Department of Social Sciences

CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY

GEC 13 (THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD)

Edited by: JORNIE LUMINTAO
Faculty, Dept. of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

This material has made available to you for your personal use only in this course. Please ask
permission from your instructor for any other use or distribution.

Citation: Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Contact information: 09551732760/ [email protected]

Term Offered: 1st Semester SY 2022-2023

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 Lesson 4: The United Nations and Contemporary
Global Governance
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Define global governance
2. Identify the roles and functions of the United Nations
3. Determine the challenged of global governance in the 21st Century.

IMPORTANT TERMS:

Global governance International organization IOs NGOs United Nation

General Assembly (GA) Security Council (SC) Veto
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Secretariat

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is global governance?
2. What is an international Organization (IO)?
3. What the three classification of IOs?
4. What are the powers IOs?
5. What is United Nations?
6. What are the five (5) organs of the United Nations and its composition, functions, and powers?
7. Who are the United Nations peacekeepers?
8. What are the challenges faced by the United Nations?
Required Reading(s):

Chapter 4: The United Nations and Contemporary Global Governance

Pages 39 – 49 Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc

Videos:
The United Nations Explained.
Channel: Casual Historian.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWFiUX1wz9Q

How Does the UN Work?

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlmYtJiUK00

Why the UN security council matters

Channel: Global News
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2qPYVfPGW0

The Problems with the UN Veto Power

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPAONq36HKg

UN Peacekeeping animation – Security and rule of law in the field.

Channel: United Nations
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtegUGSK1bg

What exactly do UN peacekeepers do?

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns37jHVUilE

Challenges of UN to Global Politics today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDyQP5Ycgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkaDCaZprCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuFtOhvusXk

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Introduction
 The idea of world government and international legislators suggested by Immanuel Kant and
Jeremy Bentham, respectively, in essence, do not transpire in the present times.
 However, world order is manifested through the obedience of the states to the specific
international/global customs or rules (Abinales & Claudio, 2018).

This lesson will examine how global governance is articulated by intergovernmental organizations
primarily on the United Nations as the most prominent intergovernmental organizations today.

Global governance – refers to the various intersecting processes that create international order.
Sources of global governance:
1. Treaties – it is legislating international rules that govern interactions between states.
2. International NGOs – they lobby states to behave in a certain way.
 For example: An international animal protection NGO can pressure governments to
pass animal cruelty act.
3. Powerful Transnational Corporation – they have an effect on global labor laws, environmental
legislations, trade policy, etc.
4. Liberal Ideas from most influential political actors or individuals, organizations and even
powerful states.
 For example: Even ideas such as need for “global democracy” or the clamor for “good
governance” can influence the ways international actor behave.

International Organization or IOs – it refers to international intergovernmental organizations or

groups that are primarily made up of member states.
- Scholars usually refers to IMF and World bank as international organizations.

Fallacy about IOs Truth about IOs

IOs are merely unions of various state interests. IOs can take their lives of their own.
In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars believed that IOs The IMF was able to promote a particular form of
were just venues where contradicting, but economic orthodoxy that stemmed mainly from the
sometimes intersecting, agendas of countries were beliefs of its professional economists thus became
discussed-no more that talk shops. influential as independent organizations.

Powers of IOs (according to International Relations scholars Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore )

1. IOs have the power of classification. IOs can invent and apply categories to create
powerful global standards.
2. IOs have the power to fix meanings. A broader function related to the first power which
means IOs can define various terms such as “security” and “development.” States,
organizations and individuals vies IOs as legitimate source of information.
3. IOs have power to diffuse norms. OIs spread their ideas about a certain norm (accepted
code of conduct that may not be strict law, but nevertheless produce regularity in behaviour)
thereby establishing global standards. This is due to the fact that staff members of IOs are
considered experts in various fields.

Analysis: These immense powers can be sources of great good and great harm:
 IOs can promote relevant norms like environmental protection and human rights, at
the same time, they can also entrenched bureaucracies since they can become
sealed-off communities that fail to challenge their beliefs.
The UNITED NATIONS
How it emerged as a the most prominent IO in the contemporary world?
After the collapse of the League of Nations at the end of WWII, countries that worried about
another global war began to push for the formation of a more lasting international league.
The result was the creation of UN.

Although the organization is far from perfect, it should be emphasized that it has so far
achieved its primary goals of averting another global war. Thus, making UN as a success.

