Global Governance: Political

Question 1

What is a world government?

Answer 1

A unification of all states under one single political authority, with the same laws and institutions for all.

Question 2

What is the issue with a world government?

Answer 2

• States have a far too wide a variety of government systems to agree on one to use
• States have a wild amount of tension that inhibit cooperation on such a level
• States have independent militaries that allow them to refuse enforced law

Question 3

Give three issues that require global governance.

Answer 3

• Terrorism
• Climate change
• World poverty

Question 4

How do different systems of government make global governance difficult?

Answer 4

• Rogue states have no intention to be involved in almost any forms of global governance
• Failed states struggle to be involved due to their lack of control of their region
• Powerful states can pick and choose what agreements to be a part of, rendering the system moot

Question 5

Aside for governments, what is the main issue with global governance?

Answer 5

Its all voluntary, states have to opt in and can opt out if they want to with very little enforcement power to stop them, rendering the system moot.

Question 6

What are the three main types of political global governance?

Answer 6

• IGOs
• International treaties
• Ad hoc meetings

Question 7

Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of IGOs

Answer 7

+ They act as a permenant forum for debate which can sustain long-term projects; the UN’s SDGs and MDGs having spanned 25 years so far
+ Good for smaller countries with less power; the UN charter is based on ‘sovereign equality of states’
- Requires collective determination of states in goals; declining defence spending in NATO
- Bad for smaller states if powers become entrenched; UNSC P5 vetoes

Question 8

Give 2 advantages and disadvantages of international treaties

Answer 8

+ States are more likely to follow agreements they have personally agreed to; Kyoto (1997) and NDCs
+ Allows states to work together without huge levels of comitment to one another; the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nucler Weapons
- States can choose not to sign or ratify the treaties; India and Pakistan did not sign NPT and now have nuclear capabilities
- States can violate treaties with no higher authority; North Korea left the NPT and gained nuclear capacities in 2003

Question 9

Give an advantage and disadvantage of ad hoc meetings.

Answer 9

+ Allow states to quickly respond to emergencies and organise collective solutions; the G8 meeting following the 2008 global recession
- Agreements are entirely informal and unenforceable

Question 10

What was the context of the creation of the UN?

Answer 10

The UN was built both in the wake of the catastrophic effects of WWII and the failure of its predecessor, the League of Nations, to stop it.

Question 11

What was the issue with the League of Nations

Answer 11

It consisted of a limited number of nations and major powers had the ability to leave or couldn’t join at all.

Question 12

What are the 5 main aims of the UN, according to the UN Charter?

Answer 12

• To maintain international peace and security
• To maintain friendly relations
• To encourage respect for international law
• To promote social progress and a better standard of living

Question 13

What are the current challenges facing the UN?

Answer 13

• Climate change
• Human rights
• Limiting the spread of nuclear weapons
• Peace and security
• Promoting sustainable development

Question 14

How does climate change provide the UN with problems? How have they gone about tackling it?

Answer 14

The UN has to deal with the dual problem that climate change has to be addressed by everyone and the growing populism paired with climate scepticism; organs like the UNFCCC have worked together to increase cooperation and the IPCC has tried to address climate scepticism with neutral data.

Question 15

How do human rights provide the UN with problems? How have they gone about tackling it?

Answer 15

Human rights remain contentious: the level of enforcement, the agreement over their need, the agreement over specific rights like freedom of speech. The UDHR has been signed by all 193 states in the UN, acting as a non-binding symbolic agreement; more binding covenants have also been made, such as the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).

Question 16

How have nuclear weapons provide the UN with problems? How have they gone about tackling it?

Answer 16

Fluid tensions between states makes nuclear capabilities constantly a problem, with the threat of mutually-assured destruction looming constantly; the Treaty of Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has not been signed by only 4 states, non-nuclear states agreeing not to acquire nuclear weapons and nuclear states agreeing not to share the means of production.

Question 17

How does peace and security provide the UN with problems? How have they gone about tackling it?

