Weiss - Would the world be better without the UN?

Thomas G. Weiss

polity

Copyright Thomas G. Weiss 2018

The right of Thomas G. Weiss to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2018 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1729-9

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Weiss, Thomas G. (Thomas George), 1946- author.

Title: Would the world be better without the UN? / Thomas G. Weiss.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA, USA : Polity Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017019714 (print) | LCCN 2017043448 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509517282 (Mobi) | ISBN 9781509517299 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509517251 | ISBN 9781509517268 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: United Nations. | Security, International--International cooperation. | Peace-building--International cooperation. | Human rights--International cooperation. | Poverty--International cooperation. | Environmental quality--International cooperation.

Classification: LCC JZ4984.5 (ebook) | LCC JZ4984.5 .W4595 2018 (print) | DDC 341.23--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017019714

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Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science at The City University of New Yorks Graduate Center and Director Emeritus (200114) of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies who was named 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Past president of the International Studies Association (200910) and recipient of its IO Distinguished Scholar Award 2016, he also directed the United Nations Intellectual History Project (19992010) and was research professor at SOAS, University of London (201215), chair of the Academic Council on the UN System (20069), editor of Global Governance, research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, research professor at Brown Universitys Watson Institute for International Studies, executive director of the Academic Council on the UN System and of the International Peace Academy, a member of the UN secretariat, and a consultant to public and private agencies. He has written extensively about multilateral approaches to international peace and security, humanitarian action, and sustainable development. His most recent single-authored volumes include Humanitarianism Intervention: Ideas in Action (2016); Whats Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (2016); Governing the World? Addressing Problems without Passports (2014); Global Governance: Why? What? Whither? (2013); Humanitarian Business (2013); and Thinking about Global Governance: Why People and Ideas Matter (2011).

I begin with my profound gratitude to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which named me a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. The generous support provided two years for the kind of research and reflection that I hope is present on every page in this book. Vartan Gregorian was my boss at Brown University and as a consultant to the corporation when he first arrived in New York. But he has become far more than that over the years, inspiring me to push myself and my thoughts about the past, present, and future of multilateralism and the United Nations. Most charitable foundations and governments invest in institutions rather than individuals and in soundbites rather than research. The Carnegie Corporation under his stewardship has gone against that conventional grain, and so other fellows and I have been the beneficiaries. This book would not have appeared as it has, or as quickly, without the foundations generosity of spirit and vision.

The most congenial and productive of my professional homes has, since 1998, been The City University of New Yorks Graduate Center. Former president William Kelly hired me when he was provost and consistently and enthusiastically supported my professional activities as well as tolerated my sense of humor. Current president Chase Robinson has continued to build the distinction of the Graduate Center and nominated me to be a Carnegie Fellow, which has made possible a wonderfully rich last two years.

I have benefited over the years from a number of wonderful intellects and helping hands among my advanced graduate students. This volume reflects research by Paul Celentano, who helped fill in some of the holes that existed after I formulated the book outline. Danielle Zach, as she has over the last decade, abandoned her own work as a post-doc to apply a sharp mind and eye to the raw manuscript, improving substantially its structure and content. This book simply would not have been as timely or persuasive without Pauls and Danielles able helping hands.

This volume marks the culmination of career-long efforts, and I repeat a bit of what I wrote in a 2011 collection of essays. What has united, or perhaps haunted, my work over the years is what many would deem a curious conviction namely, that community interests should hold sway but are invariably shortchanged, nationally or internationally. Long before the America First of Donald Trump in the United States, the countrys welfare had often been sacrificed on the altar of individualism; but globally those of the commons are typically and tragically trampled by great powers as well as by tin-pot dictators and megalomaniacs. Yet, I have remained steadfast in believing that multilateral cooperation is a way not only to attenuate American and big-power arrogance but also to solve many, albeit not all, thorny problems that defy national boundaries.

My analyses of contemporary world politics might very well depress Dr Pangloss, the character in Voltaires Candide who believes that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. The gaps are enormous between what happens in the world polis and what is on the books spelled out in the UN Charter and hundreds of international treaties, as well as in public statements by politicians, pundits, prime ministers, princes, and presidents. Surely, ours cannot be the best of all possible worlds. I remain persuaded that good people and good ideas can make a difference to the quality of both human life and international society.

That optimism needs to be asserted amidst the disturbing populist and inward-looking politics in the West and elsewhere that accompanies the most gut-wrenching humanitarian disaster in recent memory. Our collective conscience apparently was beyond shocking, as a halfmillion Syrians died in real time, including children suffocating from chemical weapons. That said, the bottom line for my last lecture would also resemble that from my first: Im an inveterate optimist who believes that it is better sometimes to be wrong, rather than a pessimist and always right.