Download Post-War Institutions

Post-War International
Institutions
Foundation of the U.N.
• June 26, 1945
• replace the League of Nations
• based in New York
Main Organs or Divisions
• Secretariat and Secretary General
• 5 year terms, 2x, rotating regions
• selected by GA on recommendation from SC
• Kofi Annan at present
• General Assembly
• includes all member nations, most poor, little real power
• passes non-binding resolutions
• Security Council
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5 permanent members--with vetoes
US, France, Britain, China (since ‘71 PRC), USSR (since ‘91, Russia)
10 elected from regional groupings in GA to 2 year terms
Chapter 7 UN Charter grants SC right to authorize use of force “to
maintain or restore international peace”
Main organs, contd
• Economic and Social Council
• 18 positions elected by GA each year, 3 year terms
• oversees specialized agencies concerned with development, health,
trade, etc.
• International Court of Justice
• 15 judges from 15 countries, selected by General Assembly and
Security Council
• resolve disputes between states--territorial, or conduct
Security Council track record on
using force
• 1950 SC authorizes use of force against N.
Korea
• Russia not present
• subsequently, SC a captive of the Cold War
• post cold war--a “new World Order?”
• SC authorizes force to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait 1990
• but not to invade Iraq in 2003
UN is not a “world government”
• no direct elections--members are states, not
citizens
• no standing army
Security Council Reform
• add new permanent members?
• Japan, India, Germany, Brazil, maybe
Nigeria
• resentments and problems
U.S. and the UN
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U.S. pays about 20% of UN budget
since the 1980s, derelict--paid in 2001
Kofi Annan’s reforms
U.S. calls for greater say on spending
Oil for food scandal
Bolton nomination
World Bank
• with IMF, part of “Bretton Woods” system
• originally for reconstruction of Europe, but
now development everywhere
• weighted voting, American boss
• projects often problematic--dams, airports,
highways, power plants, etc.
• recently some changes in outlook
• Conflicted interests
International Monetary Fund
• short-term loans to governments to stabilize
currencies
• also weighted voting
• loans come with strings
• recipient must live within means—”austerity programs”
• some changes here too--can consider
environment, democratization, education
European Union
• step by step--beginning in 50’s, cooperation
in coal and steel, atomic energy, trade
• countering destructive nationalism
• now 25 countries--worlds biggest and
richest block
• common currency, free trade and movement
EU
Institutions of the EU
• Council of Ministers
• contains ministers of member states--sets guidelines
• European Commission
• the bureaucracy which executes the guidelines
• European Parliament
• now directly elected, and with Council of Ministers, oversee European
Commission
United States of Europe?
• a small rapid reaction force by 2007
• failure of Constitutional ratifications
Future of Nation States
• erosion from above
• --UN, EU, NAFTA, WTO,
• erosion from below
• --”subnational” ethnicites