INDORE INSTITUTE OF LAW

(Affiliated to D.A.V.V. & BCI)

B.A.LL.B. (HONS)
IIIst SEMESTER

Project Subject –Human Rights

Project Topic – “ The UN was created not to lead the mankind to heaven but
to save humanity from hell” (Dag Hammarskjold, the UN Secretary general)
Critically discuss the efficacy of United Nations Organisations.

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Belu George Vaishnavi Sen

Date: __/__/_____ Semester - III

Marks Obtain ________

 CERTIFICATE OF SUPERVISOR

This is to certify that the project submitted by, Vaishnavi Sen, student of B.A. LL.B., Indore
Institute of Law (affiliated by DAVV University) is a record of work done under my supervision.

This is also to certify that this project is an original project submitted as a part of the curriculum
and no unfair means like copying have been used for its completion. All references have been
duly acknowledged.

Belu George
Faculty
(Department of Law)
 DECLARATION OF RESEARCHER

I certify that this work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diplomain my name, in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person,
except where due reference has been made in the text. In addition, I certify that no part of this
work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in
any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of the university of DAVV
and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree.

I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the university library, being made
available for loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the copyright act1968.

I also give permission for the digital version of my thesis to be made available on the web, via
the unversity’s digital research repository, the library search and also through web search
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____________________
Signed
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, Vaishnavi Sen, student of IIInd Semester B.A.LL.B. would like to express my special thanks of
gratitude to my Professor and guide Belu George who gave us the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful assignment on this topic.

I am sincerely grateful to my teacher for guiding us and providing the relevant information and
thus helping me to complete the project successfully.

I would also like to give a hearty thanks to my parents who supported me in completion of this
assignment without any type of problem.

Last but not the least I would like to appreciate and thank all my friends and Alma-mates for
helping me in every possible manner in the way of completion of my project.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Due to absence of authentic literature sources, the author has primarily referred to online sources
that are available for the purpose of research work on the subject. The research has its orientation
towards the governmental portals and the authentic legal websites along with the articles in the
blogs of experts. The content available online is in its full capacity can be regarded as authentic
and duly recognised in this research paper work.
Introduction

Governments on all continents and of all political persuasions came together in the
United Nations (UN) to guard international peace and security, promote human
rights and protect international law (Hanhimäki, 2008:1). However, in hindsight,
the liberal values-based institution has not been as effective as it was anticipated
after the Second World War. Arguably, it has developed a very anarchic and realist
structure, hindering the UN from effective decision-making and development. In
respect to the establishment of the Security Council as part of the UN, this essay
will argue that the UN is ineffective, to a large extent due to a dominant Great
Power structure. The aim of this essay is to investigate and evaluate the liberal and
realist arguments by exploring their different ontological views and positions
towards international organizations. The first two paragraphs will focus on realist
arguments, exploring how the structure of the UN has become increasingly focused
and dependent on Great Powers, leading to an ineffective Security Council. The
essay will then go on to look at liberal arguments and theories in regards to the
UN. This will be followed by an outline in what ways the UN is, however, to some
extent effective.

As long as the concepts of nation-states and national interest exist, realists see
perpetual threat of conflict and war in an international anarchy, where the UN will
not and cannot act independently and will therefore be ineffective. It can be argued
that the realist ontological position towards the agency-structure debate already has
its manifestations in the structure of the UN. As World War II drew to a close, the
victors, Russia, China, the United States, Great Britain and France respectively,
moved to establish a hold on the successor of the League of Nations (no
democratic vote took place). Those ‘winners’ were granted permanent membership
in the Security Council of the UN and were given individual veto powers over all
UN proposals. This means that each of the Great Powers turn into agents in the
arena of international affairs as they are able to block decisions that they find go
against their national interests. If the UN is dependent on the development and
opinions of these agents, then the organization becomes a socially-constructed
process that would make the position of the Security Council a realist one,
destining the Security Council to be undemocratic and, as a result, ineffective
(Burchill, 2005:150). For example, the ongoing Syrian crisis can be said to be a
result of the vetoes from Russia and China at the Security Council in July of 2012
“to block robust UN action to stop the massacres” (The Economist, 2012). They
seemingly did so out of a pursuit of self-interest, as they fear the democratic
movements behind the latest happenings across Africa and the Middle East might
shift the power balance and allegiances in their respective regions. This shows that
Security Council resolutions are still supreme expressions of power politics and
“one cannot realistically expect the UN to solve issues in which the vital interests
of one or more of the major powers are involved” (Kay, 1977:5).

