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Thakur, R. - 'Multilateral Diplomacy and the United Nations: Global Governance Venue or Actor?
In James P Muldoon, JaAnn Fagot Aviel, Richard Reitano and Earl Sullivan (ed.), The New Dynamics of Multilateralism: Diplomacy, International Organisations, and Global Governance, Westview Press, Boulder: 2011, Colorado, pp. 249-65.

Notes:
The article explores the question whether the UN can be regarded as an actor in its own right, or whether it is better to conceive it simply as a forum for multilateral diplomacy Is the UN and agent? Does it have it its own policies? o Whether or not, the UN rests in the centre of the contemporary global governance Global gov. = sum of laws, norms, policies, and institutions that define, constitute and mediate relations between citizens, societies, markets, and states on the world stage, the wielder and object of the exercise of international public power 250 o Global governance poses a paradox = the policy authority is vested in sovereign states, while challenges are transnational, global and regional; states find it impossible to tackle challenges on their own o Therefore the UN as facilitator of global governance; to mute conflict and facilitate coop. o Who are the actors relevant policymakers in the UN system? Are IOs actors or venues? Actors have proliferated, multiplied and diversified IOs are in a certain respect actors in the intl arena But it depends how we look at it: Realist? Liberal? Principal-actor theorist? Revised principal-agent theory + constructivism: UN specialized agencies have considerable amount of autonomy Policy is no longer dictated by states, it is steered; agents can go principal-shopping What is action? Policy is not just a governing principle, but also activity requires agency and purposive action. Layers of the UN: 1) member states; 2) secretariats; 3) aligned agents (experts, academics, NGOs, independent commissions) Phases of a policy: 1) formulation; 2) adoption; 3) implementation The UN through its action creates policy, policy that states themselves often previously did not intend o The General Assembly and Security Council are indeed the policymakers. But those are intergovernmental forums. o Policies are implemented by individual states, but formulated by the IG forums, which also invite non-state agents to participate at various points The UN has its policies and its distinct identity o Policies like decolonization, anti-racism o Identity based on creating a peaceful and responsible world-system, from which policies follow such as commitment to disarmament, human rights protection, management of the commons, The UN as a funnel, a forum and a font o A funnel: the UN generally does not produce the impulse, it gathers voices 1

simon.fiala@seznam.cz A forum: the UN houses fragments of humanity and voices the collective voice of the international community o A font: the UN lends legitimacy and authority to international norms; it guards the global norms and regimes and enforces compliance even if not supported by any particular treaty (e.g. the anti-nuclear norm) The UN as the guardian and negotiator of global norms and regimes o E.g. The responsibility to protect o Renegotiation of rights and responsibilities Westphalia sys.: State may legitimately engage in an armed conflict (it is its right), other states may prevent by balancing state is obliged to serve its people The UN: proliferation of norms that circumscribe nations right to engage in armed conflict and magnify nations responsibility to their people Intervention proscribing principle of sovereignty vs. intervention prescribing principle of human rights Humanitarian intervention the responsibility to protect The UN assembled its own knowledge as often as it functioned as a venue for its assembly o The UN actively ventured to forge and proliferate norms corresponding with its mission to champion peace and responsibility o It is an efficient forum for transformation of norms into laws Soft law (resolutions and declarations) into hard law (conventions and treaties) o Through sustaining various actors the UN makes an ideal foundry for global norms from their inception (provides organizational platform for norm entrepreneurs), through nurturing (provides forum for norm champions) to their final adoption (facilitates affirmation by norm brokers, provides legitimacy) Therefore, the distinction between the UN being a forum or an actor is artificial the UN is both o