How do religious groups, operating as NGOs, engage in the most important global institution for world peace? What processes do they adopt? Is there a "spiritual" UN today? This book is the first interdisciplinary study to present extensive fieldwork results from an examination of the activity of religious groups at the United Nations in New York and Geneva. Based on a three and half-year study of activities in the United Nations system, it seeks to show how "religion" operates in both visible and invisible ways. Jeremy Carrette, Hugh Miall, Verena Beittinger-Lee, Evelyn Bush and Sophie-Helene Trigeaud, explore the way "religion" becomes a "chameleon" idea, appearing and disappearing, according to the diplomatic aims and ambitions. Part 1 documents the challenges of examining religion inside the UN, Part 2 explores the processes and actions of religious NGOs - from diplomacy to prayer - and the specific platforms of intervention - from committees to networks - and Part 3 provides a series of case studies of religious NGOs, including discussion of Islam, Catholicism and Hindu and Buddhist NGOs. The study concludes by examining the place of diplomats and their views of religious NGOs and reflects on the place of "religion" in the UN today. The study shows the complexity of "religion" inside one of the most fascinating global institutions of the world today.

Since the first edition of this book was published in 2010, United Nations peace operations have evolved significantly. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan, UN peacekeepers are now engaged in building peace by fighting non-State armed actors, and must consider issues concerning the application of law and policy governing the use of armed force when protecting civilians. In addition, the UN and its peacekeepers are increasingly being held to higher standards of accountability to ensure that their engagement with local forces and populations meets normative requirements found in international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This extensively revised edition of Documents on the Law of UN Peace Operations addresses the key normative principles, rules, and standards that have been a part of this evolution. The book provides essential documents, accompanied with commentary, which identify and explain the legal framework or applicable legal norms involved in the planning, management and conduct of UN peace operations. Topics covered include obligations under international humanitarian law, human rights law, international criminal law, and privileges and immunities. Special attention is also paid to matters such as accountability, the rule of law, and the protection of civilians.

In January 1942, the Declaration by United Nations forged a military alliance based on human rights principles that included over 24 countries, marking the beginning of the UN. But how did the armies of the United Nations co-operate during World War II to halt Nazi expansionism? When did the UN start to tackle the international economic and social challenges of the post-war world? This is the first book to explore how the profound restructuring of the international world order was organized. Drawing on previously unknown archival material, Plesch analyzes the engagement with the UN by all levels of society, from grassroots to the political elites. Plesch has pieced together the full story of how the UN intervened in surprising ways at a pivotal time in world history and argues that the UN s success is as vital today as it was then."

The security concerns of the United Nations today extend far beyond what the writers of the 1945 Charter could have imagined. As a result, the UN has been compelled to reconsider the parameters of what constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and what it means to be safe and secure in the twenty-first century. This text critically assesses the capacity of the UN to evolve in response to changing notions of security, and examines the complex history of people, places and politics that have helped shape this important global actor.

A text in the Yale University Press Series on Basic Documents in World Politics This volume contains the full text of the United Nations Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice, as well as related historical documents. They are accompanied by ten original essays on the Charter and its legacy by distinguished scholars and former high-level UN officials. The commentaries illuminate the early and ongoing roles of the United Nations in responding to international crises, debates about the UN's architecture and its reform, and its role in global governance, climate change, peacekeeping, and development. A concise and accessible introduction to the UN for students, this collection also offers important new scholarship that will be of interest to experts.

The groundwork for the Asian economic miracle was established in the last quarter century-the time period covered in this book. China and Vietnam started substituting pragmatism for communist ideology and Thailand started on a path toward greater democracy. The timing was perfect for an American United Nations representative to arrive in the two communist countries because for the first time, both placed a premium on improving relations with the US and both were moving toward a market economy. This book acquaints the reader with evolving political, economic and social conditions in these countries and the role played by UN organisations in promoting reform. A chapter on the South Pacific is included to apprise the reader of a little-known part of the world and the challenges of providing useful development assistance in small isolated countries. The book also reveals a hidden side of the United Nations which is the role played by more than thirty UN agencies, funds and programmes in providing development and humanitarian assistance-a role rarely covered in the popular press. The past quarter century was also a period of great upheaval and challenge in Asia. There were enormous events and developments involving the United Nations which are analysed in the book. These include the Tiananmen crisis in China; 300,000 Cambodian refugees escaping the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge camped along the Thai border; more than two decades of effort to rid the Golden Triangle of opium production; the sensitive diplomacy required in fostering economic cooperation among North Korea, South Korea, China and Mongolia; and a firsthand account of negotiating the international agreement creating the Mekong River Commission. The book is intended for the general reader.