The freedom of the nations in the UN to debate any pressing issue has essentially
lead to the agencies to become “politicized”, meaning that controversial issues that
might not be relevant to the agencies’ work are introduced by member-states to
further their political interests, altering agenda formation (Kay, 1977- 80-86).
Comparatively smaller or poorer nations would therefore be less likely to be able
to put importance and priority on their issues, as Great Powers neglect their
security concerns. In effect, the UN becomes an anarchic arena where states
attempt to keep their balance of power, despite it being a contradiction with the
doctrine of sovereign equality. Furthermore, realist concerns about cheating also
hinder cooperation in the UN. Mearsheimer argued that, “states are often reluctant
to enter into cooperative agreements for fear that the other side will cheat on the
agreement and gain a relative advantage” (Mearsheimer, 2004:13). According to
realists, with survival being the main thought of the member states of the UN, the
states would choose absolute gains over relative gains. As Grieco writes: “A state
will focus both on its absolute and relative gains from cooperation, and a state that
is satisfied with a partner’s compliance in a joint arrangement might nevertheless
exit from it because the partner is achieving relatively greater gains” (Grieco,
1988:8). This inhibits the states from cooperation even when they would share
common interests, reducing the capabilities of the UN and making it ineffective.
The quantitative realist approach would measure the effectiveness of the Security
Council and therefore of the UN by using the number of successful resolutions
passed by the Council since its founding date in 1945. As the number of resolutions
that have passed has decreased starkly since the end of the Cold War, it can be said
that the UN has become increasingly ineffective.
The liberal idea that international security and order can develop out of an
international organization has initially lead to the creation of the UN. However, the
ideological differences between member-states lead to a decline of the
effectiveness of the UN. As outlined in Chapter II of the Charter of the UN,
“membership in the UN is open to all other peace-loving states” (United Nations,
1945). In fact, around 85% of the members of the United Nations ratified the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (United Nations, 2012). This
can be traced back to Kant’s Democratic Peace Theory, as according to him it is
highly unlikely that democracies go to war with each other. However, the UN
consists of a high number of diverse ideologies. This can be the cause for different
stances on how to govern and to intervene, resulting in ineffective procedures.
Even then, the UN must try to treat every nation equally. Once a democratic vote
has taken place or a resolution has passed, it is important that all member-states of
the UN abide by the same rules. The nuclear proliferation treaty (NPT), for
example, aims to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, and is a good “expression of
the practices of international law and multilateralism in the field of arms control”
(Baylis & Smith, 2011:281). However, still today, the United States and many
other states that signed the treaty are still in possession of and/or developing
nuclear weapons. This seems to go back to realist assumptions that states feel a
need to have means of defense. The current nuclear situation and disagreement
between the United States and Iran mirror this need. The hegemonic United States
want to make use of the NPT and forbid Iran to possess nuclear weapons, as,
according to the realist idea of the security-dilemma, they see the actions of Iran as
an offense. At the same time, they are not willing to let lose of their weapons. This
illustrates how ineffective the treaties of the UN can be, as Great Powers don’t
seem equal to smaller member-states.

Moreover, the countries that are not part of the UN are mainly non-democratic
states. In order for the liberal principle of collective security to work, the UN
would be more effective if more of its member-states were indeed non-democratic.
This is because an ontological persuasion of interconnectedness is one major
prerequisite for a functioning UN, and also a sense of community. If the UN sees it
as one of its “greatest governance challenges” to enable a “non-violent transition
from non-democratic to democratic” (UNDEF, 1948) states, then there might be an
increased need to start making the formation of a community possible instead. It is
essential that a reform to increase the effectiveness of the UN must come from the
inside of the institution, as its ‘enemies’, critics and essential causes of
ineffectiveness are indeed found among its member-states.

Despite many arguments for the ineffectiveness of the UN, “…it is almost
impossible for one country to insulate itself from the rest of the world and to
pursue policies, whether economic, social or military, that can be said to be solely
in their own national self-interest” (Kay, 1977:9). The UN has provided a means of
communication to all member-states, of all ideologies. Member-states are
permitted and welcome to bring up any issues and concerns, and are expected to
state and represent the opinion of their respective country. As Grieco wrote: “…
even if the realists are correct in believing that anarchy constrains the willingness
of states to cooperate, states nevertheless can work together and can do so
especially with the assistance of international institutions” (Grieco, 1988:3).
Multilateral diplomacy at an international level continues to be an important mean
of bringing nations together. For example, the United States and North Korea
seemed to use the UN as a first meeting point to exchange concerns, establishing
the possibility to agree to hold the six-party talks to respond to statements made at
the UN. The UN should therefore not only be regarded as an institution used for
peacekeeping, but also as a tool to get to know and understand different
communities and cultures; a medium for exchange.

