Forsythe David P. - The United Nations and Changing World Politics

The

United Nations

and Changing

World Politics

SEVENTH EDITION

THE
UNITED NATIONS
and CHANGING
WORLD POLITICS

THOMAS G. WEISS

The CUNY Graduate Center

DAVID P. FORSYTHE

University of Nebraska

ROGER A. COATE

Georgia College

KELLY-KATE PEASE

Webster University

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weiss, Thomas George.

The United Nations and changing world politics / Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe, Roger A. Coate, Kelly-Kate Pease.Seventh edition

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8133-4848-3 (e-book) 1. United Nations. 2. World politics1989 I. Forsythe, David P., 1941 II. Coate, Roger A. III. Pease, Kelly-Kate. IV. Title.

JZ4984.5.W45 2014

341.23'1dc23

2013005320

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Tables

Figures

Photographs

The United Nations and Changing World Politics explores the role of the UN and its associated family of organizations and specialized agencies in contemporary global governance. The UN is seemingly always in transition, which is central to understanding world politics and also why this book is in its seventh edition. The three substantive sections of this textinternational peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and sustainable human developmentcontinue to be at the center of our own approaches to international organization and law. How the UN, with its 193 member states, responds to the related challenges, both old and new, is the substance of this book.

The United Nations has many shortcomings that involve politics entrenched in state rivalries between the haves and have-nots, competing power centers, and bureaucratic infighting to control agendas and resources. We have endeavored to capture the UNs essence as a political organization caught in the struggle to make public policy through the exercise of power. We stress how representatives of member states and other actors, such as international civil servants and nongovernmental organizations, seek to use UN symbols and procedures to shape policy. Policymaking always involves power, understood as a synonym for influence. We also observe how UN structures and processes constrain the exercise of power. Hard power involves coercion through manipulation of economic resources and military force. Soft power involves persuasion and pressure through words and symbolic acts. The central question, for those interested in the United Nations, is who seeks what policy objective, using what power, and with what outcome? What occurs at the UN, to paraphrase Harold Lasswells classic 1936 formulation of politics, is about Who Gets What, When, How.

The United Nations is about global governance without a world government, or attempts to collectively manage transnational problems in the absence of the normal attributes of government. These attributes include a true legislature, a single executive branch, an integrated court system, and, above all, a legitimate monopoly on the exercise of force. Our primary objective is to get students to understand the UN as part of the fabric of world politics and its presumed centrality in managing complicated problems involving war, reconstruction, protection and promotion of human dignity, development, and environmental protection. We construct a balance sheet of achievements and shortcomings, and we address the UNs role relative to regional organizations, unilateral undertakings, and ad hoc arrangements.

We also wanted to capture the essence of public international law as an institution that exerts real influence on real political struggles. We emphasize that, like all public law, the international version is not a technical subject independent of politics but rather part and parcel of world politics. International law is formulated through a political process, frequently revolving around a variety of UN forums. Consequently, public international law interacts with world politics, sometimes shaping it greatly and sometimes only slightly or not at all.

We also stress the importance of history. The present and the future have a history. When seemingly new issues arise, there is always a background to the issue that affects its management or disposition. When U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell spoke at the UN Security Council in early 2003 about whether Iraq had complied with previous council resolutions demanding disarmament, many commentators referred back to the council of 1962. Then, U.S. permanent representative Adlai Stevenson dramatically confronted the Soviet Union over the issue of Soviet missiles in Cuba. In 2003 the United States did not have the same kind of compelling evidencethe smoking gunof denied weapons activity presented some forty years earlier. Still, UN history was part of the drama for Powells presentation. History does not necessarily determine the futurepath dependency is an overused imagebut history often affects the future in that it provides insights and lessons and frequently circumscribes policy options and prescriptions. The history of such issues as using military force, coordinating humanitarian assistance, and promoting sustainable development affects new policy decisions. Knowing this history is essential for understanding UN politics. We want readers to learn the political and legal history of the UN so that present and future choices can be analyzed and debated against that background.

We have endeavored to design this book so that it can be used in at least two ways. First, we want it to serve as a core text in college courses on international organization and the United Nations, and we also are immodest enough to believe that many graduate students and even diplomats could learn a great deal from these pages. Second, we want it to be useful as supplemental reading in other courses, such as international relations and international law. Thus, the essentials of politics at the UN in three central arenas (security, human rights, and sustainable human development) provide the spine for this book because of their intrinsic importance in world politics and because the United Nations has had significant normative and operational impacts in all three. We have brought our collective experiences and judgment to bear on analyses of these issues. If we can get students to better understand the United Nations as a political organization affected by international law, with its own history; if we can accurately portray the UN as greatly affected by basic changes in its political milieu; and if we can provide insights about what the UN has done and how these efforts might be improved in the future, we will have succeeded.