THE UNITED NATIONS AND

CONTEMPORARY
GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
 WHAT WE’LL DISCUSS

TODAY’S Define Global Governance

TOPICS
Identify The Roles & Funtions Of
United Nations.

Determine The Challenges To Global

Governance In the 21st Century.
 :INTRODUCTION
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
refers to the system of decision-making
and co-operation among international
actors, including states,
intergovernmental organisations, non-
governmental organisations, and civil
society.
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS

An international organization (IO)refers to the international intergovernmental

organizations or groups that are primarily made up of member-states.
Initially, IOs were thought to be venues where contradicting and
sometimes intersecting agendas were discussed.
But recent actualization of these IOs revealed that these organizations can take
on lives of their own and that these same IOs can become influential as
independent organizations.
 POWERS OF INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION

According to political scientists Michael Barnett and Martha

Finnemore, the powers of the international organizations are as
follows:
i. Power of Classification
1. IOs can create powerful global standards
2. For example, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) is the organization that defines who are
considered as refugees.
3. Their power is actualized when states are required to
accept refugees entering their borders.
ii. Power to fix meanings
1. International arena are governed by distinctive
discourses such as ‘security’ and ‘development’.
2. States, organizations, and individuals view IOs as
legitimate sources of information.
3. As such, the meanings they create have effects on
various policies.
4. The United Nations, for one, have started to define
security as not just simply as safety from military
violence, but also safety from environmental harm.
iii. Power to diffuse norms
1. Norms are accepted codes of conduct that may not be
strictly laws. Yet, they do have the same purpose of
regulating behavior.
2. IOs spread their ideas across the world, thereby
establishing global standards.
3. Their members – as emphasized by Barnett and
Finnemore – are the missionaries of our time.
4. An example can be gleaned from the practices of the
World Bank.
5. World Bank economists come to be regarded as
experts in development and thus carry some form of
authority. They can, therefore, create norms regarding
the implementation and conceptualization of
development projects.
Effects of IOs:
a. They can be a source of both good and harm.
b. As a source of good, they can provide relevant norms like
environmental protection and human rights.

i. These can be seen – for one – in the efforts of the United

Nations’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights(UNOHCHR) that serves to promote and protect the
human rights of all people.

c. As a source of harm, they can become sealed-off communities that

fail to challenge their beliefs.
i. Nobel Prize recipient, economist Joseph Stiglitz had
criticized the IMF for using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach when
its economists made recommendations to developing
countries.
The United Nations

-The United Nations was borne out of

the push of countries that are
worried about another global war.

-One criticism of the United Nations is that

it is not perfect, yet it has
so far achieved its primary goal of
avertinganother global war.
i. General Assembly
1. This is the United Nation’s main deliberative
policymaking and representative organ.
2. Decisions such as on peace and security, admission of
new members, and budgetary matters are decided
upon the General Assembly
3. All member-states at 193 have seats in the General
Assembly.
ii. Security Council
1. This is the most powerful organ of the United Nations.
2. This body consists of 15 member-states.
3. The General Assembly elects 10 of the members to a 2
year terms.
4. The other five – the Permanent 5 – are China,
France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the
United States enjoy permanent membership.
5. This organ leads in determining the existence of a
threat to the peace or an act of aggression.

6. It calls upon the parties in a dispute to settle the act

through peaceful means and recommends methods of
adjustment or terms of settlement.

7. In some cases, it can resort to imposing sanctions or

even authorizing the use of force to maintain or
restore international peace and security.

8. The Security Council is reminiscent of the great power

diplomacy as exhibited in the Metternich/Concert of
Europe system. As the members are very powerful, in
the sense that each member holds a veto power that
can stop an SC action dead in its tracks.
iii. Economic and Social Council

1. This is the principal body for coordination, policy

review, policy dialogue, and recommendations on
social and environmental issues.

2. The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

is the central platform for discussions on sustainable
development.
iv. International Court of Justice
1. The primary task of the International Court of Justice
is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal
disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory
opinions referred to it by authorized United Nations
organs and specialized agencies.

2. The major cases of the court consist of disputes

between states that voluntarily submit themselves to
the court for arbitration.
v. Secretariat
1. This organ consists of the Secretary General and tens
of thousands UN staff members who carry out day-to-
day work of the UN as mandated by the General
Assembly and the organization’s other principal organs.
2. This serves as the primary bureaucracy of the United
Nations, serving as a kind of international civil service.
 Challenges of the United Nations
a. The scope of the UN’s activities, it naturally faces numerous
challenges:

i. First, the influence of the United Nations can be severely

circumscribed, when states refuse to cooperate in world’s
affair.
ii. Second, the biggest challenge of the United Nations is related
to issues of security. For the Security Council, it is tough for
the council to release a formal resolution and to implement it.
This renders the United Nations incapable of addressing the
crisis.
 Conclusion
a. Global governance is such a complex issue.

i. On one hand, international institutions are groups of sovereign

states.
ii. On the other hand, they are organizations with their own
rationalities and agendas.
iii. These two realities continue to inform the evolution of these
organizations.
THANK YOU!