Lesson 5

ZITA M. CORPUZ

Contemporary Global
Governance
LESSON OBJECTIVES:

 Identify the roles and functions

of United Nations

 Identify the challenges of global

governance in the 21st century.

 Explain the relevance of the state

amid globalization.
  The sum of laws, norms, policies
and institutions that define,
constitute and mediate relations
between citizens, societies,
markets and states in the
international systems-the wielders
and objects of the exercise of
international public power.
(Thakur & Weiss, 2015)

– a way in which global affairs are managed, typically involves a range of

actors including states, as well a regional and international organizations.
 the various
intersecting
processes that
create an order
that is to continue
to adhere to certain
global norms.
 Thus, Global governance is thought of to be an international process of consensus-
forming which generates guidelines and agreements that affect national governments
and international corporations.
 SOURCES OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

 done when states sign and form organizations in

Treaties the process legislating international law
(International rules that govern interactions
between states).

 Multilateral – enacted through UN

Conventions

 Bilateral – agreement between two countries

only.
 The term is commonly used to refer to international governmental organizations
or groups that are primarily made up of member-states.

 International NGOs are sometimes considered as IOs.

 Fallacy about/weakness of IOs : these were merely

amalgamations of various state interests; talk-shops

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (IOs)

Power of classification
 IOs can invent and apply
categories in which they invent Power to fix meanings
powerful global standards  States and organizations view
IOs as legitimate sources of
information. As such, the
meanings they create have
Power to diffuse norms
effects on various policies
 IOs spread their ideas across the
world thereby establishing global
standards

Powers of IOs
 5 Organs

The General Assembly

The Security Council

Economic and Social

Council

International Court of
Justice
The Secretariat
  UN’s main deliberative policymaking and
representative organ.
 Decisions on important questions, such as those on
peace and security, admission of new members and
budgetary matters require two-thirds majority of the
GA ( UN Charter).
 The GA elects the president to serve a one-year term of
office.
 All member states (currently at 193) have seats in the
GA.

 The Philippines played a prominent role in the GA’s early years when Filipino
Diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected president from 1949-1950.
 Considered to be the most
powerful organ of the UN;

 Consists of 15 member states,

in which the GA elects ten of
these 15 to two-year terms.

 The other five-sometimes

referred to as the Permanent 5
(P5) – China, France, Russia,
the United Kingdom and the
United States.

 These states have been permanent members since

the founding of the UN, and cannot be replaced
through election.
 The UN Security Council
o leads in determining the existence of a threat to the
peace or an act of aggression.
o calls upon the parties in dispute to settle the act by
peaceful means and recommends methods of
adjustment or terms of settlement.
o It can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorizing
the use of force to maintain or restore international
peace or security.
o States that seek to intervene militarily in another state
need to obtain approval of the SC.
 The principal body for coordination, policy
review, policy dialogue, and
recommendations on social and
environmental issues, as well as the
implementation of internationally agreed
development goals.
 the UN’s central platform for discussion on
sustainable development.

It has 54 members elected for three-year terms.

 Task is to settle in accordance
with international law legal
disputes submitted to it by
states

 To give advisory opinions

referred to it by authorized UN
organs and specialized agencies.
 International Court of Justice
 The court as such cannot try individuals
(International criminal cases are heard by the
International Criminal Court), which is
independent of the UN).

 Its decisions are only binding when states have

explicitly agreed to place themselves before the
court’s authority.

 The SC may enforce the rulings of the ICJ, but

this remains subject to the P5’s veto power.
  Consists of the Secretary –General and
tens of thousands of international UN staff
members who carry out the day-to-day
work of the UN as mandated by the GA and
the s other principal organs.
 It is the bureaucracy of the UN, serving as a
kind of international civil service.

 Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees and

not as state representatives.
 Challenges of the UN
Cooperation among
 The UN is presumed/imagined as a
member states World Government.
 it functions primarily because of
voluntary cooperation from states

 If states refuse to cooperate, the

influence of the UN can be severely
circumscribed.
Promotion of
interest of core,
semi-periphery
and periphery
countries
 Challenges of the UN

 International peacekeeping

o The UNSC is tasked with authorizing

international acts of military intervention.
o Because of the P5’s veto power, it is tough
for the council to release & implement a
formal resolution.
 Gaps in Global Governance
(Thakur and Weiss, 2015)

 Knowledge gaps –
failure to identify and recognize
the existence of a problem.
 Normative gaps –
failure to develop rules and
laws to address the problem.

 Policy gaps –
failure to implement rules and
laws.
 Gaps in Global Governance
(Thakur and Weiss, 2015)

 Compliance gaps –
failure among the constituents to
adhere ato the policies.

 Institutional gaps –
failure to establish image and the
advocacies of the institution.
Challenges in Global Governance