LESSON 4: THE UNITED
NATIONS AND GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
Although many internationalists like Bentham and Kant imagined the
possibility of a global government, nothing of the sort exists today.
There is no one organization that various states are accountable to.
Moreover, no organization can militarily compel a state to obey
predetermined global rules.
There are many sources of global governance. States sign treaties and
form organizations, in the process legislating public international law
(international rules that govern interactions between states as opposed
to, say, private companies).
International non-governmental organizations (NGOs), though not
having formal state power, can lobby individual states to behave in a
certain way.
WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION?
One major fallacy about international organization is that they are
merely amalgamations of various state interests. In the 1960s and 1970s,
many scholars believed that IOs were just venues where the
contradicting, but sometimes intersecting, agendas of all countries were
discussed-no more than talk shops. What has become more evident in
recent years, however, is that IOs can take on lives of their own.
First, IOs have the power of classification. Because IOs can invent and
apply categories, they create powerful global standards.
Second, IOs have the power to fix meanings. This is a broader function
related to the first. Various terms like "security" or "development" need
to be well-defined. States, organizations, and individuals view IOs as
legitimate sources of information.
As such, the meanings they create have effects on various policies.
Finally, IOs have the power to diffuse norms. Norms are accepted codes
of conduct that may not be strict law, but nevertheless produce regularity
in behavior.
IOs do not only classify and fix meanings; they also spread their ideas
across the world, thereby establishing global standards.
Their members are, as Barnett and Finnemore emphasized, the
"missionaries" of our time. Because of these immense powers, IOs can
be sources of great good and great harm.
They can promote relevant norms like environmental protection and
human rights. But, like other entrenched bureaucracies, they can become
sealed-off communities that fail to challenge their beliefs.
For example, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
famously criticized the IMF for using a "one-size-fits-all" approach
when its economists made recommendations to developing countries.
THE UNITED NATIONS
The result was the creation of the UN. Although the organization is far
from perfect, it should be emphasized that it has so far achieved its
primary goal of averting another global war.
For this reason alone, the UN should be considered a success. The UN is
divided into five active organs. The General Assembly (GA) is UN's
"main deliberative policymaking and representative organ."
According to the UN charter, "Decisions on important questions, such as
those on peace and security, admission of new members, and budgetary
matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.
Decisions on other questions are done by simple majority. Annually, the
General Assembly elects a GA President to serve a one-year term of
office."
All member states (currently at 193) have seats in the GA. The
Philippines played a prominent role in the GA's early years when
Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected GA president from
1949-1950.
According to the UN, this body consists of 15 member states. The GA
elects ten of these 15 to two-year terms. The other five-sometimes
referred to as the Permanent 5 (P5)-are China, France, Russia, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
These states have been permanent members since the founding of the
UN, and cannot be replaced through election. The SC takes the lead in
determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression.
The third UN organ is the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),
which is "the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy
dialogue, and recommendations on social and environmental issues, as
well as the implementation of internationally agreed development
goals."
The fourth is the International Court of Justice whose task "is to settle, in
accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states
and to give advisory opinions referred to it by authorized United Nations
organs and specialized agencies."
CHALLENGES OF UNITED
NATIONS
The UN is not a world government, and it functions primarily because of
voluntary cooperation from states. If states refuse to cooperate, the
influence of the UN can be severely circumscribed.
The UN Security Council is tasked with authorizing international acts of
military intervention. Because of the P5's veto power, it is tough for the
council to release a formal resolution, much more implement it.
Today, a similar dynamic is evident in Syria, which is undergoing a civil
war.
Russia has threatened to veto any SC resolution against Syria; thus, the
UN has done very little to stop state-sanctioned violence against
opponents of the government.
Since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an ally of Russian dictator
Vladimir Putin, the latter has shied away from any policy that could
weaken the legitimacy of the former.
As a result, the UN is again ineffectual amid a conflict that has led to
over 220.000 people dead and 11 million displaced.
The UN Security Council has been wrong on issues of intervention, but
it has also made right decisions. When the United States sought to
invade Iraq in 2001, it claimed that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) that threatened the world.
However, UN members Russia, China, and France were unconvinced
and vetoed the UN resolution for intervention, forcing the United States
to lead a small "coalition of the willing" with its allies. It has since been
discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and the
invasion of Iraq has caused problems for the country and the region that
last until today.
CONCLUSION
Global governance is such a complex issue that one can actually teach
an entire course in itself. This lesson has focused on the IOS and the
United Nations in particular
International organizations are highlighted because they are the most
visible symbols of global governance. The UN, in particular, is the
closest to a world government What is important to remember is that
international institutions like the UN are always in a precarious position.
On the one hand, they are groups of sovereign states. On the other, they
are organizations with their own rationalities and agendas. It is this
tension that will continue to inform the evolution of these organizations.
LESSON 5: WORLDS OF
REGIONS
Globalization has made people aware of the world in general, but it has
also made Filipinos more cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast
Asia.
Regionalism is often seen as a political & economic phenomenon, it can
be examined in relation to identities, ethics, religion, ecological
sustainability, & health. It is also a process and must be treated as an
"emergent, socially constituted phenomenon. Meaning regions are not
natural, they are constructed & defined by policymakers, economic
actors, and even social movements.
COUNTRIES, REGIONS,
AND GLOBALIZATION
Regions are a group of countries located in the same geographic
location. Regionalization refers to the regional concentration of
economic flows, while Regionalism is a political process characterized
by economic policy cooperation & coordination among countries.
Countries respond economically and politically to globalization in
various ways. Some are large enough and have a lot of resources to
dictate how they participate in processes of global integration.
China, for example, offers its cheap and huge workforce to attract
foreign businesses and expand trade with other countries.
Other countries make up for their small size by taking advantage of their
strategic location. Singapore and Switzerland compensate for their lack
of resources by turning themselves into financial and banking hubs.
Countries form regional associations for several reasons. One is for
military defense. The most widely known defense grouping is the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed during the Cold War
when several Western European countries plus the United States agreed
to protect Europe against the threat of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union responded by creating its regional alliance, the
Warsaw Pact, consisting of the Eastern European countries under Soviet
domination. The Soviet Union imploded in December 1991, but NATO
remains in place.
Countries also form regional organizations to pool their resources, get
better returns for their exports, as well as expand their leverage against
trading partners.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was
established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela
to regulate the production and sale of oil.
This regional alliance flexed its muscles in the 1970s when its member
countries took over domestic production and dictated crude oil prices in
the world market.
In a world highly dependent on oil, this integration became a source of
immense power. OPEC's success convinced nine other oil producing
countries to join it.
The presidents of Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia
created the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 196) to pursue world
peace and international cooperation, human rights, national sovereignty,
racial and national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful conflict
resolution.
Economic crisis compels countries together. The Thai economy
collapsed in 1996 after foreign currency speculators &troubled
international banks demanded that the Thai government Ipay back its
loans.
International Monetary Fund tried to ASEAN countries along with
China, Japan & South Korea agreed to establish an emergency fund to
anticipate a crisis that the Asian economics stabilized. The crisis made
ASEAN more "unified & coordinated".
 NON – STATE
integration, it will also be hard for them to turn their backs on their
regions.

