You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Preventing humanitarian atrocities is becoming as important for the United Nations as dealing with inter-state war. In this book, Ramesh Thakur examines the transformation in UN operations, analysing its changing role and structure. He asks why, when and how force may be used and argues that the growing gulf between legality and legitimacy is evidence of an eroded sense of international community. He considers the tension between the US, with its capacity to use force and project power, and the UN, as the centre of the international law enforcement system. He asserts the central importance of the rule of law and of a rules-based order focused on the UN as the foundation of a civilised system of international relations. This book will be of interest to students of the UN and international organisations in politics, law and international relations departments, as well as policymakers in the UN and other NGOs.
The volume is the first comprehensive overview of multiple theoretical perspectives on UN peace operations, with two main uses. First, it provides practical examples of how International Relations theories - realism, liberal institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, constructivism, practice theories, critical security studies, feminist institutionalism, and complexity theory - can be applied to a specific policy issue. Second, it demonstrates how major debates on UN peace operations - regarding protection of civilians, local ownership, or gender mainstreaming - benefit from a theoretical exploration. The volume is aimed at three audiences: scholars who want to keep up to date with the latest research on UN peace operations; undergraduate and postgraduate students who either seek to understand International Relations theories in general or are interested in UN peace operations..
Africa; Sierra Leone; Afghanistan; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Timor-Leste; Sri Lanka; Palestine; Israel; United Nations; Lebanon; Cambodia; Central America.
This short introduction to the United Nations analyzes the organization as itis today, and how it can be transformed to respond to its critics. Combiningessential information about its history and workings with practical proposalsof how it can be strengthened, Trent and Schnurr examine what needs to bedone, and also how we can actually move toward the required reforms. Thisbook is written for a new generation of change-makers — a generation seekingbetter institutions that reflect the realities of the 21st century and that can actcollectively in the interest of all.
Postwar multilateral cooperation is often viewed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of the nation-state system. However, in 1945, when the United Nations was founded, large parts of the world were still under imperial control. Building States investigates how the UN tried to manage the dissolution of European empires in the 1950s and 1960s—and helped transform the practice of international development and the meaning of state sovereignty in the process. Eva-Maria Muschik argues that the UN played a key role in the global proliferation and reinvention of the nation-state in the postwar era, as newly independent states came to rely on international assistance. Drawing on previously un...
Maps the UN legal instruments relevant for the protection and promotion of the rights to freedom of expression and information.
After seven decades of existence has the UN become obsolete? Is it ripe for retirement? As Jussi Hanhimäki proves in the second edition of this Very Short Introduction, the answer is no. In the second decade of the twenty-first century the UN remains an indispensable organization that continues to save lives and improve the world as its founders hoped. Since its original publication in 2008, this 2nd edition includes more recent examples of the UN Security Council in action and peacekeeping efforts while exploring its most recent successes and failures. After a brief history of the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations, Hanhimäki examines the UN's successes and failures...
China's role in the United Nations has been a significant one. Yet, Samuel Kim contends, as far as the literature on Chinese foreign policy is concerned, the People's Republic of China still remains outside the heuristic framework of the global community. In a comprehensive macro-analysis of Chinese global politics, Professor Kim probes China's image and strategy of world order as manifested through its behavior in the UN. The author draws upon a wide range of previously untapped primary sources, including China's policy pronouncements and voting record and over a hundred personal interviews with UN delegates and international civil servants. He finds that Chinese participation has made the ...
This major new handbook provides the definitive and comprehensive analysis of the UN and will be an essential point of reference for all those working on or in the organization.
Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards presents a broad range of current approaches to measuring vulnerability. It provides a comprehensive overview of different concepts at the global, regional, national, and local levels, and explores various schools of thought. More than 40 distinguished academics and practitioners analyse quantitative and qualitative approaches, and examine their strengths and limitations. This book contains concrete experiences and examples from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe to illustrate the theoretical analyses.The authors provide answers to some of the key questions on how to measure vulnerability and they draw attention to issues with insufficient covera...