a. The 2011-2012 Edition Released in annual editions each containing 5-7 volumes, the Annual Review of United Nations Affairs is the only thorough annual survey of major developments at the United Nations. The 2011/2012 edition includes the full text of all General Assembly, Security Council, and ECOSOC resolutions from the 66th United Nations session (Sept. 2011 to Sept. 2012), along with other key UN documents, including selected progress reports from UN peacekeeping, peace-building, and political missions. This edition also includes six introductory articles written by expert contributors. These introductions offer invaluable guidance on the activities of various United Nations bodies, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice and Tribunals, the Secretariat, and the Peacekeeping and Peace-building Missions. The 2011/2012 edition also features a Foreword by Lord Mark Malloch Brown KCMG, former UK Minister for Africa, Asia, and the UN, and former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and Administrator of UNDP. b. The set generally Since the publication of its first edition in 1950, the Annual Review of United Nations Affairs has stood as the authoritative resource for scholars, students, and practitioners researching the latest developments at the United Nations. From introductory articles on particular topics, prepared by experts on the relevant United Nations bodies, to the full-text presentation of reports and resolutions and the helpful subject index, ARUNA provides a comprehensive tour of each year's UN actions and debates. The expert selection of documents by Joachim Muller and Karl Sauvant and the topic-based organization of those documents make any researcher's task much easier than the vast searching and sorting required by the UN's website. The series' topic-based organization of the materials and subject index lend invaluable guidance to all researchers. Beginning with the 2010/2011 edition, detailed commentaries on the various UN bodies by experts on the relevant topics were also added to each annual edition, and the analysis provided in these commentaries has helped to make ARUNA a more complete resource for anyone engaged in research on the activities of the United Nations. ARUNA presents comprehensive documentation of the work of the UN on an annual basis, starting in September of each year with the beginning of the regular sessions of the General Assembly. Coverage of and commentary on the UN's key organs are provided, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. In addition, selected reports of intergovernmental bodies and expert groups are included. ARUNA occupies a special place in the publications on the work of the UN, as it allows readers to obtain an overview of the principal developments in its key organs. This makes it an important reference source for policy-makers and academic researchers.

The UN is able to recognize key global challenges, but beset by difficulties in trying to resolve them. In this, it represents the current global political balance, but is also the only international institution that could move it forward. Civil society can be a catalyst for this kind of change. In this book, Nora McKeon provides a comprehensive analysis of UN engagement with civil society. The book pays particular attention to food and agriculture, which now lie at the heart of global governance issues. McKeon shows that politically meaningful space for civil society can be introduced into UN policy dialogue. The United Nations and Civil Society also makes the case that it is only by engaging with organizations which legitimately speak for the 'poor' targeted by the Millennium Development Goals that the UN can promote equitable, sustainable development and build global democracy from the ground up. This book has strong ramifications for global governance, civil society and the contemporary debate over the future of food.

The son of a Baltimore fireman and the first person in his family to go to university, with scholarships to Yale College and Yale Law School, John Bolton candidly recounts his sixteen month tenure as US Ambassador to the United Nations, his Senate confirmation battle, and the highlights of his career in public service in two prior Republican administrations. In this explosive book, Bolton describes why practices such as the Oil for Food scandal, procurement fraud and sexual exploitation and abuse by U.N. peacekeepers are explained away or ignored. He also details how he made sure that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan did not run for a third term and that another 'secular Pope' did not succeed him and why no country except the United States has done much about ending the genocide in Darfur. With a no-holds barred approach, John Bolton provides a unique insight into the workings of this monolithic institution and America's place within it.