REGIONALISM Even if the UK leaves the EU it must continue to trade with its
immediate neighbors and will therefore, be forced to implement many
EU rules. None of this is to say that regional organizations will remain
The ASEAN issued its Human Rights Declaration in 2009, but the
unaltered.
regional body left it to member countries to apply the declaration's
principles as they see fit. The history of regionalism shows that regional associations emerge as
new global concerns arise. The future of regionalism will be contingent
Democratic rights are limited in many ASEAN countries, "new
on the immense changes in global politics that will emerge in the 21"
regionalism" organizations used this official declaration to pressure
century.
these governments to pass laws & regulations that protect & promote
human rights.

In the Southeast Asia, the organization of an ASEAN Parliamentarians

for Human Rights was in part the results of non- government
organizations & civil society groups pushing to "prevent discrimination,
uphold political freedom, and promote democracy & human rights
throughout the region.

CONTEMPORARY
CHALLENGES TO
REGIONALISM
Today, regionalism faces multiple challenges, the most serious of which
is the resurgence of militant nationalism & populism. The refusal to
dismantle NATO after the collapse of the anti-NATO rhetoric of
Vladimir Putin in Russia.

European Union is the most crisis-ridden regional organization of today.

Recently, ASEAN countries also disagreed over how to relate China,

with the Philippines unable to get the other countries to support its
condemnation of China's occupation of the West Philippine Sea.

Cambodia & Laos led the opposition favoring diplomacy over

confrontation, but the real reason was the dramatic increase of Chinese
investments & economic aid to these countries.

Singapore, China & Russia see democracy as an obstacle to the

implementation & deepening of economic globalization because
constant public inquiry about economic projects & lengthy debate slow
down implementation or lead to unclear outcomes. Democracy's tedious
procedures must, therefore, give way to efficiency.

CONCLUSION
Official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the world. The
population of the countries that joined the Asia Pacific Economic
Council (APEC) alone comprised 37 the world's population in 2007.

These countries are also part of "smaller organizations that include the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Caribbean
and Pacific Group of States, and the Union of South American Nations.

Even "isolationist" North Korea is part of the Regional Forum, what

discusses security issues in the region. percent of in the same way the
countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global economic