Abstract
The first half of this book discusses theoretical approaches to the study of inter-national organizations (IOs). The second half examines the role of IOs in particular issue-areas. This chapter acts as a bridge between the two halves by looking at the overall structure of IOs in the international system. A majority 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 an extreme example of the latter, see Lim Keith, Black Helicopters over America: Strikeforce for the New World Order (Lilburn, GA: IllurniNet Press, 1994).
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).
See, for example, Inis Claude Jr., “Collective Legitimation as a Political Function of the United Nations,” International Organization 20 (1966): 367–379.
See, for example, Inis Claude Jr., Swords into Plowshares, 4th ed. (New York: Random House, 1984), pp. 157–158.
For a political history of Secretaries-General, see Stephen Ryan, The United Nations and International Politics (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000), especially ch. 3.
See, for example, J. Craig Barker, International Law and International Relations (London: Continuum, 2000).
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© 2006 J. Samuel Barkin
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Barkin, J.S. (2006). The United Nations and Its System. In: International Organization: Theories and Institutions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983237_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983237_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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