Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Pouliot
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
International Security ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Pecking Order ◽  
Know How ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Multilateral Diplomacy

AbstractIn today’s world, a significant portion of international security politics is conducted through multilateral channels, often from the halls of international organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. This article theorises and empirically documents the production, reproduction, and contestation of local diplomatic hierarchies that practitioners often call ‘international pecking orders’. According to conventional wisdom in IR, the sources of international hierarchies are primarily structural, stemming from the interstate distribution of (material) capabilities. Yet the growing prevalence of multilateral diplomacy in the governance of international security generates distinctive forms of social stratification organised around a struggle for diplomatic competence. As they pursue their instructions and manage security politics, state representatives posted to international organisations make use of the opportunities and constraints of a given situation and compete for rank through the display of practical know-how. The article illustrates this process by looking at how a key set of multilateral practices lend themselves to pecking order dynamics, fromesprit de corpsto reporting through brokering. By taking the multilateralisation of security politics seriously, the article shows that international hierarchy, far from an unobservable reality, is actually part of parcel of each and every practice that makes the world go round.

scholarly journals Orient-Occident : Origines mythiques d’un couple réel

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-523
Author(s):  
Thierry Hentsch
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Community ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
New Feature ◽  
World Organization ◽  
Multilateral Diplomacy

What the United Nations brought to the International Community during its forty years of life cannot be assessed only by referring to the working of the institution and the success or failures it encountered in dealing with specific questions or crises. The profound and lasting changes in the International Community itself in which it contributed in bringing about must also be taken into consideration. Undoubtedly, the most considerable of these changes, a mutation, in the real sense of the word, was the passage from an international society centered around Europe and North-America in 1945, to a truly world society in 1985, through the process of decolonisation. The United Nations decisively contributed to the spreading of the ideology of decolonisation, to the enactment of an international law of decolonisation and to the use of multilateral diplomacy against colonial powers. Eventually, admission to the United Nations became the visible sign as well as the final step of the attainment of political independence. Another remarkable new feature of the international society of today, closely related to the preceding one, is the importance of groups of states, like the Seventy Seven and the Non Aligned, acting as pressure groups. This new setting was made possible only with the existence of the United Nations, where "group diplomacy" was able to deploy itself and to make the "power of the number" felt. Eventually, the whole present diplomatic game, which is played at the level of the world rather than on a bilateral or regional basis in an always growing number of fields, is a product of development of multilateral diplomacy within the United Nations. It is specially true of the so-called North-South dialogue - or confrontation. The World Organization is now an irreversible fact of international life and a reflection of the present structure of the International Society that it helped to build up. But on the other hand, it is a very novel experiment in a historical perspective. Much is y et to be learned in order to be able to make the best use of the instruments it affords for managing the world community.

scholarly journals Network analysis regarding international organisations and donors of humanitarian aid

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young-Chool Choi
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
United Nations Development Program ◽  
Underdeveloped Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

This study aims to evaluate the status of the partnerships with important international organisations that Korea employs in operating its foreign aid projects from a humanitarian point of view. On the basis of this information, Korea intends to seek ways of effectively supporting underdeveloped countries through future co-operation with these organisations. The main international organisations analysed are the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the (United Nations) Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). These international organisations support underdeveloped countries through co-operative relationships not only with Korea but also with important donor countries of the OECD. This study focuses on establishing the factors that Korea needs to consider when providing humanitarian aid in the future to underdeveloped countries via such international organisations.

CZY ZALEWA NAS FALA PRZEMOCY? POLITYCY I MEDIA VS. DANE STATYSTYCZNE

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Hamer ◽  
Hanna Hamet
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Police Data ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Drugs And Crime

By detailed analyses of Polish and world statistics, the authors search for the answer if in fact,as some politicians and citizens claim, the world and in particular European Union and Polandare overcome by the wave of violence. Data gathered, among others, by Polish Public OpinionResearch Center (CBOS), Eurostat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD), aswell as anthropologists and police, clearly prove the opposite. Scientific comparisons concerningviolence over the centuries show that its scale drastically decreased and the world gets saferwith time. Statistical reports of the United Nations especially clearly indicate European Union(including Poland) as particularly peaceful region against the rest of the world, having the lowestmurder rates. Eurostat data confirm these results, also showing decrease in other crimes overthe years. Polish police data similarly prove existence of this trend and CBOS indicates thatit is reflected in increasing sense of security among Poles. In the second part of the article theauthors explain potential reasons for using such false slogans as “increasing wave of violence” bypoliticians and raising fear in voters as well as psychological mechanisms responsible for theirpotential effectiveness.

