Ryan Herrboldt

Global Studies 195

Professor Blinnikov
June 10, 2016
Part One:

- There are currently 193 member states of the United Nations.

- Of the 193 member state, 15 states make up the United Nations Security Council. There are five
permanent members and ten non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The five permanent members are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. The ten non-permanent members are: Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

- The United Nations General Assembly includes a representative from each of the 193 member
states, and is involved in creating policy. These policies include peace and security concerns.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is more of a branch which enforces the policies
created by the General Assembly. I think of the relationship between the General Assembly and
the Security Council much like the relationship between the United States Congress and the
Office of the President of the United States. Policy is made by one organization and then enforced
by another.

- The United Nations is headquartered at 405 East 42nd Street in New York, New York, United
States.

- The current Secretary General of the United Nations is South Korean statesman, Ban Ki-moon.
Ban Ki-moon has served as the Secretary General since January 1, 2007.

- The United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is a permanent program of the
United Nations founded after World War II to provide both humanitarian and developmental
support for children and women in war-torn countries. Seventy years later UNICEF still aims to
provide that same support for women and children in developing nations. In 2008, UNICEF
received $3,372,540,239 in funding from governments and private donors. These funds were used
to help people in about 190 nations, through about 200 field offices. Most of UNICEFs work is
in the field, and is focused on community based outreach programs.

- The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized organization of the United Nations,
which means it enjoys a sense of autonomy from the United Nations while acting on behalf of it.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland the WHO is concerned with international public health
concerns. The primary current concerns of the WHO include: HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria,
tuberculosis, sexual/reproductive health, development, aging, nutrition, food security, healthy
 eating, occupational health, and substance abuse. The WHO also is a strong advocate for the
development of proper reporting, publishing, and networking of information related to public
health.

- The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is an agency of the United Nations which
helps coordinates environmental activities and feasible framework for environmental legislation
for developing nations. The UNEP founded in 1972, is based out of Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP is
involved in an extensive range of activities which include: the atmosphere, marine ecosystems,
terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance, and green economic activity. UNEP is known
for its significant role in organizing environmental conferences, promoting environmental
science, and role modeling how feasible acting environmentally friendly is in practice. UNEP has
worked to help clean up international trade, by assisting in the creation of guidelines and treaties.
UNEPs work has eliminated harmful chemicals formerly present in international commerce,
reduced air pollution related to trade, and has cleaned up commercial waterways.

Part Two:
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization composed
of the People's Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan,
and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan have been approved for membership, and are going through
the process of admittance. The two languages that are officially recognized by the SCO are
Mandarin Chinese and Russian. The current Secretary General of the SCO is Dmitry Fyodorovich
Mezentsev, a Russian statesman. Many of the member states, however, use different languages.
Xi Jinping, President of China speaks Mandarin Chinese, which is an official language of the
SCO. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, speaks Russian, which also is an official language of
the SCO. Emomali Rahmon, President of Tajikistan, speaks Tajik, however, I assume he speaks
Russian as well because Russian is also a widespread language in Tajikistan. The official
language of Kyrgyzstan is Russian, despite its official language being Kyrgyz, thus Kyrgyz
President Almazbek Atambayev has no problem conducting business in an official language of
the SCO. Kazakhstan also utilizes Russian as its official language, despite having Kazakh as its
state language, thus it is likely Kazakhstani President, Nursultan Nazarbayev conducts business
related to the SCO in Russian. In Uzbekistan, the official language is Uzbek, however, the
de-facto language is Russian, thus Uzbekistani President Islam Karimov most likely conducts
SCO related business in Russian. Pakistan may have a more difficult time adjusting to conduct
business as a member of the SCO, as Pakistans official languages are English and Urdu,
Pakistani President, Mamnoon Hussain will have to decide whether to utilize Russian or
Mandarin Chinese to represent his nation in the SCO. Indias President, Pranab Mukherjee also
will have to decide whether to use Russian or Mandarin Chinese to conduct SCO related business,
as the two official languages of his country are English and Hindi.

- Several difference exist between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The first difference is that the SCO is a military, political,
and economic alliance, meanwhile NATO is only a military alliance. Additionally, the
 relationship between CSO member states and NATO member states is significantly different.
NATO members are very cohesive, and typically have trust in one another. SCO member states
on the other hand distrust each other quite often. The two largest SCO nations, Russia and China
often experience tense relations as China is often trying to get money out of Russia, also Russia
and China experience disputes over Manchuria. More recently, Russia has kept a keen eye on the
military expansion of China. Additionally, historically Russia and China have invaded and
occupied its fellow SCO member which leads to further distrust among the alliance. In
conclusion, NATO is held together by trust and mutual interest, meanwhile the SCO is held
together by the hope of monetary gain.

Some of the issues facing the SCO in 2016 are:

- India and Pakistans formal admittance and how their disputes over Afghanistan and Central Asia
could reduce coherence within the alliance.
- Terrorism threats from Al Qaeda and more recently ISIS pose a concern to SCO member states.
- Russia backs Iranian membership into the SCO, if this prospect were to become more realistic in
2016, relations between Russia, the SCO, and the United States may become further strained.
- India hopes to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and is hoping fellow SCO member, China
will support the decision.