This article attempts to answer the question What is the United Nations? Moreover,
the article represents a detailed analysis of the level of effectives of the UN in
global governance. The article starts with discussing the role of functions of the
UN, explaining the roles and functions of each UN’s six organs in an individual
manner. This has been followed by identification of gaps in global governance and
discussions about the role of the UN in terms of the extent of filling each gap.

Furthermore, the article critically analyses the overall level of effectiveness of the
UN in global governance and discusses the potentials for increasing the level of
effectiveness in the UN in global governance by proposing a set of
recommendations.
Increasing level of integration and cooperation between counties in various levels
creates a need for reputable international bodies that could assist in facilitating
international relations, and more importantly, deal with disagreements and conflicts
that may occur in international relations. The reality of the present nature of global
governance is the outcome of conflict between the need to introduce global rules
and regulations, and the willingness of retaining control over national boundaries.

The is a set of reputable international organisations currently operating in the

global scale such as The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation, The
World Bank, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and others, and each of these
organisations engages in global governance with varying levels of effectiveness
depending on their aims and objective, resources, sources of funds and other
factors.
The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation “committed to
maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among
nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights”
(UN at a Glance, 2016, online). Founded on October 24, 1945, the UN comprises
193 member countries, and currently has more than 100,000 peacekeepers engaged
in 16 peacekeeping projects (UN at a Glance, 2016, online).

UN has six main organs: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and
Social Council, United Nations Trusteeship Council, and International Court of
Justice. Apart from these organs, the UN comprises 15 agencies, as well as, several
programs and bodies. The work of the UN is carried out by the Secretariat,
according to the direction set out by the General Assembly and other UN organs.
The UN General – Secretary oversees the implementing policies and decisions of
the General Assembly and UN organs.

2. What is the United Nations?

The UN has been established in the end of The Second World War with the primary
purpose of preventing more wars, once the failure of League of Nation became
evident. Initially comprising only 51 states, the organisation has been steadily
enlarged to include 193 member states by August 2011.
The organisation boasts with providing food to more than 90 million people in 73
countries, helping to more than 36 million refugees, saving more than 2,5 million
people every year globally through vaccination and treatment, and advancing
democracy and helping with elections in 30 countries (UN, 2016, online). The UN
visibly positions itself to be totally separate from the private sector. Moreover, it
has been argued that the UN has been specifically granted with significant powers
so that the organisation could possess enough authority and resources to be able to
stop any state mistreating its citizens or other countries, as well as, be able to stop
wars between states.

Historical Background
The origins of the UN Security Council go back to the Congress of Vienna and the
peacemaking process that followed the Napoleonic wars of 1799-1815, when the
distinction between the great powers and all other powers first was enshrined in the
practice of international diplomacy. The great powers were said to be those powers
with interests general to the European system and thus by implication a stake in the
system as a whole, in contrast to lesser powers, which had merely local or regional
interests.
This distinction carried over into the peace-making process after World War I and
was formalized in the Covenant of the League of Nations, which identified the
Principal Allied and Associated Powers as the permanent members of the League
Council. The distinction lived on in the United Nations Organization and the UN
Charter, which assigned responsibility for the maintenance of peace to the Security
Council, in which the five states defined as great powers were given a permanent
veto.
The experience after each of these global conflicts demonstrated the advantages
and drawbacks of assigning responsibilities for the maintenance of peace to a small
group of powers. The most acute danger to the functioning of such a system has
been that unity among allies does not survive the defeat of the former common
enemy. The system then becomes deadlocked and unable to respond to
international challenges.
The other danger is that would-be great powers or coalitions of middle powers
excluded from the top tier of the international order agitate against the system and
undermine it from without.
The conference system after the Napoleonic wars was relatively successful in
avoiding both of these pitfalls, at least for a time. France, the original enemy
against which the system was organized, was admitted at an early date, and the
threat against which the powers were united redefined as instability from any
quarter rather than aggression by

2.1 General Assembly

Referred to as ‘Parliament of Nations’ (Martin, 2008), the General Assembly, is the
place where decisions are taken on important issues related to global piece and
security on the basis of each member state having a single vote. Acceptance of new
states into the organisation is decided by two-thirds majority.

