Global Governance Flashcards
Define the UNITED NATIONS
The UN was set up at the end of World War II to maintain peace and security amongst states, the successor to the League of Nations.
Other purposes:
- Protect human rights
- Promote social progress and better standards of living
- Uphold respect for international law
- Protect the environment
Define the UNSC
The UNSC is the executive arm of the UN. Its primary responsibility is the maintenance of international peace and security. It is made up of 15 members; 5 are permanent and 10 are rotational.
Define the P5
The P5 is a term used to refer to the 5 permanent members of the UNSC. They are the USA, the UK, France, China and Russia.
Define ECOSOC
The ECOSOC is the central forum for discussing economic and social issues within the UN. Very bureaucratic and therefore inefficient.
Define the ICJ
The ICJ is the judicial arm of the UN. It makes rulings on state v. state disputes and gives non binding advisory opinions when asked to do so by UN organs and agencies.
EXAMPLE: It advised Israel against the legality of its West Bank border wall).
Define the SECRETARIAT
The most important administrative organ of the UN that helps to organise other UN bodies.
Define PEACEKEEPING
Peacekeeping is essentially a (military) technique designed to preserve the peace, however fragile, where fighting has been halted, and to assist in implementing agreements achieved by the peacemakers.
EXAMPLES: Currently there are 15 peacekeeping operations involving 93,900 deployed uniformed personnel.
Define PEACEBUILDING
Peacebuilding is a multidimensional peacekeeping operation. It recognises that peacekeeping is not merely a military operation but has important political, social and economic dimensions, aimed, ultimately, at state-building. Requires a lot of money.
EXAMPLES: East Timor, Kosovo.
FAILURES: Bosnia, Rwanda.
Define RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT
Responsibility to protect is a UN principle adopted in 2005 that involves unambiguous acceptance of collective international responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
EXAMPLES: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and East Timor.
Define the MDGs
The MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) were a set of 8 goals developed by the UN that aimed, by 2015, to improve lives through reducing poverty, reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.
Define the SDGs
The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) are a set of 17 new targets developed by the UN, headlined by no poverty and no hunger by 2030. Adopted by more than 150 world leaders.
Define INTERGOVERNMENTALISM
Intergovernmentalism is any form of interaction between states that takes place on the basis of sovereign independence. Sovereignty is preserved through unanimous decision-making that gives each state a veto, at least over matters of vital national importance.
Define SUPRANATIONALISM
Supernationalism is interactions between states where a large amount of power is given to an authority which is then, in theory, placed higher than the state.
Define the BRETTON WOODS SYSTEM
The Bretton Woods System was a framework of norms, rules, and understanding to counter pre-WW2 economic instability set up in 1944.
Define the IMF
The IMF is a leading IGO with 189 members. It works to ensure financial stability around the world, with its most important function being a lender of last resort to states in debt. Its leader is always European and deputy always American.
Define the WTO
The World Trade Organisation is an international institution set up in 1995 as a permanent successor to GATT. It regulates international trade, aims to promote freer trade and is the main forum of trade negotiation between states.
Define the G7/G8
The Group of Eight is an informal but exclusive body whose members set out to tackle global challenges through discussion and action. Russia is currently suspended from the G8 following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Define the G20
The G20 is an international forum created in response to growing recognition that the G8 did not adequately represent emerging market countries in core global economic discussion and governance. Made up of 19 countries plus the EU.
Define the WASHINGTON CONSENSUS
The Washington Consensus is a term used to describe the policies of the IMF and World Bank which set out a view as to how reconstruction of the developing world economies should take place.
Define TRANSITION COUNTRIES
Transition countries are former Soviet-bloc countries that are in the process of transition from central planning to market capitalism.
Define GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE
Global economic governance is the framework of coordination and management that is facilitated by bodies such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This framework was established by the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement.
Define NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is an intergovernmental regional political and military alliance founded in 1949. The central aim of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members by political or military means. It has 29 members.
Define NEO-COLONIALISM
Neo-colonialism is a process through which the developed world controls developing states through economic domination, as opposed to direct political or military control.
Define SAPs
Structural Adjustment Programmes are policies designed to control to economies of weaker nations as a condition of loan finance given by the WB and IMF. They involve a process of economic reform, usually involving liberalisation of the economy and reduction of trade barriers to promote free trade.