Part Three:

- The United Nations is currently composed of 193 member states. According to The Penguin State
of the World Atlas, pages 20-21 Africa appears to have the greatest number of recently sovereign
member states. Many nations in regions such as Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southern Asia.
The newly independent Eastern European and Central Asian nations gained independence
primarily due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Southern Asia I noticed that India, Pakistan,
Burma, etc are also relatively recently obtained independence, these nations much like most of
Africa are recently independent following World War II, when the European powers ceded
imperial interests. Despite the significant number of nations in Eastern Europe and Asia which
recently obtained sovereignty, Africa holds the greatest number of newly independent states. In
fact, Africa contained South Sudan, the worlds newest country. South Sudan obtained its
independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011. I would say that the region containing the greatest
number of dependent territories is the Caribbean. Many of the islands in the Caribbean are
controlled by either European nations or the United States. For example, Aruba is a Dutch
possession, Anguilla is a British possession, and the United States Virgin Islands are a U.S.
possession.

Population Numbers (2010)

China (PRC) 1,339,724,852
India 1,182,105,000

United States 309,349,689

Indonesia 237,641,326

Brazil 193,252,604

Pakistan 173,510,000

Nigeria 158,258,917

Bangladesh 148,600,000

Russia 142,849,472

Japan 128,056,000

Population Number (2015)

China (PRC) 1,372,000,000

India 1,314,000,000

United States 321,000,000

Indonesia 256,000,000

Brazil 205,000,000

Pakistan 199,000,000

Nigeria 182,000,000

Bangladesh 160,000,000

Russia 144,000,000

Mexico 127,000,000

- I was surprised that according to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) that Mexico was placed
in tenth place in 2015 with a population of about 127,000,000, whereas Japan who was reported
to have a population of about 128,000,000 was not present in the PBRs top ten ranking in 2015. I
believe that this occurred simply due to reporting discrepancies and different data collection
between the two different organizations who provided the data. The top nine most populated
 countries remained the same since 2010, each in the same order. I noticed that nations such as
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (most of South Asia for that matter) grow faster than the other
top countries such as the United States, Russia, Brazil and China. Additionally, it should be noted
however, out of all the top ten fastest growing nations, Nigeria, located in Africa is the fastest
growing country in the world.

- Pakistan, Guyana, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia are all examples of nations which have no
majority groups within their society. India, is the largest example of a nation with no majority
group. In India the political system is altered to help foster the nations significant diversity. First
off let us note that India has two official languages, those being English and Hindi. Additionally,
in India there are numbers of political offices which are reserved for people of a certain ethnic
background and/or gender. In India a significant portion of the seats in parliament, state
assemblies, and local bodies are reserved for Dalits, the oppressed groups of people. These
Dalits are organized into Scheduled Castes and 84 seats in the Indian Parliament are reserved
for members of the Special Castes. Anglo-Indians are the only group who is allowed an
appointment to the Lok Sabah (lower house of parliament). The reason Anglo-Indians are
afforded this privilege is because they are the only group of Indians who do not have an ethnic
state or region within India. It also should be noted that women receive a one-third reservation in
Gram Panchayats, which means village or municipal government.

- I believe that the regions that attract the most migrants are North America, Australia, and Europe.
The reason I believe that migrants are attracted to these nations is primarily due to the advanced
economies present. All of these regions have advanced economies, which recognized the benefits
immigration has economically, thus these regions typically are more welcoming of diversity.
Additionally, migrants may be attracted by the wealth, employment opportunities, and liberties
provided in these regions of the world. An example of groups here in Minnesota are Somali and
Hmong people who have fled their native lands to escape war and violence. I also would like to
mention that many nations in Western and Southwest Asia have high populations of migrants.
Examples include Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait. The reasons these nations have many migrants
residing within their borders is because of the need for labor. Quatar, Kuwait, the UAE are
developing at a rapid pace due to wealth from oil, thus they import labor.

- There are currently United Nations peacekeeping missions in the following nations: Western
Sahara, Liberia, Cote dIvoire, Sudan, Congo, South Sudan, Mali, Haiti, Kashmir, Cyprus,
Kosovo, Darfur, Lebanon, East Timor, and Syria. The newest mission is the United Nations
Mission in South Sudan, which was established on July 9, 2011. This UN peacekeeping mission
was established when South Sudan obtained its independence from Sudan. The mission is
essentially to provide stability while South Sudan tries to establish its government, and security
forces. However, this mission is not focused on protecting territory belonging to South Sudan, but
rather focused on the protection of civilians living in South Sudan. Through this UN mission,
South Sudan hopes to obtain tools to assist in state building, economic development, conflict
prevention, and establishment of rule of law. I was surprised to learn that a majority of the
peacekeepers working for the United Nations come from South Asia. I was surprised by this, I
 thought that Western nations such as the U.K., the U.S., Germany, France, Canada, and Australia
would provide the most peacekeepers. However, I learned that many Western nations are cutting
back on there peacekeeping missions. Meanwhile, South Asian nations such as India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Nepal. The reason I learned that these nations are providing so many UN
peacekeepers is because of the pay. Members of the military in many South ASian nations make a
lot more money working as a peacekeeper for the United Nations than they would performing
operations for their country. Additionally, many South Asian nations commit large numbers of
peacekeepers to obtain political power. India, for example has based its argument for a permanent
seat on the United Nations Security Council based upon the number of peacekeepers it provides.
Another motivator for some of these economically disadvantaged South Asian nations in training
for its troops. By committing peacekeepers to the United Nations, those peacekeepers also receive
training for free, this training helps benefit their home country.

- Some examples of monarchies are the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

- Two examples of military dictatorships are Fiji and Mauritania.

- Somalia and Guinea-Bissau are examples of failed states.

- Some examples of one party states are the Peoples Republic of China, Cameroon, Belarus, and
Kazakhstan.

- Some examples of democracies in Africa include: Cape Verde, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Senegal,
Ghana, and Benin.