The United Nations and Global Governance

Project Members: Ramesh Thakur and Thomas G. Weiss

The problématique of global governance is simply stated: the evolution of intergovernmental institutions to facilitate international cooperation and mute international conflict lags well behind the emergence of collective problems with trans-border and global dimensions.

Intended to help policymakers and members of the academic community map the intellectual history of the United Nations, The United Nations and Global Governance: An Unfinished Journey (Ramesh Thakur and Thomas G. Weiss, forthcoming 2009) is structured around five identified ‘gaps' that are said to exist between the nature of many current global problems and existing so-called solutions. These are described as knowledge gaps, normative gaps, policy gaps, institutional gaps and compliance gaps. As such, the work provides an in-depth examination of these gaps and the historical efforts to fill them.

The book will begin with an investigation of the evolution of global governance with a special emphasis on the last two decades when the term itself has become a central part of the public policy lexicon. It will then move on to provide substantive illustrations and analysis of what are believed to be the most pressing contemporary problems for international public policy across the three major areas of interests of the United Nations system (International Security, Development and Human Security). Within each chapter, the UN's special intellectual role will be emphasized.