A Bifurcated Global Nuclear Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

The very destructiveness of nuclear weapons makes them unusable for ethical and military reasons. The world has placed growing restrictions on the full range of nuclear programs and activities. But with the five NPT nuclear powers failing to eliminate nuclear arsenals, other countries acquiring the bomb, arms control efforts stalled, nuclear risks climbing, and growing awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, the United Nations adopted a new treaty to ban the bomb. Some technical anomalies between the 1968 and 2017 treaties will need to be harmonized and the nuclear-armed states’ rejection of the ban treaty means it will not eliminate any nuclear warheads. However, it will have a significant normative impact in stigmatizing the possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and serve as a tool for civil society to mobilize domestic and world public opinion against the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.

The World Economy through the Lens of the United Nations

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The United Nations

This volume documents the intellectual influence of the United Nations through its flagship publication, the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) on its seventieth anniversary. Prepared at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and first published in 1948 as the World Economic Report (subsequently renamed the WESS), it is the oldest continuous post-World War II publication of this kind, recording and analysing the performance of the global economy and social development trends, and offering relevant policy recommendations. This volume highlights how well WESS has tracked global economic and social conditions, and how its analyses have influenced and have been influenced by the prevailing discourse over the past seven decades. The volume critically reflects on its policy recommendations and their influence on actual policymaking and the shaping of the world economy. Although world economic and social conditions have changed significantly over the past seven decades and so have the policy recommendations of the Survey, some of its earlier recommendations remain relevant today; recommendations in WESS provided seven decades ago seem remarkably pertinent as the world currently struggles to regain high levels of employment and economic activity. Thus, in many ways, WESS was ahead of the curve on many substantive issues. Publication of this volume will enhance the interest of the wider community of policymakers, academics, development practitioners, and members of civil society in the analytical work of the UN in general and UN-DESA in particular.

Rising Powers and International Organisations: The Case of China’s Counter-terrorism Strategy at the United Nations

China Report ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Vikash Chandra
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Order ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Rising Powers ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Central Coordination ◽  
The United Nations

This article illustrates China’s counter-terrorism strategy at the United Nations (UN), analyses its cornerstones and underscores changing patterns. On this basis, it also seeks to make some broader observations about how rising powers behave in international organisations and to highlight their attitudes towards the liberal international order. It considers Chinese positions in the debates in the General Assembly (1972–2018), its Sixth Committee and the Security Council (since the early 1990s) and identifies four pillars of China’s counter-terrorism strategy. These include norm entrepreneurship, diplomatic measures, promotion of international cooperation and domestic measures to fulfil obligations emanating from UN resolutions, conventions and declarations. It shows how China has shaped the discourse on terrorism at the UN and how its counter-terror narratives and advocacy have been and are being shaped by the discourse among states and competing blocs like the Organization of Islamic Conference over this period. It concludes with the observation that, despite changes in its strategy in recent years, the defining principles of China’s counter-terrorism strategy, such as respect for state sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, have not eroded. Changes like accepting that the UN must play a ‘central coordination role’ in international counter-terrorism should be regarded as a further extension of China’s zeal to maintain the international order because the UN is a defining pillar of the present international order.

Conference on the Role of Industrialisation in Developing Countries

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-442
Author(s):  
Ronald Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

At the fourth Cambridge conference on development problems, the role of industry was discussed by ministers, senior officials, economic advisers, and business executives, from 22 African, Asian, and Caribbean countries, the United Nations, and the World Bank. Have some, if not all, of Africa's new nations now reached the stage when it would pay them to put their biggest bets on quick industrialisation? Or must they go on putting most of their money and brains into bringing about an agricultural revolution first, before striving for industrial take-off? These questions started the conference off on one of its big themes.

UNICEF in Central America

1960 ◽  
Vol 329 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Alice C. Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Central America ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Central American ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Integrated Programs ◽  
Regional Basis ◽  
The United Nations

Central America has been one of the pioneer areas for the United Nations Children's Fund assisted pro grams. When the United Nations Children's Fund, under a broadened mandate from the United Nations, shifted the emphasis of its aid from emergency to long term and from war-torn countries to those economically less developed, Cen tral American governments immediately requested its assist ance to strengthen and extend services to children and mothers. As one of the first areas in the world to aim at the eradication of malaria and to have engaged in an inten sive campaign against malnutrition on a regional basis, the Central American experiences in these fields have become known, watched, and studied by people from many countries. Against this background, international and bilateral organi zations are working together with governments as they broaden the scope and the extent of their programs. Ten years of co-operative action have highlighted the need for train ing of personnel, both professional and auxiliary. This period has also made clear the value of more integrated programs with wider collaboration both within the ministries of government and between the international organizations.

The Future of Human Rights: A View from the United Nations

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Summit ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peace And Development ◽  
Made In

Ever since the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945, human rights have constituted one of its three pillars, along with peace and development. As noted in a dictum coined during the World Summit of 2005: “There can be no peace without development, no development without peace, and neither without respect for human rights.” But while progress has been made in all three domains, it is with respect to human rights that the organization's performance has experienced some of its greatest shortcomings. Not coincidentally, the human rights pillar receives only a fraction of the resources enjoyed by the other two—a mere 3 percent of the general budget.

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