Implications and Questions for the Future

1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 835-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inis L. Claude
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
International Organization ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Nations System

Undertaking to write about the future of the United Nations may well be regarded as a risky if not a downright foolhardy enterprise, particularly in 1965, between the tragicomedy of the nineteenth General Assembly and the great uncertainty of the twentieth session. For many people, the question is whether the United Nations has a future, and for some of them this question is purely rhetorical. I think that it has, or that, at any rate, general international organization has a future. Whatever may happen to the United Nations, I find it difficult to conceive that the men who conduct the foreign relations of states will ever again consider that they can dispense with a comprehensive institutional mechanism or that they will, in the foreseeable future, contrive a global mechanism fundamentally different in character from the United Nations. Objectively, the operation of the international system requires an organizational framework virtually coextensive with the system; just as education requires schools and universities and medicine requires hospitals and clinics, so international relations require at least as much organizational apparatus as the United Nations system provides. Moreover, there is evidence that this objective need has penetrated the consciousness of most statesmen. The questions that they have asked about international organization in the last twenty years have not included the question of whether it is sensible to equip the international system with a general institutional structure.

The History of International Organization(s)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Reinalda
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Nations System

The emerging discipline of Political Science recognized international organization as an object of study earlier (i.e., around 1910) than International Law, which through an engagement with League of Nations ideals began to follow the developments of international organizations (IOs) during the 1920s, and History, which kept its focus on states and war rather than on IOs until the early 2000s. The debate between Liberal Institutionalism and (after 1945 dominant) Realism deeply influenced the study of IOs. The engagement of the United States in the United Nations System, however, stimulated further studies of IOs and produced new theoretical orientations that left room for Realist factors. The modernization of International Relations studies through Regime Theory eventually removed the need to ask historical questions, resulting in short-term studies of IOs, but new approaches such as Constructivism and Historical Institutionalism contributed to studies of long-term change of IOs and critical junctures in history. The main International Relations approach traces the rise of the United Nations System (or, more broadly, IOs) as an instrument of American exceptionalism in the world. This view is being criticized by the paradigmatic turn in the discipline of History in the early 2000s, which has included IOs in its research and relates the creation of IOs to imperial powers such as the United Kingdom and France that wanted to safeguard their empires. These historical studies start in 1919 rather than 1945 and also question International Relations’ Western-centrist universalism by including competing universalisms such as anticolonial nationalism.

The Divided Nations in the International System

1973 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-507
Author(s):  
Joungwon Alexander Kim ◽  
Carolyn Campbell Kim
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International System ◽  
General Rule ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Major Exception ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Nations System

With the seating of the representatives of the People's Republic of China, membership in the United Nations system has now become almost universal. The major exception to the general rule of universality is the exclusion of the divided nations: Germany (combined population: 68,000,000), Korea (combined population: 47,000,000), and Vietnam (combined population: 35,000,000).None of the divided nations hold membership in die United Nations proper, although all three of the Western-affiliated sectors have been given observer status at the UN.

Negotiating by Consensus: Developments in Technique at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Negotiation ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Unique Event ◽  
General Assembly Resolution ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Nations System

The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) is important not only because of the scope and substance of the issues with which it is concerned, but also because it represents a major international experiment in decision making by consensus. Most of the attention it has attracted so far has been focused on the problems, progress, and prospects of the conference as a unique event. Given the magnitude of the matters at stake, not to mention the drama of the proceedings, this is natural enough. In addition, there is the risk of a severe blow to the process of international negotiation in general, and to the United Nations system in particular, should UNCLOS III fail. Only a few writers have so far begun systematically to discuss procedural developments at UNCLOS in terms other than those relating to the success or failure of the conference itself. Jonathan Charney and Bernard Oxman have pointed out the significance of procedural developments and precedents, Robert Eustis has begun the exploration of UNCLOS as a model of multinational negotiation, and Edward Miles has argued that nothing similar to UNCLOS should be tried again. United Nations concern about problems in the process of international negotiation in general is demonstrated by General Assembly Resolution 32/48 (December 8,1977), requesting a report on the techniques and procedures used in the elaboration of multilateral conventions.

