This publication explains the governance and decision-making fora and processes of the UN system. Section One explains the principal UN organs of intergovernmental decision making; the negotiating blocs of Member States at the UN; the various types of documentation; and the nature of UN decisions and the weight they carry internationally. This updated second edition includes information on new UN bodies and processes following on from the outcomes of the 2005 World Summit. Section Two provides practical knowledge, advice and guidance to non-governmental representatives who wish to engage with the UN system, ranging from accreditation to the preparatory process, to engaging in follow-up activities after a meeting.
Explains the governance and decision-making fora and processes of the UN system. Section One explains the principal UN organs of intergovernmental decision making; the negotiating blocs of Member States at the UN; the various types of documentation; and the nature of UN decisions and the weight they carry internationally. Section Two provides practical knowledge, advice and guidance to non-governmental representatives who wish to engage with the UN system, ranging from accreditation to the preparatory process, to engaging in follow-up activities after a meeting.
This book offers a comprehensive practitioner's guide to negotiating at the United Nations. Although much of the content can be applied broadly, the guide focuses on navigating multilateral negotiations at the UN. The book is a tool to help new UN negotiators, explaining basic negotiation concepts and offering insight into the complexities of the UN system. It also offers a playbook for cooperation for negotiators at any level, exploring the dynamics of relationships and alliances, the art of chairing a negotiation, and the importance of balancing the power asymmetries present in any multilateral discussion. The book proposes improvements to the UN negotiation process and looks at the impact of information technologies on negotiation dynamics; it also shares stories from women UN delegates, illustrating what it means to be a female negotiator at the UN. This book is an exploration of the power of the individual in any negotiation, and of the responsibility all negotiators have in wielding that power to speak for a better world. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy, global governance, foreign policy, and International Relations, as well as practitioners and policymakers.
This book examines the important role of the chairmanship office in multilateral negotiations within the UN setting. Although chairmanship is a generic feature of international politics, negotiations, and decision-making, it has been scarcely researched. The neutrality and impartiality assumptions that have been long associated with the chair have veiled the chair’s potential in moulding negotiation outcomes. The authors seek to develop an analytical framework for the systematic study of the chairmanship office and its potential impact on multilateral negotiations. It elaborates on its origins, the parameters and conditions of chair’s effectiveness, and the performance of the chair’s functions. Focusing on the UN, this work seeks to go beyond existing accounts, offering further insights and extending the discussion beyond the Security Council. Without ignoring the pivotal importance of the Security Council, the book broadens the scope of analysis to other significant UN bodies and institutions including ad hoc Working Groups and several Conferences set up for specific international issues. Evaluating material from a wide range of sources and providing a deeper understanding of UN political dynamics, this work will appeal to scholars of the UN system, international organisations and global governance.
Following the end of the Cold War and in the context of globalization, this book examines the extent to which member states dominate decision making in international organizations and whether non-state actors, for example non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations, are influential. The authors assess the new patterns of decision-making to determine whether they are relatively open or closed privileged networks. The organizations examined include the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the EU, G8, the World Trade Organization, International Maritime Organizations, the World Health Organization and the OECD.
Examines United Nations conflict management from an institutionalist perspective. Offers insights into the role of international institutions in general and & into the institutional requirements for enhancing the role of the U.N. in particular. Contains tables and lists of resources.
This is a study of the principal negotiating processes and law-making tools through which contemporary international law is made. It does not seek to give an account of the traditional - and untraditional - sources and theories of international law, but rather to identify the processes, participants and instruments employed in the making of international law. It accordingly examines some of the mechanisms and procedures whereby new rules of law are created or old rules are amended or abrogated. It concentrates on the UN, other international organisations, diplomatic conferences, codification bodies, NGOs, and courts. Every society perceives the need to differentiate between its legal norms and other norms controlling social, economic and political behaviour. But unlike domestic legal systems where this distinction is typically determined by constitutional provisions, the decentralised nature of the international legal system makes this a complex and contested issue. Moreover, contemporary international law is often the product of a subtle and evolving interplay of law-making instruments, both binding and non-binding, and of customary law and general principles. Only in this broader context can the significance of so-called 'soft law' and multilateral treaties be fully appreciated. An important question posed by any examination of international law-making structures is the extent to which we can or should make judgments about their legitimacy and coherence, and if so in what terms. Put simply, a law-making process perceived to be illegitimate or incoherent is more likely to be an ineffective process. From this perspective, the assumption of law-making power by the UN Security Council offers unique advantages of speed and universality, but it also poses a particular challenge to the development of a more open and participatory process observable in other international law-making bodies.