A seasoned foreign correspondent shows how the UN privileges its own neutrality and interests above its founding mission of protecting humanity, with predictably tragic consequences From the killing fields of Rwanda and Srebrenica a decade ago to those of Darfur today, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to confront genocide. This is evinced, author and journalist Adam LeBor maintains, in a May 1995 document from Yasushi Akashi, the most senior UN official in the field during the Yugoslav wars, in which he refused to authorize air strikes against the Serbs for fear they would "weaken" Milosevic. More recently, in 2003, urgent reports from UN officials in the Sudan detailing atrocities from Darfur were ignored for a year because they were politically inconvenient. This book is the first to examine in detail the crucial role of the Secretariat, its relationship with the Security Council, and the failure of UN officials themselves to confront genocide. LeBor argues the UN must return to its founding principles, take a moral stand and set the agenda of the Security Council instead of merely following the lead of the great powers. LeBor draws on dozens of firsthand interviews with UN officials, current and former, and such international diplomats as Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Douglas Hurd, and David Owen. This book will set the terms for discussion when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan steps down to make room for a new head of the world body, and political observers assess Annan's legacy and look to the future of the world organization.

Adopted in April 2004, UN Security Council Resolution 1540 obliges all states to take steps to prevent non-state actors, especially terrorist organizations and arms traffickers, from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and related materials. The United Nations placed itself firmly in the center of one of the world's key international security challenges. Global Non-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism brings together renowned scholars and policymakers to examine a wide range of new policy-related questions arising from the resolution's impact on the bio-scientific community, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the IAEA, trade and customs, and counter-proliferation initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The impact of 1540 goes beyond setting new legal requirements. It focuses on enforcement not only nationally but also internationally, pressing all states to place their own houses in order. Among the key questions is how the resolution will change the existing network of non-proliferation regimes. Will it merely reinforce requirements of the existing non-proliferation treaties? Or will it offer a legal framework for counter-proliferation activities and other measures to enforce the non-proliferation network? This book provides an overview of the novel policy questions UNSCR 1540's future implementation and enforcement will offer for years to come. Contributors include Jeffrey Almond, Thomas J. Biersteker (Brown University), Olivia Bosch (Chatham House), Gerald Epstein (CSIS), Chandre Gould (Center for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town )], Ron Manley (former OPCW Director of Verification) Sarah Meek (ISS), Siew Gay Ong (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore), Elizabeth Prescott (AAAS Congressional Fellow), Tariq Rauf (IAEA), Will Robinson (World Customs Organization), Roelof Jan Manschot (Eurojust), Peter van Ham (Netherlands Institute of International Relations), Ted Whiteside (NATO), and Angela Woodward (VERTIC).

This text looks at NATO's eastern agenda which is facing several challenges, including consolidating the democratic transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, ensuring the security of the Baltic states and developing a post-NATO-enlargemnt strategy for Ukraine.

UNESCO's charter establishes lofty goals for the organisation, stating that its aim "is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms..." for all peoples of the world. Given such idealistic goals, UNESCO may seem set up for failure, but it has stuck to the charter and encouraged the inspiring contributions of many intellectuals. Beyond the world of ideas, UNESCO makes itself responsible for definitive international goals like the reduction of poverty, universal primary education, and sustainable development strategies. Despite these good intentions and aims, UNESCO has suffered criticism and politicisation over the years, although it continues to serve as a laboratory and standard-bearer for international co-operation. This book examines and assesses the past, present, and future of UNESCO. It affirms that UNESCO remains as relevant today as it was at its inception, particularly to developing nations.

This work provides coverage of each of the principle organs of the United Nations. Covering the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council and the International Court of Justice. The book provides a survey of the life of each organ since its inception in 1945 and looks at the extent to which it has fulfilled its founding mission. The authors go on to analyze the interaction of each organ with the others in the UN system and to look at proposals for reform. As well as providing comprehensive coverage of the present role of this highly influential organization, the book addresses larger questions about the role of the UN and the fitness for purpose of its principle organs, as to a means of global governance.

Covering the main political organs of the UN, important regional and security organizations, international judicial institutions and the regional human rights protection systems, An Institutional Approach to the Responsibility to Protect examines the roles and responsibilities of the international community regarding the responsibility to protect. It also proposes improvements to the current system of collective security and human rights protection.

