This innovative and forward looking work examines the Genoa summit agenda with a view to strengthening international conflict prevention institutions and identifying and analyzing economic early warning indicators. It devotes particular attention to the Italian contribution and approach and the ways in which it can be effectively implemented following the summit. The first book to compare the role of the G8 and the United Nations in conflict prevention and human security, The G8, the United Nations, and Conflict Prevention will be essential reading for academics, government officials and members of the business and media communities.
This book seeks to understand the obligation of the international community to implement the principles of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). With a focus on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the volume examines what formal responsibility and actual capability international institutions have to protect and prevent civilians from systematic mass atrocities and presents an analysis of several prominent international organizations (IOs). Each chapter focuses on a specific organization and explores their formal responsibilities and how these pertain to the obligations of the R2P. Existing capabilities and actual abilities to address the challenges of R2P are analysed by looking at these issues before, during, and after the occurrence of the humanitarian crisis in Syria. With the UN not fully engaged in the Syrian conflict, the systematic human rights abuses have engendered greater attention on other organizations. This volume argues that if the UN Security Council’s inactions result in an abdication of responsibilities under the UN Charter, there should not only be a discussion of how the UN must alter its approach, but also an examination of whether there are alternative R2P paths for other MNOs to take in the name of international peace and human security. This book will be of much interest to students of R2P, humanitarian intervention, international organisations, Middle Eastern politics and security studies.
The United Nations remains a unique institutional hope for addressing and resolving the world's major environmental, developmental, and humanitarian problems. It representsglobal aspirations for a just and peaceful world by inspiring the political imagination of individuals and collectivities. But, because it is now viewed primarily as a "trade union" for expressing the national political interests of 192 state parties, as Clements and Mizner's volume of essaysdemonstrate the UN has succumbed to political cynicism and skepticism. Only the UN can champion emerging international regimes, the rule of law, and global processes that generate structural stability, justice, and peace in the international system. Unlike some central security organs of the UN, specialized UN agencies have addressed these problems. With the exception of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the UN and its affiliates have played an important role in ending violent, political conflict and in preventing further conflict. According to the Human Security Report (2005), the 80 percent decline in deadly conflicts since the early 1990s can be explained by the extraordinary upsurge of activity by the international community,which t has been directed towards conflict prevention and peace-making. This work explores how the UN can establish global norms to reinforce adoctrine of internal and external political responsibility. How can the UN ensure that the interests of the peoples of the world receive equal attention as the interests of state parties? How does it deal with non-sovereign actors, not represented directly in the UN, who may command power and resources that are more significant than those available to nation states? How does it deal with state parties deemed ineffective, incapable, and illegitimate by their own citizens? How can the organization enhance its role with regional organizations? Finally, how will the UN ensure a positive and proactive role with respect to diverse globa
'Environmental Protection, Security and Armed Conflict is a timely reminder of the need to integrate sustainable development into key areas of international law, including all phases of armed conflict. Onita Das cleverly picks her way through the applicable law and derives solid suggestions for the future.' – Karen Hulme, University of Essex, UK This book explores environmental protection relevant to security and armed conflict from a sustainable development perspective. The author details how at each stage of the armed conflict life cycle, policy, law and enforcement have fallen short of the sustainable development model and concludes with a set of suggestions for how to address this pressing concern. The book considers and discusses: • Environmental protection relevant to security and armed conflict from a holistically sustainable development perspective. • Environmental protection relevant to security and armed conflict in the life cycle of armed conflict: pre-conflict, in-conflict and post-conflict • Uses substantive sustainable development principles (duty of states to ensure sustainable use of natural resources; equity and the eradication of poverty; common but differentiated responsibilities; precautionary principle; public participation; good governance; integration and interrelationship; and polluter pays principle) as tools or objectives to achieve sustainable development in the context of environmental protection relevant to security and armed conflict. • The concept of sustainable development is utilized to fill the gaps left by policy and law in the field of environmental protection relevant to security and armed conflict. The book also examines 5 case-studies relating to Somalia, Darfur, Sudan, Sierra Leone, the First Gulf war and the Kosovo conflict. This fascinating and detailed study will strongly appeal to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of both environmental protection and international law, researchers, policy-makers, NGOs and individuals working in the field.
An insightful and expert assessment examines how best to end—and avert—wars. How do we avoid war? To arrive at an answer, master analyst Richard Weitz explores the ways nations, international organizations, and individuals have sought to bring order to an inherently disorderly phenomenon—potential and actual violent conflict among organized political entities. Specifically, War and Governance: International Security in a Changing World Order analyzes a number of critical issues such as whether regional security institutions have distinct advantages and liabilities in promoting international security, as compared with universal organizations like the United Nations. Other important questions are addressed, as well. How will international organizations, such as the UN, EU, and NATO, change the nature of war in the 21st century—and be changed by it? What role might less formal institutions and nongovernmental organizations play in peacemaking? Will the nation-state remain the most important international security actor? The book ends with a gap analysis that identifies incongruities between international needs and capabilities—and suggests ways to overcome them.
Drawing upon the writings of academics and activists, this collection explores the roles that have emerged for NGOs as they have engaged more with peacekeeping and peacebuilding initiatives in various locations around the world.
The aim of this study is not to explore all of the problems that arise today in security threats and conflict management, but to seek to understand the role of a particular institution--the Security Council--and the changes now affecting its modes of intervention and its interaction with international actors--great powers, regional organizations, non-state actors.
Offering an assessment of the theory and practice of conflict resolution in post-Cold War conflicts, this book addresses a number of questions. It explores the nature of contemporary conflict and the development of conflict resolution.
Today's world is crowded with international laws and institutions that govern the global economy. This post-World War II accumulation of hard multilateral and soft plurilateral institutions by no means constitutes a comprehensive, coherent and effective system of global economic governance. As intensifying globalization thrusts many longstanding domestic issues onto the international stage, there is a growing need to create at the global level the more comprehensive, coherent and effective governance system that citizens have long taken for granted at home. This book offers the first comprehensive look at this critical question of international relations. It examines how, and how well, the multilateral organizations and the G8 are dealing with the central challenges facing the contemporary international community, how they have worked well and poorly together, and how they can work together more effectively to provide badly needed public goods. It is an ideal reference guide for anyone interested in institutions of global governance.
The United Nations as a world organization has gone through different epochs of time facing various challenges and changes since its inception. While it has done a lot in saving humankind in its diverse fields of activities, yet it has failed to function legitimately and effectively according to the principles of its Charter which have brought its existence and relevance under criticism and questioning. The UN after the end of the Cold War, for a short period of time, gave a new hope to the world that it would now work genuinely according to its member-states will in an environment of cooperation and understanding between its member-states for common goals. However, right after the collapse of the communist bloc and the end of capitalist-communist antagonism, the process of globalization, already in force, gained momentum which brought about a new era in the UN's life affecting international relations and the world politics too. The emergence of globalization has created many new challenges not only to the individuals and countries but also to the international institutions and global organizations. This study is an attempt to analyze the real purpose of the emergence of globalization as a policy and its effects on the UN in particular and the international political-economic relations in a wider context. CONTENTS Preface V Acknowledgement VII Abbreviations XI Chapter-I Introduction 15 Chapter-II Bretton Woods Institutions and Globalization : Their Impact on the UN 61 Chapter-III The Global Compact Project 117 Chapter-IV Millennium Development Goals and The Reform Initiatives 155 Chapter-V Civil Society Organizations and the United Nations 218 Chapter-VI Conclusion 265 Appendix 283 Select Bibliography 284 Index 295
