and Global Benchmarking'. The Database distinguishes between four types of global benchmarking practices based on the class of transnational actor engaged in benchmarking, namely: (1) statecraft; (2) international governance; (3) private market governance; and (4) transnational advocacy.

The Database will be a useful resource for scholars and students researching cognate areas relating to the politics of numbers, indicators, rankings, and ratings, as well as for other users such as journalists, policy analysts, and NGO researchers concerned with understanding the scope of global benchmarking as an increasingly popular mode of transnational governance.

The Global Benchmarking Database can be viewed at: www.warwick.ac.uk/globalbenchmarking/database

Further information about the Global Benchmarking Project, including research events, talks, and publications, is available at: www.warwick.ac.uk/globalbenchmarking

A recent commentary article for openDemocracy on the flaws inherent in many forms of global benchmarking can be viewed at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/joel-quirk-andr%C3%A9-broome/politics-of-numbers-global-slavery-index-and-marketplace-of-ac