General Assembly sessions are organised annually, and there is a provision for
emergency meetings if such necessity arises. For example, emergency session has
been organised after attacks on the World Trade Centre in the US on September 11,
2001.

2.2 Security Council

The UN Security Council comprises 15 members, with members from The UK,
USA, China, Russian Federation, and France being permanent members. The
remaining members of the Security Council are elected during General Assembly
sessions to serve a two-year term.

The power of vetoing the proposals of the Security Council is granted only to
permanent members. Calling for negotiations is the initial instrument employed by
the Security Council in dealing with the threats to the international peace.
Moreover, the Security Council has authorities of imposing economic or
diplomatic sanctions, blocking communication to the country by air and sea, and
even authorising military action whenever necessary a particular enemy. The
European system eventually broke down in the years leading up to World War I,
but this had largely to do with the globalization of European politics, as
represented by such developments as Germany’s rise and its bid to become a world
power, Russia’s emergence as a Far Eastern and Central Asian power, the rise of
extra-European powers such as Japan and the United States, and the dilemmas that
Britain and France faced in balancing the requirements of their empires with the
preservation of a balance in continental Europe.
The post-World War I system was far less effective than its predecessor. Although
no power that considered itself a great power was ever fully excluded from the
inner circle of League of Nations decision making – the permanent membership of
the Council of the League of Nations varied over time, but at its height included
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union – Britain
and France, as the main victors of 1918, were never able to use the League to co-
opt the leading revisionist powers into accepting as legitimate the Versailles peace
and the other elements of the post-World War I order. Nor was the United States
ever prepared to enter the League and use its power to buttress the system.
The failures of the League of Nations convinced Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the
chief architect of the United Nations Organization, that unity of purpose among the
great powers was the key to an enduring peace. He thus conducted a diplomacy
that focused heavily, indeed at times almost exclusively, on preserving cooperation
between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United Nations Organization,
and the Security Council in particular, in which the rights of the great powers were
much enhanced relative to what they had been in the League of Nations, can be
seen as largely an instrument of Roosevelt’s effort to preserve amicable relations
with Stalin.
Unlike the post-1918 system, which chiefly suffered from external indifference to
or agitation against the system, the post-1945 system was characterized by internal
deadlock. The Soviet Union blocked Western efforts to use the Security Council to
resolve the Berlin crisis, and, in a development that shocked Western and
especially
American sensibilities, began to wield its veto on a range of issues, many
seemingly trivial, in violation of the spirit of great power cooperation on which
Roosevelt had staked his hopes for a future world order. Prior to 1989, political
deadlock rooted in the East-West ideological conflict was the hallmark of the UN
system.
The period of Cold War deadlock went through two distinct phases. In the first, the
United States and its allies generally had the upper hand; the Soviet Union was
forced to rely on the veto to defend its interests. Between 1946 and 1965, Moscow
used the veto 106 times, compared with none for the United States. In the second
phase, this situation was reversed, as the United States and the West were placed
on the defensive by the coalition of the communist countries and radicalized
developing countries that came to dominate the UN system.
From about 1970 (when the United States cast its first Security Council veto) until
the end of the Cold War, the United States was the main wielder of the veto, which
it used to neutralize attacks on Israel and in relation to other issues. Between 1966
and 1989, the United States vetoed 67
Security Council resolutions, compared to just thirteen for the Soviet Union. Even
at the height of the Cold War, however, the Security Council was able to exercise
some of what scholars have called its role as both a great power concert and a force
for global governance.
In 1956, the United States joined with the Soviet Union in supporting two
resolutions calling for an end to the military intervention in Suez. France and the
UK vetoed these resolutions, but pressure in the Security Council was one of the
factors that helped to bring a swift end to the Suez crisis. The Security Council also
played a role in containing conflicts in Cyprus and the Congo, in stopping the 1967
Arab-Israeli war, and in providing a venue for the resolution of the first Berlin
crisis and the Cuban missile crisis.
The Security Council’s role in the promotion of what has come to be called global
governance was less prominent in this period than was its role as a concert of
powers.
Collective action by the great powers in pursuit of broad social and economic
objectives has been an element of international diplomacy at least since the
Congress of Vienna, which issued a path-breaking declaration on the suppression
of the slave trade. The League of Nations launched ambitious programs of
cooperation in economic and labor affairs, arms control, and other areas. The
activities of the UN in these areas initially were cut back, in large part because of
the ideological standoff between East and West and the relative disinterest of the
Soviet Union in such forms of cooperation. Even during the Cold War, however,
global governance was never entirely missing from the UN system, and as such
was a factor in the politics of the Security Council. In the 1960s, the United States
and the Soviet Union, joined by the UK, united to create the nuclear non-
proliferation regime embodied in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) of
1968, which arguably remains the most enduring of the governance structures
created during the Cold War and the one with the greatest relevance for the post-
Cold War international order.
The politics of the NPT demonstrated that the distinction between the great power
concert functions of the Security Council and its role in promoting global
governance is never absolute. In circumstances in which the great powers continue
to be rivals to each other and in which middle powers and would-be great powers
resist the functioning of a concert that tends to marginalize their roles, efforts to
promote global governance inevitably become latent or proxy struggles over
power. In the case of the NPT, France, China, and India all revolted against what
they saw as the discriminatory treatment embodied in the arrangement. The middle
powers of Europe (other than France) ultimately backed the non-proliferation
regime, but were distinctly unenthusiastic about doing so, as witnessed by the fact
that it was not until 1975 that states such as West Germany and Italy ratified the
NPT.

