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What’s wrong with the United Nations? (And why nobody cares)

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Abstract

This study presents some basic, simple, and politically feasible ideas to reform and improve the United Nations. After a brief but necessary review of the evolution of the United Nations organization, this study will focus its analysis on five concrete key problematic areas of the UN, including the management, financing, accountability, human resources and leadership aspects of the UN. In all of these areas, the Secretary-General enjoys enough power to introduce substantive change, by himself. In other words, the reforms we are proposing here do not necessarily require the agreement of the Security Council, making these reform policies politically feasible. Additionally, this study tries to approach the United Nations both from a practitioner ‘insider view,’ – as the author has worked for the UN for more than 10 years – and from an academic ‘outsider view.’ The synthesis of this dual approach pictures a unique portrait of the UN as it is, and as it could become.

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Correspondence to Cristián Giménez Corte.

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Giménez Corte, C. What’s wrong with the United Nations? (And why nobody cares). Int Polit Rev 6, 30–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41312-018-0061-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41312-018-0061-9

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