IAFF 1005 Lecture 18: Tuesday: Lecture #18
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Tuesday Lecture: Global Governance and International Institutions
I. Global governance
A. The idea of international law / world federation does back centuries
B. Wanted perpetual peace with a democratic-republican government back in the 1700s
C. The League of Nations
C.1. Worked in the 1920s - meant to be a collective security organization
C.2. Failed in the 1930s - Manchuria, Ethiopia, Germany/Europe
C.3. Europeans were resistant to risk another war and US was absent/isolationism
C.4. Collective action problems
D.
D.1. US proposed handing over its nuclear weapons to the UN to avoid WWIII
D.2. Making people think about what to do about nuclear weapons and how to avoid
worse conflict
D.3. JFK and others wanted to bring the UN further - saw it as a foundation
E. World government explorations 1940s-1950s
E.1. Organizations - United World Federalists, Student Federalists, Committee to
Frame the World Constitution
E.2. Textbook: World Peace Through World Law
E.3. Proposals: “general and complete disarmament”
F. The Cold War Coma
F.1. Proposals for world government ended by the Cold War
F.2. East-West ideological divide, global conflict for power
F.3. International peace and security was the goal
F.4. UN paralyzed, especially on peace and security issues
G. End of the Cold War
G.1. Gridlock → replaced by the possibility of cooperation on peace and security
issues
G.2. New term “global governance” started in the 1990s in post-conflict
reconstruction
H. Definitions
H.1. “What world government we actually have”
H.2. The sum of global capacities to “identity, understand, and address trans-
boundary problems” -Thomas Weiss
H.3. Global capacities to promote international solutions to international problems
I. Dimensions
I.1. Actors at every level → states/governments, intergovernmental organizations (global and
regional like the UN), NGOs and civil society, private sector
I.2. Laws and policies
I.3. Norms and values
J. International problems require international solutions
J.1.Cross-border problems require multilateral actions
J.2.Even the most powerful states need partners
J.3.Some problems require near-global engagement
J.4.International cooperation isn’t optional; its essential
K.
K.1. Decentralized international system
K.2. With more NGOs in the system there are more world actors
K.3. More conductivity than before
K.4. CHanging dynamics of the international policy agenda, it is more complex and
fast-moving than before and it makes it harder to manage and solve the problems
L. Enhanced threats
L.1. Information revolution/cyber-security
L.2. Global economy
L.3. Terrorism, transnational crime
L.4. Weapon proliferation
L.5. Climate change, environmental problems
L.6. Pandemics, global health
M.
M.1. Always have free-rider problems
M.2. All operate at every level but when you look at the global level and look at
organizations like the UN the problems are magnified even more
N. Why this matters
N.1. “International problems require international solutions”
N.2. There are gaps between the magnitude of the world’s policy problems and
collective capacities
N.2.a) Gaps in policy actions, eg. poverty alleviation
N.2.b) Gaps vary from issue to issue and from region to region
N.2.c) Some gaps may be growing
N.3. Mind the gap between the global problems and the global capacities
II. The United Nations
A. “The purpose of the UN is not to get us to heaven but to save us from hell” -Dag Hammarskjold
Document Summary
Global governance: the idea of international law / world federation does back centuries, wanted perpetual peace with a democratic-republican government back in the 1700s, the league of nations. Worked in the 1920s - meant to be a collective security organization. Failed in the 1930s - manchuria, ethiopia, germany/europe. Europeans were resistant to risk another war and us was absent/isolationism. Us proposed handing over its nuclear weapons to the un to avoid wwiii. Making people think about what to do about nuclear weapons and how to avoid worse conflict: world government explorations 1940s-1950s. Jfk and others wanted to bring the un further - saw it as a foundation. Organizations - united world federalists, student federalists, committee to. Proposals: general and complete disarmament : the cold war coma. Proposals for world government ended by the cold war. Un paralyzed, especially on peace and security issues. Gridlock replaced by the possibility of cooperation on peace and security.