2.3 Economic and Social Council

The main activities of Economic and Social Council of the UN relates to the
coordination of economic and social aspects of the UN, and its family
organisations. This UN organ plays a critical role in promotion of international
cooperation for economic and social development.

The Economic and Social Council comprises 54 members serving terms of three
years, with 18 members are elected every year by the General Assembly. There are
no restrictions in terms of numbers of times members can be elected in the
Economic and Social Council in a consequent manner.
2.4 United Nations Trusteeship Council
Trusteeship Council of the UN is set up in order to facilitate the supervision of
eleven Trust Territories that belong to member countries with the ultimate aim of
preparing these territories for self-government or independence.

The operations of the Trusteeship Council have practically ceased on 1994, after
the last territory under the trust of the UN, Palau gained independence in the same
year. Accordingly, there are no annual meetings within this specific UN body, and
meetings can be arranged at an occasional manner according to the decision of the
President of the Trusteeship Council.

2.5 International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice, also referred to as The Hague represents a
justice organ of the UN. It is the only UN organ that is located outside of the USA.
The primary function of the Court is “to settle, in accordance with international
law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal
questions referred to it by authorised United Nations organs and specialised
agencies” (The Court, 2016, online).

There are 15 judges in the Court, elected by the General Assembly and the Security
Council for a nine-year term. Considered to be an administrative organ, English
and French languages have been adopted as the official languages of the Court.

3. Major UN Programs and Initiatives and their Impact on Global

Governance
The UN has a complex system and there is a wide range of UN programs and
initiatives launched in order to achieve its objectives and each of them has certain
implications on the nature of global governance. The most noteworthy programs
and initiatives include Global Compact, The United Nations Volunteers program,
World Food Program and others.

Global Compact initiative has been launched by former UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999 with the aims of
encouraging private entities towards the adoption of socially responsible policies
and programs that contribute to sustainability.

However, the practical benefits of the Global Compact have been widely criticised
for the absence of specific measures or sanctions to deal with non-compliance.
Moreover, critics argue that businesses with compromised reputations and track
records have been included in the program in some occasions, and it is not
compulsory for businesses to demonstrate further progress in corporate social
responsibility in order to continue their participation in the program.

The majority of UN programs and initiatives are implemented through partnerships

with the private sector, and civil society. Accordingly, the UN Office for
Partnership aims to serve as an infrastructure for the facilitation of collaboration
between the UN organs and programs, and the private sector and various
foundations.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program has been developed in order to
contribute to development initiatives in about 150 states with the assistance of
volunteers. Specifically, graduate volunteers with work experience of several years
are attracted mainly to promote democracy and human rights in various parts of the
globe with minimum financial compensation to support themselves. UNV is
considered to be one of the most successful programs initiated by the UN due to its
highly positive contribution to major causes with minimum financial expenses.

Founded on the basis of voluntary contributions, World Food Program has been
branded as the largest humanitarian organisation in the world. The World Food
Program employs more than 10,000 members of staff, the majority of whom are
engaged in operations in the field.

A set of economists cast a doubt about the positive implications of the World Food
Program to African countries. Specifically, it has been claimed that contrary to
expectations, World Food Program fuels bribery in Africa in a way that the aid gets
stolen by local politicians to bribe upper echelons or to be sold in black market
with highly negative implications for local farmers.