Answer 17

The number of armed conflicts is increasing, doubling since 2010 alone; the UN approves lots of military humanitarian interventions such as in Somalia (1992) or Rwanda (1994). Largely the ability to intervene has been variable, the Cold War was gridlocked for UNSC resolutions and the War on Terror has seen greater levels of multipolarity, inhibiting the global policeman.

Question 18

How does promoting sustainable development provide the UN with problems? How have they gone about tackling it?

Answer 18

Global poverty remains a significant problem, though down to 9% in 2019; the Millennium Development Goals provided a significant success such as reducing global poverty and increasing education enrolment, with the SDGs continuing this trend with a greater focus on climate change. However, the SDGs have been strongly sabotaged due to COVID.

Question 19

What are the principal organs of the UN?

Answer 19

• UNSC
• UNGA
• UN Secretariat
• The ICC/ICJ
• ECOSOC

Question 20

How many countries are in the UNGA?

Answer 20

193 +2

Question 21

What are the types of states in the UN?

Answer 21

• Those that are universally recognised as independent nation-states are given full membership, giving them access to voting rights in the UNGA
• If a state is not fully recognised but recognised by a majority of states, it may gain non-member observer status (currently only Vatican City and Palestine) where it cannot vote but is given the right to speak in the UNGA

Question 22

Why does the UN focus on international efforts?

Answer 22

According to its charter, it is based on the ‘sovereign equality of all its members’.

Question 23

What is the role of the UN Secretariat?

Answer 23

They act as the UN civil service, overseeing the work of the entire UN and its subsidiary bodies and agencies as a permanent, non-state affiliated group.

Question 24

What are the duties of the UN Secretary-General?

Answer 24

• Acting as the UN’s spokesperson, useful in persuading states to act in the international interest
• Leading the secretariat and setting the UN agenda to be approved by consensus by the UNGA

Question 25

Who were the last three Secretary-Generals and what were their focusses?

Answer 25

• Kofi Annan (1997-2006): the Millennium Development Goals
• Ban-Ki Moon (2007-2016): ?
• Antonio Guterres (2017-): climate change

Question 26

What are the powers of the UNSC?

Answer 26

• To pass binding resolutions in international law
• To issue economic sanctions
• To authorise military action
• To decide whether new members should be recognised by UNGA

Question 27

What is the composition of the UNSC?

Answer 27

• The 5 permenant members: China, France, UK, US and Russia
• Three African seats
• 7 non-African seats

Question 28

Why do the P5 get extra powers?

Answer 28

Historically, the P5 were the victors of WWII so they are seen as deserving it after having won the war; on a more pragmatic level, to avoid ending up like the League of Nations, the more powerful states need to be incentivised to stay.

Question 29

What is ‘great power unanimity’?

Answer 29

An argument for the need for the veto in the UNSC: if major powers can be outvoted by one another, it could lead to states reacting with resolutions that bring them into direct conflict. In this way. vetoes give powerful states the ability to protect their national interest without outright conflict.

Question 30

How does use of the veto reflect power dynamics in the global system?

Answer 30

Its use reflects polarity:
- During the Cold War, the USSR and US often used the veto to challenge one another;
- Post-Cold War saw a period of US hegemony where they were the most frequent vetoer;
- Since 2001, muktipolarity has led Russia and China become more frequent users of the veto

Question 31

Who is the most frequent user of the veto?

Answer 31

Russia has used the veto more than 100 times since WWII

Question 32

When was the last them France and the UK used their vetoes? Why?

Answer 32

1989 - this may reflect their understanding that they are not as powerful as others and wish not to prompt questioning of their position.

Question 33

When is the UNSC most powerless?

Answer 33

The veto makes it nigh impossible to hold any of the P5 accountale for their actions, such as the US invasion of Iraq or the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Question 34

Give two examples of the UNSC being gridlocked by the veto.

Answer 34

• US has vetoed 17 different resolutions on the ‘Palestinian Question’, including giving them full UN membership
• Russia and/or China have vetoed 13 different resolutions on the Syrian Civil War, including humanitarian aid

Question 35

How many peacekeeping operations have been authorised since 1948?

