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Ending humanitarian atrocities has become as important for the United Nations as preventing interstate war. This book examines the transformation of UN operations, analysing its changing role and structure. Ramesh Thakur asks why, when and how force may be used, and argues that the growing gulf between legality and legitimacy is evidence of an eroded sense of international community. He considers the tension between the United States, with its capacity to use force and project power, and the United Nations, as the centre of the international law enforcement system. He asserts the central importance of the rule of law and a rules-based order focused on the United Nations as the foundation of a civilised system of international relations. This book will be of interest to students of the United Nations and international organisations in politics, law and international relations departments, as well as policymakers in governmental and non-governmental international organisations

Professor Ramesh Thakur, former Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University and UN Assistant Secretary-General, is sometimes described as one of the intellectual godfathers of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Based in our common humanity, R2P is an acceptance of a duty of care by those living in safety towards those trapped in zones of danger. It aims to convert a shocked international conscience into timely and decisive collective action to rescue vulnerable communities so that groups condemned to die in fear can live in hope instead. For more than a decade, Thakur has been deeply engaged with the international discourse on R2P as an influential member of the international commission that came up with that innovative principle. This book brings together his opinion articles from several newspapers in Australia, Canada, India and Japan, and The International Herald Tribune. It begins with Kosovo in 1999 and ends with Libya in 2011, with stops at way-stations in Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Egypt. Threats to human security do not necessarily take cataclysmic forms such as war or natural disaster. Nor does human insecurity exist solely within a suspended living environment like refugee camps. Often threats to human security are as subtle as a slow-rising tide, whose calamitous nature remains unknown till it breaks as a monstrous flood. The essays in this volume call attention to these less obvious threats to human security and how people and communities face them. Woven from the first-hand observations of life at various sites in East Asia, the narratives in these essays illuminate how uncanny the threats to human security can be.

One of the most important developments in world politics in the last decade has been the spread of the idea that state sovereignty comes with responsibilities as well as privileges, and that there exists a global responsibility to protect people threatened by mass atrocities. The principle of the Responsibility to Protect is an acknowledgment by all who live in zones of safety of a duty of care towards those in zones of danger. Thakur and Maley argue that this principle has not been discussed sufficiently in the context of international and political theory, in particular the nature and foundations of political and international order and the strength and legitimacy of the state. The book brings together a range of authors to discuss the different ways in which the Responsibility to Protect can be theorised, using case studies to locate the idea within wider traditions of moral responsibilities in international relations

Explores the evolution of UN efforts at peace-keeping, particularly since the early 1990s. It combines academic analysis, field experience and reflection with proposals for more effective peace operations designed and deployed by the UN in partnership with regional, subregional and local actors

1. Rebalancing world order -- 2. G20 Finance as prelude -- 3. G20 competitors as reform options -- 4. Financial crisis as catalyst : from Washington to Pittsburgh -- 5. Consolidating or fragmenting the G20 -- 6. The G20 between the dynamics of innovation and constraint -- 7. The G20 as the answer to the crisis of global governance.

In the 21st century, the world is faced with threats of global scale that cannot be confronted without collective action. Although global government as such does not exist, formal and informal institutions, practices, and initiatives -- together forming "global governance"--Bring a greater measure of predictability, stability, and order to trans-border issues than might be expected. Yet, there are significant gaps between many current global problems and available solutions. Thomas G. Weiss and Ramesh T

1. Introduction / Charles Sampford -- 2. Falls the shadow : the responsibility to protect from theory to practice / Spencer Zifcak -- 3. R2P + POC (+ IHRL) = R2PC : the United nation's Security Council and the hybridisation of international protection principles / Hugh Breakey -- 4. R2P and the East Timor intervention / Clinton Fernandes -- 5. When is there sufficient information to decide if there is an R2P situation or not? From the intervention in Timor-Leste to the crisis in Sri Lanka / Paul Harpur -- 6. The responsibility to prevent : could the UN have prevented the atrocities in East Timor and Kosovo? / Hitoshi Nasu -- 7. Sovereignty and R2P ten years after East Timor and Kosovo : a failure to protect, the UN Human Rights Council and Darfur / Kevin Boreham -- 8. Legality and legitimacy : a dozen years after Goldstone / Charles Sampford -- 9. Refugees and military intervention in the name of the responsibility to protect / Angus Francis -- 10. The responsibility to protect : retrospect and prospect / Ramesh Thakur.

1. UN special procedures for defending universal human rights / Michael Kirby -- 2. International criminal justice : at the vortex of power, norms and a shifting global order / Ramesh Thakur -- 3. International Criminal Court in the development of international rule of law : a reflection of Asian-African views / Rahmat Mohamad -- 4. The building of the international rule of law through the work of international criminal tribunals / Vesselin Popovski -- 5. Kenyans before the International Criminal Court : an end to impunity? / Edwin Bikundo -- 6. Norms as frames for institutions : the pact of Paris, Nuremberg and the international rule of law / William Maley -- 7. International legitimacy and the building blocks of the international rule of law / Jean-Marc Coicaud -- 8. National militaries and the development of the international rule of law / John Sanderson -- 9. No longer a moot point : towards an independent international legal tribunal? / Charles Sampford.

The stated reason for invading Iraq was its alleged clandestine pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in defiance of UN resolutions. Even though the allegation was proven false, the international community remains preoccupied with the threat of the proliferation and use of such terrible weapons. This has three interlinked components: non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament. Some countries, from within the shelter of the NPT, could either develop a fully-fledged weapons capability, covertly and illegally, or else acquire all the materials and expertise needed for a weapons programme an

The principles, values and manifestations of multilateralism, including the United Nations, are under sustained scrutiny and assault. Their performance and effectiveness are questioned, as are their decision-making procedures and their representation according to 21st century standards of accountability and democracy. All this has a corrosive effect on their legitimacy. This publication explores the performance and future of multilateral approaches and institutions with reference to major global challenges such as international security, terrorism, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, economic justice, human rights and humanitarian assistance.--Publisher's description

In the wealth of literature on state failure, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the question of what constitutes state success and what enables a state to succeed. This book is a joint project of the International Peace Academy and the United Nations University and examines the strategies and tactics of international actors, local political elites, and civil society groups to build or rebuild public institutions before they reach the point of failure: to make the state work.It is frequently assumed that the collapse of state structures, whether through defeat by an exter-nal power

The most complex and comprehensive disarmament treaty ever to be adopted, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is intended to provide robust assurance that chemical weapons will not be developed, produced, stockpiled, used or transferred. To implement and enforce the CWC and verify the ongoing elimination of declared chemical weapons production capacity and stockpiles, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspects military and industrial sites in dozens of countries. OPCW membership now embraces over 95 per cent of the world's population and 98 per cent of the relev