scholarly journals Global Governance V/S COVID-19: A Human Security Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-227
Author(s):  
Alain Akl

Abstract After the Cold War, global governance emerged as an umbrella to address transnational challenges. But this concept is still somewhat ambiguous, and so is the contemporary world order, where a significant power shift has occurred from the nation-State to the “new actors.” On the other hand, it is now over a year since a global threat emerged, affecting millions of people. The COVID-19 challenge revealed several flaws in the contemporary world order, the United Nations system, and the international organizations’ role. It is therefore imperative that we ask ourselves about the nation-State’s ability to face the COVID-19 challenge on its own, as an introduction to raise the topic of facing the future transnational challenges. In this setting, the objective of this study is to shed the light on the aforementioned flaws, the contemporary challenges, and the way we tackle new threats as human beings. This study was conducted using a qualitative methodological approach based on analysis of secondary data. Following deductive reasoning, it highlights the importance of global governance in facing contemporary challenges in general before addressing the COVID-19 issue in particular. Study findings show that states, international organizations, and unofficial actors need to update the traditional approach to transnational challenges towards global governance. In this context, international conferences are a necessary tool to tackle new challenges related to human security.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (31) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Alain Akl

After the Cold War, global governance emerged as an umbrella to address transnational challenges. However, this concept is still somewhat ambiguous, and so is the contemporary world order, where a significant power shift has occurred from the nation-State to the "new actors". On the other hand, it is now over a year since a global threat emerged, affecting millions of people. The COVID-19 challenge revealed several flaws in the contemporary world order, the United Nations system, and the international organizations' role. Therefore, it is imperative that we ask ourselves about the nation-State’s ability to face the COVID-19 challenge on its own, as an introduction to raise the topic of facing future transnational challenges. In this setting, the objective of this study is to shed light on the aforementioned flaws, the contemporary challenges, and the way we tackle new threats as human beings. This article uses a qualitative methodological approach based on analysis of secondary data. Following deductive reasoning, it highlights the importance of global governance in facing contemporary challenges in general before addressing the COVID-19 issue in particular. Study findings show that states, international organizations, and unofficial actors need to update the traditional approach to transnational challenges towards global governance. In this context, international conferences are a necessary tool to tackle new challenges related to human security.


2020 ◽  
pp. 135406612095940
Author(s):  
David A Lake

The ecology of governance organizations (GOs) matters for what is or is not governed, what legitimate powers any governor may hold, and whose political preferences are instantiated in rules. The array of actors who comprise the current system of global governance has grown dramatically in recent decades. Especially notable has been the growth of private governance organizations (PGOs). Drawing on organizational ecology, I posit that the rise of PGOs is both required and facilitated by disagreements between states that block the creation of what might be otherwise effective intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). In a form of “double-negative regulation,” states block IGOs, which in turn leave open niches that are then filled by PGOs, which then both complement and sometimes substitute for state law. The organizational ecology approach outlined here extends and refocuses inquiry in systematic ways that give us a fuller understanding of how and why PGOs have emerged as one of the most striking features of the contemporary world order. The key innovations in this paper are to (a) shift the level of analysis from single agents or populations of agents to the entire field of GOs, including states, IGOs, and PGOs and (b) draw on principles of ecology to understand the composition and dynamics of systems of governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 626-640
Author(s):  
Jonas Tallberg ◽  
Magnus Lundgren ◽  
Thomas Sommerer ◽  
Theresa Squatrito

Abstract Recent decades have witnessed the emergence and spread of a broad range of liberal norms in global governance, among them sustainable development, gender equality, and human security. While existing scholarship tells us a lot about the trajectories of particular norms, we know much less about the broader patterns and sources of commitments to liberal norms by international organizations (IOs). This article offers the first comparative large-N analysis of such commitments, building on a unique dataset on IO policy decisions over the time period 1980–2015. Distinguishing between deep norm commitment and shallow norm recognition, the analysis produces several novel findings. We establish that IOs’ deeper commitments to liberal norms primarily are driven by internal conditions: democratic memberships and institutional designs more conducive to norm entrepreneurship. In contrast, legitimacy standards in the external environment of IOs, often invoked in existing research, mainly account for shallower recognition or “talk” of norms.


