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A United Nations Renaissance. What the UN Is, and What It Could Be

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John Trent/Laura Schnurr A United Nations Renaissance “Politicians, pundits, and publics are moving inward and building walls whereas addressing global threats requires moving outward and breaking down barriers. More than ever, multilateralism is essential for problem-solving, and more than ever we need a fitter-for-purpose United Nations. Trent and Schnurr provide a persuasive and user- friendly introduction for a new generation of change-makers.” Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science, The CUNY Graduate Center, Past President International Studies Association “More than a simple forum or arena for confrontation of opposing interests, the United Nations must become an instrument for world governance. This excellent book, from Trent and Schnurr, goes a long way to push forward this idea.” Modesto Seara-Vazquez, Professor of International Organization, and Rector Oaxaca State University System, Mexico “The United Nations remains an essential global institution for advancing the values and practices of cooperation, development, and human rights, but it also needs reform; and especially it needs realistic proposals that give a way forward while still retaining and promoting the ideals of the Charter. This new volume places the UN in historical and contemporary perspective, identifies its critical strengths, challenges, and flaws in a balanced analysis, and suggests clear and constructive arguments and ideas for the changes that are needed.” Alistair Edgar, Professor of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Executive Director, Academic Council on the United Nations System “The UN is being put to the test in today's jumbled and fractious global system. There is a foreboding over the growing trend among many member states including three of the permanent members of the Security Council towards anti - internationalist sentiments and the undermining of norms of global cooperation. As the title of this book signals, it is time for a UN Renaissance. This will only happen if there emerges a coalition of key member states, civil society groups, international institutions and good advocacy in the media and from the academic world. This book makes clear why this is such an important cause for our time. And its focus on mobilizing young people to the cause is a worthy recommendation.” Lloyd Axworthy, Past President, University of Winnipeg, former Foreign Minister of Canada “Global issues require well-functioning global institutions. The United Nations and it’s agencies are critical global players that are needed more than ever given the increasingly interconnected world. The UN is vital in helping to create and support the right operating environment so that the Red Cross and Red Crescent and other organizations are able to fulfill their humanitarian mandates. Trent and Schnurr have written a concise and readable publication that should be read by young people the world over. It is hoped future generations would be encouraged to join the ranks in helping to rejuvenate an essential institution.” George Weber, Secretary-General Emeritus, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation; CEO Royal Ottawa Hospital John Trent Laura Schnurr A United Nations Renaissance What the UN is, and what it could be Barbara Budrich Publishers Opladen • Berlin • Toronto 2018 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-8474-0860-4. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org © 2018 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. (CC- BY-SA 4.0) It permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you share under the same license, give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ © 2018 Dieses Werk ist beim Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH erschienen und steht unter der Creative Commons Lizenz Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Diese Lizenz erlaubt die Verbreitung, Speicherung, Vervielfältigung und Bearbeitung bei Verwendung der gleichen CC-BY-SA 4.0-Lizenz und unter Angabe der UrheberInnen, Rechte, Änderungen und verwendeten Lizenz. This book is available as a free download from www.barbara-budrich.net (https://doi.org/10.3224/84740711). A paperback version is available at a charge. The page numbers of the open access edition correspond with the paperback edition. ISBN 978-3-8474-0711-9 (paperback) eISBN 978-3-8474-0860-4 (PDF) eISBN 978-3-8474-1216-8 (EPUB) DOI 10.3224/84740711 Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH Stauffenbergstr. 7. D-51379 Leverkusen Opladen, Germany 86 Delma Drive. Toronto, ON M8W 4P6 Canada www.barbara-budrich.net A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The German Library) (http://dnb.d-nb.de) Jacket illustration by Bettina Lehfeldt, Kleinmachnow, Germany – www.lehfeldtgraphic.de Copy Edit: Máiréad Collins, Belfast, UK Typesetting: Anja Borkam, Jena – [email protected] paper&tinta, Warsaw Table of Contents List of Illustrations ......................................................................................... 9 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................... 11 Introduction .................................................................................................. 13 Achieving the unthinkable ......................................................................... 13 The global governance deficit ................................................................... 15 The United Nations’ balance sheet ............................................................ 16 Empowering youth .................................................................................... 19 Objectives of the primer ............................................................................ 21 Chapter 1 – Evolving International Organizations: the UN Past and Present .............................................................................. 22 Early international cooperation efforts ...................................................... 22 The Concert of Europe .......................................................................... 23 A note on the creation of the League of Nations ................................... 26 The League of Nations as an institution ................................................ 27 From the League of Nations to the United Nations .............................. 32 Introducing the United Nations ................................................................. 34 The principal organs of the United Nations ............................................... 35 The Security Council ............................................................................ 35 The General Assembly .......................................................................... 38 The Economic and Social Council ........................................................ 41 Trusteeship Council .............................................................................. 43 The International Court of Justice ......................................................... 43 The Secretariat ...................................................................................... 45 Beyond the organs ..................................................................................... 46 The Secretary-General .......................................................................... 46 UN budgets ........................................................................................... 49 The UN System ..................................................................................... 49 International financial institutions and other international actors ......... 51 Chapter 2 – Peace and Security: Fixing the Security Council ................. 56 The Security Council’s functions and activities ........................................ 58 Security Council strengths .................................................................... 58 Security Council weaknesses ................................................................ 61 5 The UN’s peace operations ....................................................................... 64 The Security Council and the future .......................................................... 67 Chapter 3 – Social and Economic Development ........................................ 71 Understanding ‘development’ ................................................................... 71 The first 50 years ....................................................................................... 71 Development in the early years ............................................................. 71 Expanding development efforts ............................................................ 73 The North-South divide ........................................................................ 75 Millennium Development Goals ............................................................... 75 Tallying up the results ........................................................................... 76 Sustainable
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