The Politics of Proximity: The Italian Response to the Albanian Crisis

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Perlmutter

This article focuses on the apparent disjunction between the Italian reluctance to allow Albanians to come as refugees and Italy's enthusiastic leadership of the United Nations military-humanitarian mission. It explains the Italian response both in terms of Italian popular opinion regarding Albanians and Italy's concern for the impression on Europe that its politics would make. Italy's leadership of the mission represents the first time a medium-sized power has assisted a neighboring country with whom it has had deep historical connections. The conclusion argues that such proximate interventions are likely to increase in the future, and spells out the implications of the Italian case.

Author(s):  
Jussi M. Hanhimäki

The United Nations is structurally flawed and its operations are cumbersome. Despite being able to come up with excellent ideas, it often lacks the means of implementation. The UN is in need of reform, but reforming the system and obtaining world-wide international support are not new aims. ‘Reform and challenges: the future of the United Nations’ asks: how can this enormous institution that represents widely different interests from around the world be improved? How can its effectiveness be enhanced? In what ways can the UN's development policies be changed to improve the chances of success in the struggle against poverty? How can the UN safeguard both human security and human rights assertively?


Author(s):  
Rosemary Foot

Over a relatively short period of time, Beijing moved from passive involvement with the UN to active engagement. How are we to make sense of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) embrace of the UN, and what does its engagement mean in larger terms? Is it a ‘supporter’ that takes its fair share of responsibilities, or a ‘spoiler’ that seeks to transform the UN’s contribution to world order? Certainly, it is difficult to label it a ‘shirker’ in the last decade or more, given Beijing’s apparent appreciation of the UN, its provision of public goods to the organization, and its stated desire to offer ‘Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach to solving the problems facing mankind’. This study traces questions such as these, interrogating the value of such categorization through direct focus on Beijing’s involvement in one of the most contentious areas of UN activity—human protection—contentious because the norm of human protection tips the balance away from the UN’s Westphalian state-based profile, towards the provision of greater protection for the security of individuals and their individual liberties. The argument that follows shows that, as an ever-more crucial actor within the United Nations, Beijing’s rhetoric and some of its practices are playing an increasingly important role in determining how this norm is articulated and interpreted. In some cases, the PRC is also influencing how these ideas of human protection are implemented. At stake in the questions this book tackles is both how we understand the PRC as a participant in shaping global order, and the future of some of the core norms that constitute global order.


1961 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford

Economic and social cooperation through the United Nations seems destined to face new challenges and alternatives in the coming years as a result of the changed composition of the United Nations membership, the increased bargaining power of the African, Asian, and other states seeking economic and technical assistance, and the precedent of UN operations in the Congo.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gilmour

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.


1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Philip E. Chartrand

In December 1974, Ian Smith, the leader of the white minority regime in Rhodesia, announced for the first time since declaring his country’s independence from Britain in 1965 that his government was willing to begin direct negotiations with the African liberation movements seeking to achieve majority rule in Rhodesia. The prospect of such talks leading to an end to guerrilla fighting in Rhodesia and a termination of the United Nations authorized sanctions against the illegal Smith regime is dimmed by the fact that the Africans demand African rule for Rhodesia in the near future if not immediately, while Smith and his supporters have refused to consider such a development “in his lifetime.” Still the announcement constituted a step forward which few informed observers would have deemed likely even a few weeks before.


1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-147

The twelve-nation Preparatory Committee of IMCO met at Lake Success on November 30, 1948. The session was devoted essentially to preparatory work, since the organization would not become a fully operative agency of the United Nations until twenty-one nations ratified its convention. The Committee voted unanimously that the future agency should keep its activities within a budget of $80,500 yearly for the first two years of operation, since it was pointed out that during that time its work would be largely of an organizational nature. This budget was to be laid before a Maritime Assembly, which would be summoned within three months after twenty-one nations had signed the agency's convention; the Assembly would also review work accomplished by the Preparatory Committee. The Committee agreed to recommend to the Assembly that all nations contribute equal shares to the agency's budget, although it coupled the recommendation with a compromise formula. The Committee also agreed that the budget estimates should be made in pounds rather than at the dollar exchange since permanent headquarters of the organization would be in London.


2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnaldo Arroio

On January 24, 2019, the International Day of Education was celebrated for the first time. One of the celebrations was a speech by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), in which Mr. António Guterres highlighted the role of education in combating hate speech, intolerance in various aspects and also in xenophobia. In the words of the Secretary-General of the UN: "Such a situation constitutes a violation of his fundamental right to education. The world cannot afford to deprive a generation of children and young people of the knowledge they will need to have a place in the economy of the 21st century. " In 2019, there are still 262 million children and young people who do not have access to school, and most of these children and young people are girls who are in a situation of exclusion. In 2015 between September 25 and 27, Heads of State and Government and senior representatives from various countries met at United Nations Headquarters in New York when they celebrated the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and decided on the new objectives’ development, setting the 2030 Agenda.


2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 406-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Shraga

In the five decades that followed the Korea operation, where for the first time the United Nations commander agreed, at the request of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to abide by the humanitarian provisions of the Geneva Conventions, few UN operations lent themselves to the applicability of international humanitarian law


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