2013 ◽  
pp. 4-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grigoryev ◽  
A. Kurdin

The coordination of economic activity at the global level is carried out through different mechanisms, which regulate activities of companies, states, international organizations. In spite of wide diversity of entrenched mechanisms of governance in different areas, they can be classified on the basis of key characteristics, including distribution of property rights, mechanisms of governance (in the narrow sense according to O. Williamson), mechanisms of expansion. This approach can contribute not only to classifying existing institutions but also to designing new ones. The modern aggravation of global problems may require rethinking mechanisms of global governance. The authors offer the universal framework for considering this problem and its possible solutions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-526
Author(s):  
O.T. Astanakulov ◽  
E.G. Sheina

Subject. This article explores the economic relations of economic entities concerning effective investment activities, combining elements of investment control and assessment of related risk. Objectives. The article aims to analyze and logically substantiate the stages and types of investment activities of enterprises and investment projects in-progress, as well as define a methodological approach to assessing project risks. Methods. For the study, we used a structural and logical analysis, and deductive reasoning. The methodological base of the study is based on the principles of the theory of finance, investment and risk management. Results. The article defines stages of assessing the financial condition of enterprises and proposes a methodological approach to assessing certain risks of an investment project based on the risk ranking by degree of probability and significance of an event through applying the expert assessment method. The article also presents a practice-oriented risk map for investment projects and clarifies the concept of Investment Control. Conclusions. The results of the study can help address the significant for the Russian economy issue of stimulating and developing investment activities at enterprises, as well as implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of investment projects at the micro-and macro-levels of the country's economy.


Author(s):  
Heidi Hardt

Chapter 1 introduces the subject of institutional memory of strategic errors, discusses why it matters for international organizations (IOs) that engage in crisis management and reviews the book’s argument, competing explanations and methodological approach. One strategic error in the mandate or planning of an operation can increase the likelihood of casualties on the battlefield. Knowledge of past errors can help prevent future ones. The chapter explores an empirical puzzle; there remain key differences between how one expects IOs to learn and observed behavior. Moreover, scholars have largely treated institutional memory as a given without explaining how it develops. From relevant scholarship, the chapter identifies limitations of three potential explanations. The chapter then introduces a new argument for how IOs develop institutional memory. Subsequent sections describe research design and explain why NATO is selected as the domain of study. Last, the chapter identifies major contributions to literature and describes the book’s structure.


Author(s):  
Lutz Leisering

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) proclaimed the equality of all human beings in dignity and rights. The right to social security, however, has been taken more seriously only since the 2000s, through calls for ‘Social security for all’ and ‘Leaving no one behind’. The book investigates a major response, social cash transfers to the poor. The idea of simply giving money to the poor had been rejected by all major development organizations until the 1990s, but since the early 2000s, social cash transfers have mushroomed in the global South and on agendas of international organizations. How come? What programmes have emerged in which countries? How inclusive are the programmes? What models have international organizations devised? Based on unique quantitative and qualitative data, the book takes stock of all identifiable cash transfers in all Southern countries and of the views of all major international organizations. The author argues that cash transfers reflect broader changes: new understandings of development, of human rights, of global risks, of the social responsibility of governments, and of universalism. Social cash transfers have turned the poor from objects of charity into rights-holders and agents of their own lives and of development. A repertoire of cash transfers has evolved that has enhanced social citizenship, but is limited by weak political commitments. The book also contributes to a general theory of social policy in development contexts, through a constructivist sociological approach that complements the dominant approaches from welfare economics and political economy and includes a theory of social assistance.


Author(s):  
Daniel Krahl

The Paris Agreement has turned traditional approaches to global governance upside down, using a bottom-up approach that made it possible for emerging powers like China to agree to binding emissions targets to contain climate change. It thus marks a further step away from the old order centered on Western power, and at the same time it fits well into Chinese attempts to create a post-American order that rests on great power diplomacy within a multilateral framework of cooperation that privileges developing countries. The Paris Agreement allows China to leverage the internal fight against pollution and the restructuring and upgrading of its economy for international status. That the agreement has so far survived President Trump’s announcement of America’s departure suggests that it could yet serve as a blueprint for other, future arrangements for world order that would be able to integrate a risen China.


Author(s):  
Gisela Hirschmann

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? Political scientists and legal scholars have shed a much-needed light on the limits of traditional accountability when it comes to complex global governance. However, conventional studies on IO accountability fail to systematically analyze a related, puzzling empirical trend: human rights violations that occur in the context of global governance do not go unnoticed altogether; they are investigated and sanctioned by independent third parties. This book puts forward the concept of pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. We can expect pluralist accountability to evolve if a competitive environment stimulates third parties to enact accountability and if the implementing actors are vulnerable to human rights demands. Based on a comprehensive study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the European Union Troika’s austerity policy, and global public–private health partnerships in India, this book demonstrates how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of studying alternative accountability mechanisms, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs’ legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.


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