Latin America is a region made up of multiple states and societies with a diversity of races, ethnicities, and cultures. These states share historical legacies, cultural backgrounds and institutional frameworks, as well as political and socioeconomic challenges-but can one say they share a "regional perspective," if such perspectives even exist? In Transnational Perspectives on Latin America, Luis Roniger argues that the notion of Latin America is significant for understanding these societies' multiple connections and spillover across state boundaries. He claims that cross-border networks, a protracted concern and at times involvement in the affairs of neighboring states have shaped the region's modern character as much as the process of nation-state formation. Geopolitical, sociological, and cultural trends molded a contiguity of influences, leading sometimes to state confrontations, but overall, shaping a transnational arena of connected histories, interactions, and visions, complementing the process of separate nation-state formation. The book offers fresh readings of the dynamics of this region of multiple societies that have shared historical and cultural connections and developed divergent paths while unable to fully disengage from one another. Its chapters analyze persisting forms of circulation and articulation of networks, practices and ideas crossing international borders. Among the topics covered are political exile; the interface of state building and transnationalism; wars and the diffusion of conspiracy theories; the transnational imprint of the Cold War and democratization; social movements and transnational solidarity; states' geopolitical shifts and their impact on Jewish and Muslim citizens. The book closes with a chapter on twenty-first century dilemmas and challenges, including the process of segmented regional integration, state accountability, the vitality and limits of citizenship regimes, and pandemic politics.

This report presents international investment trends and prospects at global, regional and national levels, as well as the evolution of international production and global value chains. It analyses the latest developments in new policy measures for investment promotion, facilitation and regulation around the world, as well as updates on investment treaties, their reform and investment dispute settlement cases. It provides an overview of industrial policy models for countries at different development levels and the role of investment policies within each model. It analyses the investment policy implications of the new industrial revolution for high-, middle- and low-income countries and offers a toolkit for investment policymakers on how to use investment policies for new industrial development strategies.

This book examines recent attempts at reform within the United Nations in the wake of the institutional crisis provoked by the invasion of Iraq. It contends that efforts at reform have foundered owing to fundamental and bitter political disagreements between the nations of the global North and South.

Following profound discord in the Security Council in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this book considers the ambitious programme of reform instigated by then serving UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The author of this highly topical work, Spencer Zifcak, subjects six of Annan s principal proposals for reform to scrutiny: the reform of the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council, and suggested alterations to international law with respect to the use of force in international affairs, the responsibility to protect, and UN strategies to counter global terrorism. On the basis of these detailed case-studies, the book demonstrates why so few proposals for reform were eventually adopted. It argues that the principal reason for this failure was that nations of the North and South could not agree as to the merits of the reforms proposed, exposing the sharply differing visions held by member states for a future and improved United Nations.

Founded upon extensive interviews with diplomats at the United Nations, the book provides a rare insider account of UN politics and practice. It will be of vital interest to students, scholars and practitioners of International Relations, International Law, and International Institutions.

United States economic sanctions against North Korea began on June 28, 1950, three days after the outbreak of the Korean War. Since then, the United States, its allies, and the United Nations have increasingly imposed economic sanctions against North Korea in an attempt to destabilize and manipulate the North Korean regime. This book first provides a thorough historical overview of U.S. and U.N. sanctions against North Korea since 1950. Then, several essays propose ways to make such sanctions more politically effective while limiting their harmful humanitarian consequences. Finally, the book discusses the impact of the newest, six-nation agreement signed in February 2007 which would shut down North Korea's nuclear facility in return for economic aid and a security guarantee. Several appendices provide brief guides to the history of North Korea and the country's nuclear weapons program.

The series of volumes prepared by UNESCO for teaching human rights at higher education level comes to a successful conclusion with the publication of this volume. Human Rights: International Protection, Monitoring, Enforcement takes an institutional approach to the international protection of human rights, examining first the United Nations system, which may be seen as universal, and then analysing regional systems of protection. An indispensable source of information on the protection of human rights, the volume can also be employed as a practical guide to the use of existing procedures in the defence of human rights.