What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix it (eBook)

Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor at the City Universityof New York's Graduate Center and Director of the RalphBunche Institute for International Studies.

About the Author viii

Foreword by Sir Brian Urquhart x

Acknowledgments xiii

List of Figures and Tables xvi

List of Abbreviations xviii

Introduction 1

Part One: Diagnosing the Ills

1 Westphalia, Alive But Not Well 19

2 North-South Theater 50

3 The Feudal System, or Dysfunctional Family 73

4 Overwhelming Bureaucracy and Underwhelming Leadership 111

Part Two: Palliatives if Not Cures

5 Redefining National Interests 133

6 Moving Beyond the North-South Divide 160

7 Truly Delivering as One 180

8 Reinvigorating the International Civil Service 198

Conclusion: What's Next? 223

Selected Readings 242

Notes 246

Index 279

"Alas, Thomas Weiss has written a very good book - he makesclear how badly the UN is broken."
Economic and Political Weekly

"By any standard, this is a work of unusual ambition, scope, andinsight. Only Tom Weiss, one of the UN's most prolific andexperienced observers, could so adroitly capture the worldbody's perils and promise with such a winning combination ofclarity, rigor, and wisdom."
Edward C. Luck, Special Adviser to the UNSecretary-General

"A comprehensive and extremely thoughtful analysis by theleading scholar of the UN in the United States, this should be onthe required reading list for the US president, and the leaders ofother nations as well."
Craig N. Murphy, Wellesley College and University ofMassachusetts Boston

"This is a very timely book, given the broad spectrum ofgrowing difficulties facing the international system and the UnitedNations. It provides an analytically powerful and empirically richaccount of a UN in crisis, followed by a range of sensiblesuggestions to place the world organization on a more sound footingin its address of deepening challenges. It speaks to issues ofprofound scholarly and policy relevance in a way that is eminentlyaccessible to a wide range of readers.
S. Neil MacFarlane, St Anne's College, University ofOxford