Non-proliferation Law and the United Nations System: Resolution 1540 and the Limits of the Power of the Security Council

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL H. JOYNER
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Weapons Proliferation ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
International Laws ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Nations System

This article argues that in passing Resolution 1540, the UN Security Council has confused the proper scope of its enforcement powers under Chapter VII with the proper scope of its long unused, limited, lawmaking powers under Article 26. It has thereby taken to itself by unilateral exercise of its Chapter VII powers a role which, under the Charter system, it is to share with both the General Assembly, in the exercise of its Article 11(1) powers, and the general membership of the United Nations, to whom it is directed under Article 26 to submit proposals for the creation of new international laws in the area of weapons proliferation.

scholarly journals Joining the UN Family?

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Megan Bradley
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
The Status ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Nations System

Abstract The International Organization for Migration (IOM) became a related organization in the United Nations system in 2016, and has rebranded itself as the “UN Migration Agency.” This article examines the drivers and significance of IOM’s new relationship with the UN. It traces the evolution of the IOM-UN relationship, and the processes that led to IOM becoming a related organization. While some contend that IOM is still not really part of the UN system, through an analysis of the status and political positioning of related organizations this article demonstrates that, as a related organization, IOM is indeed now part of the UN system. It argues that IOM’s work with forced migrants in the humanitarian sector played a pivotal role in enabling this shift, and considers its implications.

scholarly journals Parliamentary assembly as a model for the revitalisation of the united nations general assembly

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-359
Author(s):  
Jelica Gordanic
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
United Nations Charter ◽  
Nations System

The paper analyses the revitalization of the General Assembly of the United Nations in the context of the establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly, a potentially new organ within the UN system. The United Nations system deals with the lack of democratic capacity. Establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly which consisted of the citizens of UN members could eliminate the lack of democratic capacity and improve the entire UN structure. The author analyzes the possibilities of establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly, its potential jurisdiction and examines its potential contribution to the revitalization of the General Assembly. The paper points out that the establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly can contribute to the actualization of the agenda, improve the quality of resolutions and reduce the number of repetitive resolutions of the General Assembly. Moreover, it could achieve an indirect impact on democratization and transparency of the work of the Security Council. The author considers funding and the composition of the Parliamentary Assembly as possible threats for the establishment of this organ. These facts also represent the threats for the process of revitalization of the General Assembly. The author concludes the potential establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly can contribute to the revitalization of the General Assembly to a certain extent. The key answer in the revitalization of the General Assembly is a revision of the United Nations Charter.

Overselling the Un Charter—Fact and Myth

1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Riggs
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Extreme Form ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Future ◽  
The United Nations

For almost a decade commentators on international organization have nurtured the myth that the UN Charter was originally ‘oversold’ to the American public by enthusiastic supporters, who represented the organization as a panacea for the ills of twentieth-century world politics. So unrealistic were the expectations created by this publicity barrage, so the story runs, that subsequent disillusionment with die UN was inevitable. Although propagated with many variations, the myth finds a classic formulation in the words of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., uttered before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements, July 8, 1953: ‘The United Nations,’ said Ambassador Lodge, ‘was oversold. It was advertised entirely as an automatic peace producer. All we had to do was sign on die dotted line—so it was said—and all our troubles would be over’. A recent volume on international relations, currently in use as a college text, restated the myth in a some what less extreme form: ‘Considered a towering edifice of strength in 1945, the United Nations was often shrugged off in the early 1950's with the damning phrase, ‘debating society.’ Because expectations had been so extravagant, the achievements of the United Nations seemed ridiculously trivial to many who had expected a Utopian revolution in international relations that the United Nations could not hope to provide.” Other variations on the theme are no doubt familiar to students of international organization. Use of the expression ‘myth’ implies no denial that ‘a veritable wave of propaganda and influence was generated on behalf of American membership’ in the UN. The country was flooded with information, from bodi government and private sources, designed to win over the public to the desirability of postwar international organization. It is also true that those engaged in selling the UN to the public tried to give their arguments an optimistic, hopeful tone. Recalling the League's fate, they emphasized the differences between the League and the proposed new organization rather than their patent similarities. Often they were guilty of oversimplifying the facts of world politics upon which the future of the UN would necessarily depend. The growing split between Russia and the Western allies, so ominous for the new organization, was not usually highlighted in speeches urging the establishment of the UN. A vigorous selling campaign was unquestionably conducted.

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