An Unfinished Journey

Summary
The story of global governance remains an unfinished journey because we are
struggling to find our way and are nowhere near finding a satisfactory destination. The
UN provides and manages the framework for bringing together the world's leaders to
tackle the pressing problems of the day for the survival, development, and welfare of all
peoples, everywhere. Paradoxically, IGOs seem more marginal at exactly the moment
when enhanced multilateralism is so sorely required. Multilateralism is under
unprecedented challenge, from arms control to climate change, international criminal
justice and the use of military force overseas. Depending on the issue area, geographic
location and timing, there are vast disparities in power and influence among states,
IGOs, multinational corporations and international NGOs. Consequently, today's world
is governed by an indistinct patchwork of authority that is as diffuse as it is contingent.
Coordination and cooperation are not only increasingly complex but also problematic as
a result of the number of actors and the existence of decentralized and informal, largely
self-regulatory groupings. In particular, the UN system and IGOs in general that
collectively underpin global governance are inadequately resourced, not vested with the
requisite policy authority and resource-mobilizing capacity and sometimes incoherent in
their separate policies and philosophies. They picture the process of humanity
combining into ever larger and more stable units for the purpose of governance. A world
state is inevitable”. However desirable, such an eventuality appears fanciful. Why?
Because a mixture of utopia and power are required to avoid stagnation and despair,
but “international government is impossible so long as power, which is an essential
condition of government, is organized nationally.

Global governance reflects the realization that states and state-centric institutions
do not have the capacity to address the challenges that render borders ever more
porous. Several expose the limited ability of states to control outcomes through self-
help. Hierarchical international institutions with enforcement capacity and with no
prospects for their creation on the horizon? To date, the system of global governance
has not met the test that “it must channel behavior in such a way as to eliminate or
substantially ameliorate the problem that led to its creation” (Young, 1994: 30). Even
without a world government, there is much room for more initiatives from governments
and groups in power, better incentives and initiatives from secretariats and civil society
– in short, better mobilization and use of the “three United Nations” (states, secretariats
and civil society) in better governance for the planet.
Explanation
Based on what I have read, the global governance remains an unfinished journey
because they are struggling to find their way and nowhere near finding satisfaction.
Therefore, they face problems of the day of the survival, development, and welfare of all
peoples everywhere. They were not certain about what is at stake or satisfied that
global governance can accomplish what a world government could so they decided to
understand the contemporary nature of efforts to help enhance order in international
relationships and to improved it. They realize the states and state-centric institution do
not have a capacity to address the challenges. The UN’s relationship to this five global
governance gaps is explored through case studies of some of the most burning
problems of our age, including terrorism, nuclear proliferations, humanitarian crises,
development aid, climate change, and human rights.