Abstract
The first half of this book discusses theoretical approaches to the study of international organizations (IOs). The second half examines the role of IOs in particular issue-areas. This chapter acts as a bridge between these two halves by looking at the overall structure of IOs in the international system. A great number of multilateral IOs in today’s world are related in some way or other to the UN, and therefore, the UN provides a good focal point for a discussion of the IO system as a whole. The UN is also the focus of many of the debates on the role of IOs in contemporary global governance, particularly those discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. This chapter will thus both lay out the institutional background for the issue-specific chapters to follow and show how some of the theoretical discussions in the study of IOs apply to the UN system.
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Notes
For a more thorough discussion of multilateralism, see John Gerrard Ruggie, ed., Multilateralism Matters: The Theory and Praxis of an Institutional Form (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
United Nations, Charter of the United Nations (New York: UN, 1965), Article 18 (2).
The caucus got its name because it had seventy-seven members when it was founded in 1964. It currently has 131 members. More information on the organization can be found at its website, www.g77.org.
The Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change , A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility (New York: UN, 2004), p. 78.
See, for example, Inis Claude Jr., Swords into Plowshares, 4th ed. (New York: Random House, 1984), pp. 157–158.
Membership in the UN “will be effected by a decision of the GA upon the recommendation of the Security Council.” This means in effect that more than a third of the UN’s members need to oppose a state’s admission in the GA, but one of the permanent members can effectively veto admission in the Security Council. UN Charter, Article 4 (2).
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© 2013 J. Samuel Barkin
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Barkin, J.S. (2013). The United Nations and Its System. In: International Organization. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137356734_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137356734_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-30240-3
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