Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The United Nations and Global Public Goods: Historical Contributions and Future Challenges

  • Chapter
International Development Policy: Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies

Part of the book series: International Development Policy ((IDP))

  • 459 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explores the thesis that the United Nations’ (UN) most important contribution to the production of global public goods has been its role in creating the space and capacity to generate shared values. Starting with the UN Charter itself, the chapter traces the evolution of this contribution through different historical phases. It analyses the impact of globalisation on the role of the UN; in particular it identifies the quality of porousness as a product of globalisation which is critical to understanding the current challenges faced by the UN as well as central to the global public goods agenda. Through this lens the author briefly reviews the evolution of the UN’s role in the fields of peace and security, human rights and development cooperation. He concludes by identifying eight levers for change that will determine the UN’s ability to contribute significantly to the global public goods: the generation of norms and shared values, the quality of leadership, improved governance, innovative financing, institutional realignment, the further consolidation of legal instruments, focus, and the power of networks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References and Further Reading

  • Auletta, K. (2009) Googled: The End of the World as We Know it (New York and London: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, S. (2007) Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bobbitt, P. (2008) Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Knopf).

    Google Scholar 

  • Boutros-Ghali, B. (1992) An Agenda for Peace. Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peace-Keeping: Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to the Statement Adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992, A/47/277-S/24111 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • Boutros-Ghali, B. (1995) Supplement to an Agenda for Peace: Position Paper of the Secretary-General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, A/50/60-S/1995/1 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict (1997) Human Security Now (New York: Carnegie Corporation).

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Global Governance (1995) Our Global Neighbourhood (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Human Security (2003) Final Report (New York: Human Security Commission).

    Google Scholar 

  • DAC (Development Assistance Committee) (1996) Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Cooperation (Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyle, M. and N. Sambanis (2007) ‘Peacekeeping Operations’, in Weiss, T.G. and S. Daws, The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Franck, T. and G. Nolte (1993) ‘The Good Offices Function of the UN Secretary-General’, in Roberts, A. and B. Kingsbury (eds) United Nations, Divided World: The UN’s Roles in International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd ed.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (2000) Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping Our Lives (New York: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Glemarec, Y. (2011) Catalyzing Climate Finance: A Guidebook on Policy and Financing Options to Support Green, Low-Emission and Climate-Resilient Development (New York: United Nations Development Programme).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammarskjöld, D. (1961) The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact: A Lecture Delivered to Congregation on 30 May 1961 (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001) Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre).

    Google Scholar 

  • International Task Force on Global Public Goods (2006) Meeting Global Challenges: International Cooperation in the National Interest (Stockholm: International Task Force on Global Public Goods).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jolly, R., L. Emmerij and T.G. Weiss (2009) UN Ideas that Changed the World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, B., C. Pascual and S.J. Stedman (2009) Power and Responsibility: Building International Order in an Era of Transnational Threats (Washington, DC: Brookings Institutions Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, P. (2006) The Parliament of Man: The United Nations and the Quest for World Government (London: Allen Lane).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkpatrick, D. (2010) The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World (New York: Simon and Schuster).

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFarlane, N. and Y. Khong (2006) Human Security and the UN: A Critical History (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L. (1999) ‘The Political Economy of Global Public Goods’, in Kaul, I., I. Grunberg and M.A. Stern (eds) Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • May, C. (2007) The World Intellectual Property Organization: Resurgence and the Development Agenda (London: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitrany, D. (1943) A Working Peace System (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitrany, D. (1975) The Functional Theory of Politics (London: M. Robertson on behalf of the London School of Economics and Political Science).

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M. (1995) Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government (London: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramcharan, B.G. (2007) Preventive Diplomacy at the UN (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirky, C. (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations (New York: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, N. (1993) ‘The UN and the Development of International Law’, in Roberts, A. and B. Kingsbury (eds) United Nations, Divided World: The UN’s Roles in International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd ed.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, A-M. (2004) A New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern, N. (2007) The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, J.E. (1995) The Theory of International Public Goods and the Architecture of International Organisations, Background Paper no. 7 (New York: United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis).

    Google Scholar 

  • Traub, J. (2007) ‘The Secretary-General’s Political Space’, in Chesterman, S. (ed.) Secretary or General? The UN Secretary-General in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Foundation (2011) Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies, www.unfoundation.org/disaster-report (accessed on 30 August 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations General Assembly (2005) 2005 World Summit Outcome, A/RES/60/1 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (2010) Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture, Final Report, http://www.betterpeace.org/node/1564 (accessed on 30 August 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Secretary-General (2001) Prevention of Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General, A/55/985-S/2001/574 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Secretary-General (2006) Delivering as One: Report of High Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence in the Areas of DevelopmentHumanitarian Assistance and the Environment, A/61/583 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Secretary-General (2009) Implementing the Responsibility to Protect. Report of the Secretary-General, A/63/677 (New York: United Nations).

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, T.G. and R.C. Thakur (2010) Global Governance and the UN: An Unfinished Journey (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2011) World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development (Washington, DC: The World Bank).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zoellick, R.B. (2010) The End of the Third World? Modernizing Multilateralism for a Multipolar World, speech at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars, http://go.worldbank.org/BST6SVQC40 (accessed on 30 August 2011).

    Google Scholar 

Websites

Download references

Authors
  1. Bruce Jenks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2012 Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Jenks, B. (2012). The United Nations and Global Public Goods: Historical Contributions and Future Challenges. In: International Development Policy: Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies. International Development Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-00357-7_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation