The United Nations

and Contemporary
Global Governance
• No single global government can compel a state
to obey predetermined global rules.
• But there is regularity in the general behavior of
states – they follow global navigation routes,
they respect each other’s territorial boundaries.
• The fact that states in an international order
continue to adhere to certain global norms
means that there is a semblance of world order
despite the lack of a single world government.
 Global Governance
• It refers to the various intersecting processes
that create this order.
• Sources : States sign treaties & form
organizations, in the process legislating public
international law; international non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) can lobby
individual states to behave in a certain way;
transnational corporations can have
tremendous effects on global labor laws,
environmental legislation, trade policy, etc.
 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

• The sum of laws, norms, policies and institutions

that define , constitute and mediate trans-border
relations between states, cultures, citizens,
intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organization and the market.
• Rule-based order without government
• There is no central authority
• THERE IS NO GLOBAL GOVERNMENT
INTERNATIONAL ACTORS IN
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
• States
• International Organizations
• Civil Society
• Market (Global
corporations/industries )
International Organizations (IOs)

• Ex: UN, IMF, and WB

• It refers to intergovernmental
organizations or groups that are primarily
made up of member-states.
• It can become influential.
 Powers of IOs
1. Power of Classification
• IOs can invent and apply categories, they
create powerful global standards.
• Ex: UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) defines what a refugee is and
since states are required to accept refugees
entering their borders, this power to establish
identity has concrete effects.
 Powers of IOs
2. Power to Fix Meanings
• IOs as legitimate source of information.
• Meanings they create have effects on
various policies.
• Ex: UN has started to define ‘security’ as not
just safety from military violence but also
safety from environmental harm.
 Powers of IOs
3. Power to Diffuse Norms
• IOs spread ideas across the world through
their ‘missionaries’ who are experts in various
fields, thereby establishing global standards.
• Ex: WB creates norms in the implementation
and conceptualization of development
projects.
• They can promote relevant norms but they can
also become sealed-off communities.
United Nations
Organization:
Challenges of Global
Governance!
 THE UNITED NATIONS :
As a Global Governance Actor
• Universal state membership
(193)
• With international
bureaucracy (6 organs)
• A mechanism for
information and action
• A symbol of an imagined
and constructed community
• Prevent and manage trans-
boundary conflict
• Site of multilateralism
 The Six Main Organs

1. • The General Assembly

2. • The Security Council
3. • The Trusteeship Council
4. • The Economic and Social Council
5. • The International Court of Justice
6. • The Secretariat
1. The General Assembly (GA)
• The General Assembly is the main
deliberative policy-making and
representative organ of the United
Nations which comprised of all Member
States, each of which has one vote, no
matter its size or influence.
1. The General Assembly (GA)
• Decisions on important questions require a
2/3 majority of the GA.
• Decisions on other questions are done by
simple majority.
• GA elects a GA President to serve a one-
year term of office.
• All member states (193) have seats in it.
• Carlos P. Romulo – 1949-1950
 2. The Security Council (SC)
• The Security Council has a primary
responsibility under the UN Charter to
maintain international peace and
security.
• Considered as the
most powerful
• Consists of 15
member-states
 2. The Security Council (SC)
• GA elects 10 of these 15 to 2-year terms.
• Permanent 5 (P5 – China, France, Russia,
UK, and US – Allied Powers that won the
WW II) are permanent members since the
founding of UN and cannot be replaced
through elections.
• Heir to the tradition of ‘great power’
diplomacy.
 2. The Security Council (SC)
• Determines the existence of a threat to peace or an
act of aggression.
• Calls upon parties to a dispute to settle it by
peaceful means.
• Recommends methods of adjustment or terms of
settlement.
• Imposes sanctions or even authorizing the use of
force to maintain or restore international peace and
security.
• Gives approval to state who seek to intervene
militarily in another state (immense power of SC).
3. The Trusteeship Council (TC)
• The Trusteeship Council was assigned
under the UN Charter to supervise the
administration of 11 Trust Territories—
former colonies or dependent
territories—which
were placed under
the International
Trusteeship System.
 4. The Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC)
• The Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC) is the principal body for
coordination, policy review, policy
dialogue, and recommendations on the
social and environmental issues, as
well as the implementation of
internationally agreed development
goals.
 4. The Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC)
• It has 54 members elected for 3-year
terms.
• UN’s central platform for discussions
on sustainable development.
 5. The International Court of
Justice (ICJ)
• The International Court
of Justice (ICJ) is the
UN’s main judicial
organ, located in The
Hague, Netherlands.
Established in 1945, the
ICJ, or “World Court”
assumed its functions
in 1946.
 5. The International Court of
Justice (ICJ)
• Settles, in accordance with international law, legal
disputes submitted to it by states and to give
advisory opinions referred to it by authorized UN
organs and specialized agencies.
• Handles disputes between states that voluntarily
submit themselves to the court for arbitration.
• Its decisions are only binding when states have
explicitly agreed to place themselves before the
court’s authority.
• SC may enforce ICJ’s rulings but still subject to the
P5’s veto power.
 5. The International Court of
Justice (ICJ)
• The Court settles legal disputes only
between nations and not between
individuals, in accordance with
international law. If a country does not
wish to take part in a proceeding, it
does not have to do so, unless required
by a special treaty provisions. Once a
country accepts the Court’s
jurisdiction, it must comply with its
decision.
 6. The Secretariat
• Their duties are as varied as the
problems dealt with by the United
Nations. These range from
administering peacekeeping
operations, mediating international
disputes, surveying social and
economic trends, laying the ground
work for international agreements to
organizing international conferences.
 6. The Secretariat
• Consists of the Secretary-General and
thousands of international UN staff
members who carry out the day-to-day
work of the UN as mandated by the GA
and other principal organs (UN’s
bureaucracy).
• An international civil service
• Members of this serve as UN employees
and not as state representatives.
 Challenges of the UN

• The limits placed upon its various organs

and programs by the need to respect state
sovereignty.
• Related to issues of security because of
the P5’s veto power, it is difficult for the
council to release a formal resolution.
GLOBALIZATION
• Increased interconnectivity
• Movement of people remains restricted and strictly
regulated
• Economic interdependence is asymmetrical
• Industrialized countries have interdependent economies
• Developing countries are independent in economic relations with
one another
• Developing economies are highly dependent on industrialized
economies
• Annual rate of world growth has slowed
• Widening inequality among and within nations
• Brings uncivil society terrorism, drugs, slavery, etc.

Globalization has created losers and winners.

Essential/ Ideational Role of UN
in the 21st Century
Managing
Knowledge
• Addressing a problem that
goes beyond the capacity
of the state
• Collect data about the
nature of the problem
• Idea – mongering
(originates and deals in
ideas)
 Developing
Norms
• Helps to solidify new norm of
behavior, often through
summit, conferences and
international panels and
commissions
• Essential for the functioning
and existence of society
• Norms must be integrated to
national /domestic standards
• Ex. HIV – AIDS Awareness
Campaign, Anti-Human
Trafficking, Climate Change
Formulating Recommendations
• Policy stage :
statement of principles
and actions that an
organization is likely to
take in the event of
particular
contingencies
• A policy actor because
of its ability to convene
and consult
Institutionalizing
Ideas
• Every problem has
several global
institutions working
on significant aspects
of solutions
• Institutions oversee
the implementation
and monitoring of
norms
• Ex. Civil society, IGOs
like UN, EU, WB, IMF
• The growing number of
“problems without
passports” requires the
globalization of policy –
making.
 United Nations Special Rapporteur
on Summary Executions / Drug Abuse
Agnes Callamard
Will there be World War III ?