4. Gaps in Global Governance and the UN

In set of gaps in international governance created by increasing forces of
globalisation has been blamed for the emergence of contradictions and
misunderstandings on the global scale. The major gaps in global governance can be
specified as knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance gaps.

4.1 Knowledge gaps

The knowledge gap in global governance relates to the gap in comprehending the
nature of the problem, or gap in appreciating the level of intensity of an
international challenge. The differences in ways the issue of global warming being
perceived by various states can be mentioned as a stark instance of a knowledge
gap.

The issue associated with nuclear weapon represents another area of a knowledge
gap that needs to be addressed. This specific issue did not exist at the time when
the UN Charter was being signed, and accordingly, the positions of each individual
country towards nuclear weapons is being selected according to their interests
leading to arguments that are difficult to deal with.

4.2 Normative gaps

Normative gap in global governance relates to differences in viewpoints of
countries in terms of devising appropriate responses to global challenges and
international disputes. The UN has been described as “an essential arena in which
states codify norms in the forms of resolutions and declarations (soft law) and
conventions and treaties (hard law)” (Weiss and Thakur, 2010, p.10).

However, the reputation of the UN and the range of instruments available to the
organisation to reinforce its norms and decisions need to be increased to a
significant extent in order to achieve progress in elimination of the normative gap
in international relations.

4.3 Policy gaps

In its basic form, policy gap in global governance deals with the questions of ‘who
should respond and how’ (Koivisto, 2012) to the global challenges and
international disputes. It has been stated that “the source of ideas to fill policy gaps
is likely to be governments and intergovernmental organisations. When policy is
made in the absence of institutions, it takes on an ad hoc character” (Weiss, 2012,
p.51).

Therefore, the elimination of policy gap can be justly specified as a necessary

condition for an effective functioning of global governance. Accordingly, clear and
unambiguous guidelines need to be included in the UN Charter in terms of the
manners of development of international policies.

4.4 Institutional gaps

The institutional gap in global governance relates to the absence or lack of match
between policies that have been formulated and the level of capacity to implement
these policies in practice. It is important to specify that institutions in institutional
gaps can be perceived in two forms. On one hand, institutions can be formal
organisations with stated aims and objectives.
On the other hand, institutions can be perceived as specific patterns of behaviour in
some ways similar to culture. Nevertheless, an institutional gap occurs when there
is an absence of infrastructure in order to ensure the implementation of formulated
policies in practice.

4.5 Compliance gap

The compliance gap in the global governance, as the name suggests, relates to non-
compliance to rules and regulations imposed by international bodies. A wide range
of factors may fuel a compliance gap such as lack of political will or resources,
conflict of interests associated with the implementation and others.

The compliance mechanism of the UN is far from perfection due to the fact that the
UN organs do only suggest recommendations and they do not possess powers and
tools to enforce their decisions, with the UN Security Council being an only
exception.

5. The Level of Effectiveness of the UN in Global Governance

The performances of individual organs of the UN, and its programs and initiatives
discussed above have certain implications on the current pattern of global
governance.

The current level of effectiveness of the UN in global governance is best analysed

through three individual spectrums: its role in maintaining international security,
encouraging and facilitating global economic and social cooperation, and
contributing to a greater level of environmental sustainability.

5.1 The Role of the UN in International Security

One of the primary objectives of the UN has been specified as preventing wars and
maintaining international security. In order to achieve this objective, currently the
UN has deployed more than 100,000 peacekeepers in 16 operations around the
globe (UN at a Glance, 2016, online).

Previous peacekeeping operations initiated by the UN with various levels of

success include engagements in Gulf War, Korea, Somalia, and Bosnia. Figure 2
below represents the duration and geographical locations of its present
peacekeeping operations.

However, there are instances where the acts of genocide were simply ignored by
the UN, significantly undermining its reputation and attracting criticism, the failure
in Rwanda being an obvious example. On 1994 within the duration of 100 days
more than 800 people mainly Tutsis were murdered by official Hutu militiamen.
During the same period, despite having information about the problem to a certain
extent the UN peacekeeper forces in the region were reduced from 2000 to 270
(Spalding, 2008).

Furthermore, one of the main inefficiencies of the UN in terms of contributing to

international security relates to the fact that decision proposals can be easily vetoed
by any permanent member of the Security Council. Moreover, the UN has proven
to be powerless in occasions where global superpowers got involved in
international conflicts. The invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003 can be mentioned as
the most noteworthy example to prove this point.

