Product Description: A singular development in the post-Cold War era is the use of military force to protect human beings. From Rwanda to Kosovo, Sierra Leone to East Timor, and Libya to C?te d?Ivoire, soldiers have rescued civilians in some of the world's most notorious war zones...read more

The creation of the UN system during World War II is a largely unknown or forgotten story among contemporary decision makers, international relations specialists, and policy analysts. This book aims to recover the wartime history of the United Nations and explore how the forgotten past can shed light on a possible and more desirable future. To achieve this, each chapter takes three snapshots: "Then," the imaginative and transnational thinking about solutions to post-war problems demonstrated a realization that victory in WW II required an intergovernmental "system" with enough power and competence to work―that is, the UN was not established as a liberal plaything and public relations ploy but rather as a vital necessity for post-war order and prosperity. "Now," which often seems a pale imitation of wartime thinking that nonetheless reflects a growing and widespread recognition of the fundamental disconnect between the nature of trans-boundary problems and current solutions seen as feasible by 193 UN member states. "Next steps," or the collective wisdom about the range of new thinking and new institutions that, in fact, may well have antecedents in wartime thinking and experimentation and could be labelled blue-prints for a "third generation" of intergovernmental organizations. This work will be essential reading for all students and scholars of the United Nations, International Organizations and Global Governance.

In 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed to the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration included development targets to be reached by 2015, which were to become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Progress has been made towards the achievement of the MDGs, but poverty remains widespread. With the terminal year approaching, the international community has begun the process of determining the goals which might follow the MDGs. While the UN is driving the process, there has been very little introspection on its own organizational capacity to help countries to meet the goals and is being increasingly sidelined by other more effective development organizations and initiatives. Based on extensive original research that has critically examined the role and functions of the organizations of the UN development system, this book seeks to capture in a single volume a comprehensive review of the UN’s performance and prospects for development. The contributors each offer extensive experience and familiarity―as practitioners and researchers―with the UN and development; and the book will contribute to the urgently needed debate on the reform of the UN development system at a critical juncture. The main rationale for this book, and its timing, is the unusual opportunity provided by the 2015 threshold to re-think the UN development system and to empower it to support a new development agenda and will be of interest to students, scholars of International Organizations and development studies.

The responsibility to protect (R2P) is at a crossroads, the latest in a journey that is only ten years old. This book present debates on the prevention of mass atrocities to R2P’s normative prospects. The book addresses key questions as a way to inform and drive on-going conversations about R2P. Moving beyond well-rehearsed debates about the tensions and meanings around sovereignty in R2P practice, the book focuses on advancing the credibility of the preventive dimensions of R2P, whilst simultaneously examining the extent of R2P’s current value-added in state decision making―especially for the 2011 actions in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. Questions addressed include: Did the R2P framework of the 2005 World Summit Declaration intend to mould sovereignty, and if so how? Can R2P break or revert cycles of violence? How can one determine the appropriate duration and timing of the preventive and protective phases of R2P? Who/what should be the targets of preventive action, and how does this have an impact on R2P diplomacy? Under which conditions are particular policy tools likely to be effective? Which state and regional actors are best suited to using these tools? What are the barriers to successful preventive action―how can they be overcome? What capacities need to be built (at the national, regional, and international levels) in order to operationalize R2P’s preventive agenda? Examining a wide range of countries, this work will be essential reading for students and scholars of international human rights, international organizations, peacekeeping and conflict resolution.

Product Description: Featuring a diverse and impressive array of authors, this volume is the most comprehensive textbook available for all interested in international organization and global governance. Organized around a concern with how the world is and could be governed, the book offers: in-depth and accessible coverage of the history and theories of international organization and global governance; discussions of the full range of state, intergovernmental, and nonstate actors; and examinations of key issues in all aspects of contemporary global governance...read more

Product Description: Friends and foes of international cooperation puzzle about how to explain order, stability, and predictability in a world without a central authority. How is the world governed in the absence of a world government? This probing yet accessible book examines "global governance" or the sum of the informal and formal values, norms, procedures, and institutions that help states, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, and transnational corporations identify, understand, and address trans-boundary problems...read more

Product Description: This book provides a succinct but sophisticated understanding of humanitarianism and insight into the on-going dilemmas and tensions that have accompanied it since its origins in the early nineteenth century. Combining theoretical and historical exposition with a broad range of contemporary case studies, the book: provides a brief survey of the history of humanitarianism, beginning with the anti-slavery movement in the early nineteenth century and continuing to today’s challenge of post-conflict reconstruction and saving failed states explains the evolution of humanitarianism...read more

In the 21st century, the world is faced with threats of global scale that cannot be confronted without collective action. Although global government as such does not exist, formal and informal institutions, practices, and initiatives―together forming "global governance"―bring a greater measure of predictability, stability, and order to trans-border issues than might be expected. Yet, there are significant gaps between many current global problems and available solutions. Thomas G. Weiss and Ramesh Thakur analyze the UN's role in addressing such knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance lapses. The UN's relationship to these five global governance gaps is explored through case studies of some of the most burning problems of our age, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crises, development aid, climate change, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.

