What happened at the World Summit on Sustainable Development? The World Comes to One Country attempts to answer this question from a civil society perspective, based on interviews with insiders, ongoing discussions with prominent players from all sides and the author's own experience. It introduces the main actors in South African civil society and documents how they engaged in a fierce contest for control of the international civil society forum, and South African preparations for it. The story is told against the background of the South African government strategy as Summit hosts, the role of the New Partnership for African's Development (Nepad) and the dynamics in international civil society.