Moreover, there are critical arguments that the way the Security Council is
composed fails to take into account the realities of modern geopolitical situation.
Specifically, The UK and France have gained membership in the Security Council
solely for winning Second World War more than six decades ago, at the same time
when countries with larger economies such as Brazil, India and Japan do not have
membership in the Council.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are no agreed guidelines
and principles in the UN Charter, according to which new members in the Security
Council can be accepted (Weiss, 2010).

The role of the UN in maintaining international security is greatly compromised by

the fact that the organisation does not have its own troops and it has to borrow
troops from member states in order to enforce compliance to the decisions of the
Security Council.

5.2 The Role of the UN in Global Economic and Social Cooperation

Dealing with economic disputes in an objective manner and setting agreed
standards in a global scale is a basic necessity in effective facilitation of
international trade and creating platform for the increasing forces of globalisation.
The UN claims to be performing this important function partially through
International Monetary Fund (IMF), a specialised agency under the umbrella of the
UN.

However, IMF has been a point a criticism for ineffective governance structure,
high level of politicisation of decision making processes, leadership challenges
faced by its current chief Christine Lagarde, and the absence of specific
performance assessment criteria for the organisation.

Millennium Development Goals is positioned as an important initiative for

encouraging global economic development and effectively addressing serious
economic challenges in undeveloped countries. Agreed upon by all UN member
states, Millennium Development Goals aims to reduce the numbers of people with
income of under USD 1 a day by 50 per cent, insuring the completion of primary
schools by all children and reducing the numbers of people that do not have access
to safe drinking water, as well as, sanitation by 50 percent, all by 2015 (Jha, 2012).

This ambitious project is criticised for being unrealistic, and it has been stated that
the objectives of Millennium Development Goals are not based on sound
calculations (Martin, 2005). Moreover, additional criticism relate to the absence of
provision to support farmers within the project, despite the fact that the majority of
people in undeveloped areas are found to engage in farming, and there are also
concerns regarding the measurement of some objectives such as improving
maternal health, and reducing the levels of child mortality.

It is often stated that the UN is not able to achieve its objectives to a full extent due
to financial difficulties in member states. For example, Unicef calls governments to
provide adequate schooling and education to children, however there are some
poor countries on African and Asian continents that are not able to achieve this
objective due to deeply rooted financial constraints.

It is difficult for the UN to achieve its objectives in global governance partially

because not all member states are highly motivated to cooperate. Moreover, there
is a lack of clear guidelines and policies in terms of dealing with states refusing to
adhere to agreed principles and not complying with the UN requirements

5.3 The Role of the UN of Fostering Environmental Sustainability

A set of global environmental issues such as global warming and carbon footprint
need to be dealt with through achieving cooperation in an international scale. The
UN has attempted to address these issues to a certain extent by initiating a range of
programs to contribute to environmental sustainability.

A long-term environmental program entitled Sustainable United Nations (SUN),

aims to achieve a range of objectives including identifying, quantifying and
justifying opportunities for emission reduction, providing effective guidelines,
tools and methodologies, and facilitating the exchange of information in an
effective manner (UNEP, 2012). Figure 3 provides a comprehensive range of tools
employed by the UN to deal with environmental sustainability.
The SUN program objectives can be criticised for failing to meet SMART
objectives, where the acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic, and timely. In other words, UN objectives formulated for SUN program
are limited with the formulation of plans in a general manner without specifying
deadlines and quantifiable objectives.

Moreover, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), perceived to be as

the world’s leading environmental agency is an umbrella organisation for all
environmental initiatives of the UN and it is comprised of six individual divisions:
Early Warning and Assessment, Environmental Policy Implementation,
Technology, Industry, and Economics, Environmental Law and Conventions, and
Communications and Public Information.

6. Potential for Increasing the Level of Effectiveness of the UN in

Global Governance
There is a great potential for the UN to increase the level of its effectiveness in
terms of global governance to a significant extent. This can be achieved through
implementing a set of suggestions that include modernising the composition of the
US Security Council to reflect the realities of the current geo-political
environment, granting the UN its own troops, and the organisation being granted
with instruments to deal with non-compliance on behalf of member countries. The
rationale behind the formulation of these recommendations are provided below in a
greater detail

Firstly, the composition of the UN Security Council has to be modernised in order

to reflect the realities of the current geo-political environment, as well as, to
become more objective. In its present form, the decisions of the Security Council
can be vetoed by any of its five permanent members greatly compromising its
potential to contribute to international stability.