Answer 35

> 70

Question 36

What are the different types of peacekeeping missions?

Answer 36

• Observer missions, to discourage violence and find blame
• Humanitarian intervention, such as those in Yugoslavia
• Mix

Question 37

Beyond peacekeeping, what can the UNSC do?

Answer 37

• Organise peace talks
• Authorise sanctions
• Call for ceasefires

Question 38

Give an important UNSC resolution.

Answer 38

Resolution 2118 required Syria to disarm itself of chemical weapons; though they then used ‘barrel-bombs’, it established the process of removing chemical weapons through the OPCW.

Question 39

What are the possible reforms of the UNSC?

Answer 39

• Add new permenant members with veto power
• Remove veto power from some or all permenant members
• Increase the number of non permenant members

Question 40

Give an argument and counterargument that we should add more permenant members to the UNSC.

Answer 40

The P5 does not reflect modern power dynamics in the international system - the UK and France haven’t been considered superpowers since the 1967 Suez Crisis; Germany’s economy is the third largest in the world and largest in Europe, 30% and 50% larger than UK and France;
- It’s relatively impossible to add new states, any state that one side wants will be vetoed by the other and the UK and France aren’t really doing anything - the US will veto SA as they are a member of BRICS and Russia and China will veto Germany as a member of the G7; France nor UK has used their veto since 1989

Question 41

Give an argument and counterargument that we should remove the veto from the P5.

Answer 41

It makes powerful states unaccountable and gives them free reign to prioritise their interests over the international community - Russian veto of condemnation for annexation of Crimea; US veto of Palestine full membership despite 75% of states recognising them
- It’s impossible and impractical, states will no longer have incentive to stay and it will turn into the League of Nations all over again, also ‘great power unanimity’; Syrian Civil War

Question 42

Give an argument and counter-argument that there should be more non-permenant members of the UNSC

Answer 42

This could make the UNSC more representative without stepping on any toes by reducing the power of the P5, by vote but not by veto - in 2005, China said more developing countries should be represented in the UNSC;
- Adding more members will only increase gridlock, which is the orginal issue with the veto, the UNSC constantly being in a stalemate between US and Russia (and increasingly China) - Russia used veto 100 times since WWII; Gowan called any calls for more members ‘diplomatic populism’ as it will ultimately fail.

Question 43

Outline the UNGA

Answer 43

The UN’s Parliament in which every officially recognised state has an equal seat regardless of size or power; meeting yearly to debate and vote on non-binding resolutions.

Question 44

What are the 5 main functions of the UNGA?

Answer 44

• Electing UNSC non-permenant and ECOSOC members
• Appointing the secretary general (based on UNSC reccomendation)
• Considering and debating ECOSOC and ICJ reports
• Approving the UN budget
• Electing ICJ judges

Question 45

What are the main issues with the UNGA?

Answer 45

• Slow decision-making due to ideological variety
• Often gridlock due to requiring a 2/3 majority for resolutions
• All resolutions are non-binding

Question 46

What are the main successes of the UNGA?

Answer 46

• The UDHR, which has universal membership
• The MDGs/SDGs
• R2P
• Passed a resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria whilst the UNSC was deadlocked
• The granting of Palestine observer status and its joining the ICC and ICJ jurisdictions in the face of US opposition

Question 47

How is the work of the UNGA streamlined?

Answer 47

The UNGA has 6 main comittees that have much smaller memberships that develop and put forward proposals for the UNGA to vote on.

Question 48

Give the purview of the main 6 UNGA committees.

Answer 48

• First: Disarmement and international security
• Second: Economics and finances
• Thrid: Social, humanitarian and cultural matters
• Fourth: special political matters and decolonisation
• Fifth: administartion and budget
• Sixth: legal matters

Question 49

What is the Human Rights Council and how has it been criticised?

Answer 49

A subsidiary body of the UNGA which elects states to promote and surveil human rights law compliance. As it often elects states with spotty records, Human Rights Watch dubbed it a ‘jury that includes murderers.’