Would The World Be Better Without The USmmary

The global issue raised in the article “Would the World be Better Without the UN” by Thomas G Weiss, the Presidential Professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, is the importance and relevance of Intergovernmental Organizations on the world stage in reference to the global distribution of power. The article poses an argument that debates the perspectives of supporting the continued propensity of the United Nations as an interstate actor that serves as the forum to which decisions between states can be made. The main purposes of the United Nations that give way to the issue of the organization not effectively fulfilling its role are described as the “three

He believes that in order for global issues to be solved they need to be met with global solutions that can be drawn up and facilitated by strong intergovernmental organizations. He criticizes the irony that the demand for this type of governance is high yet the supply that supports them is consistently being lowered as a result of their ineffectiveness on the world stage which stems from the amount of resources they are allotted (37). The author thoroughly gets his point across by first expressing the necessity of the United Nations. He creates a hypothetical situation in which UN efforts are absent. Then he observes the dilemma that becomes present which is that without the infrastructure another organization would have to be created in order to fill the void and yet still could not be as impactful or efficient. Weiss asks “where would the world would be with a body solely set up to act as an arena for discussions, with no autonomous capacity for gener­ating ideas, norms, and principles or for helping to test or implement them. It would have a minimum number of staff, presumably composed exclusively of ex-diplomats or facilitators with experience in bringing groups with differences together and helping to resolve disagreements, but with few ideas or initiatives of their own (31).” Essentially, he reveals that the UN not only

In order to understand the relationships and issues being raised at a global and domestic level of analysis needs to be taken into view. The domestic level concerns itself with the clusters of individuals within the states that have an impact on its actions on the global stage. These clusters are in the form of interests groups, political organizations, and government agencies that concern themselves with domestic policies. The third level of analysis is international and explores the relationship between states and organizations which accurately depicts the current dynamic between states and membership in the United Nations. The issue goes deeper in the relationship between the domestic and international levels as seen in Weiss’ example of human rights. He emphasizes that “the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples as well as the prevention of torture and genocide figure in many UN job descriptions. Because their mandates put human values ahead of economic concerns and efficiency, they often clash with the interests of governments and markets, and they call for more political and financial support that governments are prepared to provide (32).” The debate over the amount of support each nation should and is obligated to put into these efforts have to lead to many disagreements and