This situation needs to be improved by dismissing the veto powers of Security

Council permanent members, at the same time when altering upgrading its
composition to include a range of additional countries such as Japan, Brazil, India,
Canada and others depending on their size, economic power and the extent of their
engagement in international relations.

Secondly, the UN should be granted its own troops in order to be able to increase
the level of effectiveness of the Security Council in general, and to be able to
reinforce its decisions in particular. The current pattern of borrowing troops from
member states in inefficient in many levels as it is associated with a waste of time,
and it al compromises the overall effectiveness of the Security Council. Thus, the
level of funding of the UN is recommended to be increased by member states, to
allow it to have its own troops.

Thirdly, the UN should be granted with instruments to deal with non-compliance

on behalf of states. Currently, apart from the UN Security Council that can impose
sanctions or engage in military interventions, the remaining organs of the UN can
only make recommendations and there are no instruments in place to deal with
non-compliance to its decisions.

This situation substantially undermines the role of the UN in effective global

governance, and accordingly, the organisation needs to be granted with powers
such as imposing economic and political sanctions towards the member states that
refuse to cooperate in relation to economic, environmental and other important
issues.

7. Effictiveness Criticism
Some have questioned whether the UN might be relevant in the 21st century.While
the UN’s first and second Charter mandates require the UN: “To maintain
international peace and security.... (and if necessary to enforce the peace by) taking
preventive or enforcement action,” due to its restrictive administrative structure,
the permanent members of the Security Council themselves have sometimes
prevented the UN from fully carrying out its first two mandates.[Without the
unanimous approval, support (or minimally abstention) of all 5 of the permanent
members of the UN's Security Council, the UN's charter only enables it to
"observe", report on, and make recommendations regarding international
conflicts[citation needed]. Such unanimity on the Security Council regarding the
authorization of armed UN enforcement actions has not always been reached in
time to prevent the outbreak of international wars.

In 1962, UN secretary general U Thant provided valuable assistance and took a

great deal of time, energy and initiative as the primary negotiator between Nikita
Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, thus providing
a critical link in the prevention of a nuclear war at that time. A 2005 RAND
Corporation study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping
efforts. It compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the United States, and
found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as opposed to four out of eight
US cases at peace. Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline
in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the
Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism
– mostly spearheaded by the UN – has been the main cause of the decline in armed
conflict since the end of the Cold War or due to the fact the US and USSR were no
longer pumping up oppressive governments after the Cold war ended.

The bureaucratic dimension of the UN has been a cause for frustration with the
organization. In 1994, former special Representative of the Secretary-General of
the UN to Somalia Mohamed Sahnoun published "Somalia: The Missed
Opportunities", a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992
UN intervention in Somalia; he shows in particular that, between the start of the
Somali Civil War in 1988 and the fall of the Siad Barre regime in January 1991, the
United Nations missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human
tragedies. When the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally
outperformed by NGOs, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with
the United Nations’ bureaucratic inefficiencies and excessive caution (most UN
envoys to Somalia operating from the safety of their desks in Nairobi rather than
visiting clan leaders in the field). If sweeping reform was not undertaken, warned
Mohamed Sahnoun, then the United Nations would continue to respond to such
crisis in a climate of inept improvisation.
7. Conclusions
So, What is the United Nations? Global governance deals with organising across
international boundaries and global governance can also be explained as
governance without governments. Effective facilitation of global governance in
practical levels is associated with a set of significant contradictions and challenges.

The UN, with its six main organs and a wide range of programs and initiatives is
engaged in global governance, also in a highly limited scope. There is a great
potential for this scope to be enhanced and the level of effectiveness of the UN to
be increased significantly. There are certain gaps in global governance, namely,
knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance gaps that need to be
addressed by the UN in an effective manner.

To summarise, due to the ever-intensifying levels of economic and political

globalisation the importance of global governance has increased than even before.
Among international organisations that are currently functioning, the UN is best
positioned to assume the role of the main global administrator due to the large
numbers of member states it has, as well as, vast experiences in dealing with
various aspects of international relations.

However, there is an urgent need for the UN to be modified and improved in order
to be able to meet the complex challenges of the reality such as increasing level of
inter-dependence of states, the challenges of international terrorism, and the
problems of environmental sustainability becoming more urgent.

This article makes recommendations of modernising the composition of the US

Security Council to reflect the realities of the current geo-political environment,
granting the UN its own troops, and the organisation being granted with
instruments to deal with non-compliance on behalf of member countries.