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 UNITED NATIONS
5 Active Organs Main Function
The General Assembly (GA) UN’s main deliberative policy According to UN Charter:
making and representative organ. “Decisions on important
questions, such as those on
peace and security, admission of
new members, and budgetary
matters require a 2/3 majority of
GA. Decisions on other questions
are won by simple majority.
Annually, the GA elects a GA
President to serve a one-year
term of office.”
There are 193 member states
have seats in GA.
Important matter: The Philippines played a prominent role in the GA’s early
years when a Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected GA President
from 1949 to 1950.
Security Council (SC) It takes lead on determining the This body consists of 15 member
existence of threat to the peace states: the GA elects the 10 for
or an act of aggression. It calls two-year terms; and other 5 are
upon parties to a dispute to settle permanent members namely,
the act by peaceful means and China, France, Russia, the
recommends methods of United Kingdom, and the United
adjustment or terms of States.
settlement. In some cases, it can
resort to imposing sanctions or
even authorizing the use of force
to maintain or restore
international peace and security.
Important Matters:
1. Many commentators consider SC to be the most powerful organ of
UN.
2. Because of the immense powers of SC, states that seek to intervene
militarily in another state need to obtain the approval of the SC.
With the SC’s approval, a military intervention may be deemed
legal.
3. The 5 permanent members hold veto power over Council’s decision,
which means a resolution cannot be executed if one of them will
say no. In this sense, the SC heir to the tradition of “great power”
diplomacy that began with the Metternich/Concert of Europe
system. They are the Allied Powers that won WWII.
Economic and Social Council The principal body for It has 54 members elected for
(ECOSOC) coordination, policy review, policy three-year terms.
dialogue, and recommendations
on social and environmental
issues, as well as the
implementation of international
agreed development goals.
Important Matter: Currently, UN’s central platform is the discussion
on sustainable development.
International Court of Justice Task is to settle, in accordance The major cases of the court
with international law, legal consist of disputes between
disputes submitted to it by states states that voluntarily submit
and to give advisory opinions themselves to the court of
referred to it by an authorized arbitration.
United Nations organs and
specialized agencies.
Important Matters:
1. The Court cannot try individuals and its decisions are only
binding when states have explicitly agreed to place
themselves before the court’s authority.
2. International criminal cases are heard by the International
Criminal Court, which is independent of UN.
3. The SC may enforce the rulings of the ICJ, but this remains
subject to P5’s veto power.
Secretariat They carry out day-to-day work It consists of the “Secretary-
of UN as mandated by the GA General and tens of thousands
and the organization’s other of international UN staff
principal organs. members.
Important Matters:
1. It is the bureaucracy of UN serving as a kind of international civil
service.
2. Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees
and not as state representatives.
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CHALLENGES OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Given the scope of the UN’s activities, it naturally faces numerous challenges.

1. Limitations placed upon its various organs and programs by the need to respect
state sovereignty.
The UN is not a world government, meaning to say that voluntary cooperation from the
states need to be attained by UN before achieving their goals.
For example: The UN Council on Human Rights can send special rapporteurs to
countries where alleged human rights violations are occurring. If a country does not invite
the rapporteur or places conditions on his/her activities, however, this information-
gathering mechanism usually fails to achieve its goals
.
2. Veto power of UN’s Security Council related to issues of security.
The UN Security Council is tasked with authorizing international acts of military
intervention. However, because of P5’s veto power, it is hard for the council to implement
its decisions.
For example:
1. In the 1990s when the United States sought to intervene in the Kosovo war.
Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was committing acts of ethnic cleansing
against ethnic Muslim Albanians in the province of Kosovo that led to
thousands of massacres, mass deportations, and internal displacement. The
US, together with NATO, sought to intervene in Kosovo’s war on humanitarian
grounds, however, China and Russia threatened to veto any action that made
UN incapable of addressing the Crisis though the NATO was successful in its
intervention to the war.

2. Russia has threatened to veto any SC resolution regarding the Syria’s Civil war
due to its state-sanctioned violence against opponents of the government.
Allegedly, this is because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was an ally of
Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin. The UN is, again, ineffectual amid the conflict
that has led to over 220,000 people dead and 11 million displaced.

Analysis: Despite these problems, it remains important for the SC to place a high bar on military
intervention since, at some cases, it has been wrong on issues of intervention. For example,
Russia, China and France vetoed the United States’ intention to invade Iraq because Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). However, US lead a small “coalition of the
willing” with its allies. It has since been discovered that there are no WMD and the invasion has
caused problems for the country and the region until today.

Conclusion:
1. This lesson has focused on the IOs and the United Nations in particular because
they are the most visible symbols of global governance, and it is closest to the
world government.
2. It is important to remember that international institutions like UN are always in a
risky position. This is due to the fact that they are groups of sovereign states, the
other are organizations with their own rationalities and agendas.

Questions:
1. Why is global governance multi-faceted?
2. How do international organizations take on “lives on their own?”
3. What are the challenges faced by the United Nations in maintaining global
security?