Product Description: Ideas and concepts have been a driving force in human progress, and they may be the most important legacy of the United Nations. UN ideas have set past, present, and future international agendas in many global economic and social arenas and have also led to initiatives and actions that have improved the quality of human life...read more

A singular development of the post Cold-War era is the use of military force to protect human beings. From Rwanda to Kosovo, Sierra Leone to East Timor, soldiers have rescued civilians in some of the world's most notorious war zones. Drawing on two decades of research, Thomas G. Weiss provides a compelling introduction to the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention in the modern world. He examines political, ethical, legal, strategic, economic, and operational dimensions and uses a wide range of cases to highlight key debates and controversies. This succinct and highly accessible survey is neither celebratory nor complacent. The author locates the normative evolution of what is increasingly known as "the responsibility to protect" in the context of the war on terror and the 2005 UN World Summit. The result is an engaging exploration of the current dilemmas and future challenges for international humanitarian action in the 21st Century.

In this fresh, thematic text, the authors bring the UN alive from its historical foundations to its expanding role in the post-Cold War arena. Students of all levels will learn what the UN is, how it operates, and what its relationships are with external actors and institutions. Using insights from their practical as well as academic experience with the UN, the authors show how the UN has influenced norms and operations in three key areas--security, human rights, and sustainable development--and provide recommendations for improved UN performance in the future. Well-documented and illustrated, this revised and updated third edition of The United Nations and Changing World Politics is essential to a comprehensive and contemporary understanding of the world's leading intergovernmental organization. The book is divided into three primary themes--international security issues, human rights issues, and development issues. The authors are sympathetic to the UN's mission, and they favor a multilateral approach to addressing regional and international issues and problems. In this new edition, the authors take recent issues such as sustainable development, humanitarian/human rights issues (i.e., women's rights, Kosovo), and security concerns into account.

This new volume traces the normative, legal, institutional, and political responses to the challenges of assisting and protecting internally displaced persons (IDPs). The crisis of IDPs was first confronted in the 1980s, and the problems of those suffering from this type of forced migration has grown continually since then. Drawing on official and confidential documents as well as interviews with leading personalities, Internal Displacement provides an unparalleled analysis of this important issue and includes: an exploration of the phenomenon of internal displacement and of policy research about it a review of efforts to increase awareness about the plight of IDPs and the development of a legal framework to protect them a 'behind-the-scenes' look at the creation and evolution of the mandate of the Representative of the Secretary-General on IDPs a variety of case studies illustrating the difficulties in overcoming the operational shortcomings within the UN system a foreword by former UN high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata. Internal Displacement will appeal to students and scholars with interests in war and peace, forced migration, human rights and global governance.

Arguing forcefully that changing times are a clarion call for new thinking, this book convincingly shows that if humanitarian organizations continue to operate as they have in the past, they will fail to help the very victims whom they try to save. Focusing especially on the emergence of 'new wars,' Hoffman and Weiss insist that humanitarian organizations must recognize that they live in a political world and that their actions and goals are invariably affected by military action. The brand of warfare that erupted in the 1990s-marked by civil or transnational armed conflicts featuring potent non-state actors, altered political economies, a high proportion of civilian casualties, and a globalized media-produced horrors that shocked consciences and led humanitarian agencies to question their unyielding stance of neutrality and impartiality. Indeed, in a departure from earlier norms and practices, some have reinvented their policies and tools and created 'new humanitarianisms.' This authoritative book traces the evolution of the international humanitarian system from its inception in the 1860s, parses the dynamics of war and emergency response from the 1980s through the current disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq, and provides a strategic roadmap for practitioners. By bringing historical perspective to bear, this volume provides an invaluable analytical framework for grasping the nature of humanitarian crises and how agencies can respond strategically rather than reactively to change. Students will find its blend of clearly presented theory and case studies a powerful tool for understanding the roles of state and non-state actors in international relations. By charting the tides of continuity and change, this book will prepare agencies to dodge both figurative and actual bullets that threaten humanitarian action at the outset of the millennium.

Product Description: "The authors have cajoled, intrigued, or reassured their 73 ‘voices’ into telling a fascinating story of the UN and its institutions, which is also a story of 73 individual lives, of women and men... with their own complicated histories of emigration and education, family relationships and professional choices, hopes and successes...read more

Product Description: Is it possible and worthwhile to use the military in conjunction with humanitarian action to thwart violence and mitigate civilian suffering? This timely book seeks to answer this question by looking at the contemporary context and history of military-civilian interactions, developing a framework for assessing military costs and civilian benefits, and examining in depth seven prominent cases from the 1990s_Northern Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Haiti, East Timor, and Kosovo...read more

'If I had the power to do so, I would make this book compulsory reading for all who exercise political power in our world today! Instead, I will keep my fingers crossed that it will be read by as many members of Congress and of the current US administration as possible, and by a wide cross-section of policy analysts, diplomats, academics and human rights defenders.' - Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner for Human RightsWars on Terrorism and Iraq provides a timely and critical analysis of the impact of the wars on terrorism and Iraq on human rights particularly internationally, as well as related tensions between unilateralism and multilateralism in US foreign policy. The distinguished contributors examine the consequences for international relations and world order of the traditional standard bearer for human rights and democracy (the United States) appearing not to be championing the rule of law and negotiated conflict resolution. The authors also suggest effective policies to promote greater fulfilment of human rights in order to achieve peaceful accord within nations, and stability internationally.