Is the UN an Effective World Governing Body - Case Study Example

IS THE UN AN EFFECTIVE WORLD GOVERNING BODY by The world is composed of nations, each with its own borders, laws and sense of sovereignty. The set of laws that govern one country are completely different from those governing another. Persons from one country cross their borders into the territories of another for various reasons including travel, search for employment or a better life. The Bedouins, who are nomads from North Africa, will traverse across the borders of Mali, Algeria, and Togo to look for pasture for their livestock. However, these movements are a potential source of conflict between countries. There are many instances where such movements have actually created diplomatic tensions between nations leading to various altercations such as war (Price and Zacher, 2004:13). The emergence of conflict between world governments over time has necessitated the formation of bodies mandated to look into the issues creating strife among nations. The United Nations, commonly abbreviated as the UN, is the best example of such bodies that comprehensively deal with general global issues (Mingst and Karns, 2000:26). This paper will attempt to discuss the United Nation as a world’s governing body. It will therefore briefly look into its history and formation, its composition, its roles as a world governing body, and finally give a determination with regard to how effective it is as a governance body. The United Nations, by definition, is a body that is intergovernmental in nature that was created to help resolve conflicts that may arise among world countries. It is intergovernmental meaning that it was created by the governments of different countries in the world. It can also be defined as an organization that was formed to chart ways of peaceful co-existence between world nations through the formulation of policies on issues that affect the world. The UN was formed in the year 1945, specifically 24 October 1945 after the Second World War, replacing the defunct League of Nations (Gareis and Varwick, 2005:24). It was formed initially by 51 world nations, which had made a commitment to observe and keep the peace through pursuit of cordial international relations and cooperation. Today, it is composed of 193 member countries. It has various offices located in member countries, although its main offices are located in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Geneva, and Vienna. The headquarters are located in the city of New York. Funding of the activities of the UN comes from voluntary contributions from the member states. The primary objective of the UN at the time of formation was to prevent the occurrence of another conflict the magnitude of the Second World War (Gareis and Varwick, 2005:43). This was the broader objective. However, it was also tasked with fostering international relations and cooperation, and security and harmonization of the activities of the countries of the world (Price and Zacher, 2004:24). Having looked at the history of formation the UN, is it paramount that we examine its composition and roles. The UN is made up of six main bodies, which serve to deliver its objectives. These are the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, and lastly the International Court of Justice (Mingst and Karns, 2000:12). The last organ is situated in the Netherlands. Each of these organs has specific tasks that it is mandated to do. The General Assembly consists of all member countries, and usually meets to deliberate on the issues affecting the world that are most urgent. These include threats to international peace, poverty reduction, violation of human rights, and climate change. The Security Council, the second major organ of the UN, has a major role of maintaining global peace. It’s composed of 15 members, with the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and France being permanent members. Its meetings are convened whenever there’s an imminent threat to global peace. Its activities in upholding world peace and security include calls for ceasefire, economic sanctions, and military action (Price and Zacher, 2004:52). The Economic and Social Council serves to formulate policies and forward recommendation to the General Assembly on social and economic matters. The council is made up of 54 member countries, which meet annually in the month of July to deliberate on issues humanitarian matters. It has sub bodies, such as the Commission on Human Rights, which further its agenda. The Secretariat basically conducts the administrative duties of the agency while the Trusteeship Council was mandated to guide the territories into self-governance. Finally, the International Court of Justice serves as the judicial arm of the UN. Its main role is to make decisions and determinations on cross border disputes of member countries based on voluntary participation. The UN is a world governing body. Global governance can be explained as institutions, policies, and laws that act together to resolve transnational issues and harmonize cross-border relations. As a world governance agency, the UN, through its main organs discussed above, furthers various roles and responsibilities. According to the United Nations Charter, the UN as a world governing body has four major roles. These are harmonization of countries activities, foster cordial relations among world countries, uphold world peace and security, and to offer cooperation in the resolution of emerging issues as well as the promotion of the rights of human beings. This it does, not through the creation of laws, but through the formulation of policies on issues that affect countries globally. The role of any governance body is to close any governance gaps that may emerge. These gaps include policy gaps, knowledge gaps, institutional gaps and compliance gaps (Taylor and Curtis, 2008:311). In analyzing the effectiveness of the UN as a world governing body, we shall look at a few examples, which the UN has been involved in world governance. According to Thakur, the success of the UN in closing governance gaps can be measured by looking at its responsiveness to the above-mentioned gaps (Thakur, 2006:34). In filling the knowledge gap, The UN has been very instrumental in the provision of new information particularly on global warming and the availability of nuclear weapons and their potential threat to society. This has been through empirical studies. The second gap that is used to test the effectiveness of a governing body is the policy gap. The term policy is used to denote principles, which have been set to further and achieve certain action plans. The UN has a set of policies, which it uses to achieve set goals. The policy makers, who are in essence representatives of national governments of member countries, are tasked with the responsibility of formulating policies that will resolve global issues (Thakur, 2006:37). Each delegate or representative will take part in the process guided by his or her country’s foreign policy. The policies thus designed are meant to solve the global challenge under discussion. However, the actual implementation of these policies squarely lies with the governments of the member countries (Taylor and Curtis, 2008:313). This, therefore, presents a major constraint in the effectiveness of the UN in addressing policy gaps. The ability of the UN as a governing body to address the institutional gap has also had various shortcomings. Institutions, such as the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) affect many differences in the world in resolving global issues such as child trafficking. However, as an agency, it sometimes lacks appropriate resources from the parent UN to effectively carry out its objectives (Thakur, 2006:28). . This poses an institutional gap. The last governance gap is the compliance gap. The UN, in the furtherance of its objectives, normally encounters lack of political goodwill from some of its member countries in the implementation of international policies (Weiss, Forsythe, and Coate, 2004:28). This is especially so in the provision of an enabling environment and resources. For instance, non-compliance by Iran in issues touching on generation of nuclear power affects the UN effectiveness in dealing with the global governance issue (Taylor and Curtis, 2008:39). In conclusion, the UN was formed shortly after the Second World War to provide mechanisms that would help resolve global issues. It does this through its six main organs. As a global governing body, its effectiveness is measured by its ability to close emerging governance gaps such as compliance, policy, institutional, and knowledge gaps. However, as discussed above, in many instances its efforts to steer its objectives is hampered by technicalities such as the sovereignty of governments of member countries in the implementation of international policies. This in turn greatly affects its effectiveness. Therefore, the UN, despite the numerous positive projects and activities it conducts, is still not an effective world governing body. Reference List Gareis S B & Varwick J 2005, The United Nations: An Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Mingst K. & Karns M P 2000 The United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era. Boulder: Westview Press. Price R M & Zacher M W (eds.) 2004, The United Nations and Global Security. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Taylor P & Curtis D 2008, The United Nations, in J. Baylis, S. Smith and P. Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. Oxford: University Press, pp. 311-328. Thakur, R C 2006, The United Nations, Peace and Security From collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect. Cambridge: University Press. Weiss, T G Forsythe D P & Coate R A 2004, The United Nations and Changing World Politics. Oxford: Westview Press. Read More