TCW 4 AND 5

    Cards (101)

    • The United Nations is the most prominent International Organization (IO) in the contemporary world.
    • The future regionalism will be contingent on the immense changes in global politics that will emerge in the 21st century.
    • The five active organs of the United Nations (UN) are the General Assembly (GA), Security Council (SC), Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), International Court of Justice (ICJ), and Secretary General.
    • The General Assembly (GA) is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations (UN).
    • The General Assembly (GA) elects its president annually to serve a one-year term of office.
    • Filipino Diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected as GA President from 1949-1950.
    • The Security Council (SC) is considered by many commentators as the most powerful organ of UN as it consists of 15 member states.
    • The General Assembly (GA) elects 10 of these 15 to two-year terms.
    • The other five referred to as Permanent five (P5); China, France, Russia, UK and USA.
    • The Security Council (SC) takes lead in determining the existence of the threat to the peace and calls upon parties to a dispute to settle and recommends adjustment or term of settlement.
    • States that seek to intervene militarily in another state need to obtain the approval of Security Council (SC).
    • The approval of Security Council (SC) leads to military intervention may be deemed legal.
    • The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on social and environmental issues as well as the implementation of internationally agreed development goals.
    • The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has 54 members elected for three-year terms.
    • Countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global economic integration, but it will also be hard for them to turn their backs on their regions.
    • Non-State Regionalism refers to the tiny associations that include no more than a few actors and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that address a multitudes of common problems from territorial defense to food security.
    • Countries form regional associations for military defense, to pool their resources, to protect their independence, and compels countries to come together.
    • The UN is the closest to a world government, which is why it is important to remember that international institutions like the UN are always in a precarious position.
    • Despite these problems, it remains important for the SC to place a high bar on military intervention.
    • Regionalism is seen as a political and economic phenomenon and examines its relation to identities, ethnics, religion, ecological sustainability and health.
    • International organizations are highlighted because they are the most visible symbols of global governance.
    • GNP/population = per capita
    • Regionalization refers to the regional concentration of economic flows while Regionalism is a political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and coordination among countries.
    • Contemporary challenges to Regionalism include Nationalism, Populism, Financial Crisis, and Regional Stability.
    • Small countries take advantage of their strategic resources by turning themselves into financial hubs.
    • Different visions of what regionalism should be for.
    • The UN Security Council is tasked with authorizing international acts of military intervention.
    • Countries economically and politically respond to globalization in various ways.
    • Large countries have a lot of resources to dictate how they participate in the process of global integration.
    • The International Court of Justice (ICJ) settles in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and gives advisory opinions referred to it by authorized UN organs and specialized agencies.
    • The Secretary General is the bureaucracy of the UN, serving as a kind of international civil service.
    • Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees and not as state representatives.
    • The United Nations functions primarily because of voluntary cooperation from states.
    • The biggest challenge of UN is related to issues of security.
    • Bentham and Kant imagined the possibility of global government
    • Global governance - different processes that creates order in the world
    • Global governance is the various intersecting processes that create order
    • Global government cannot be possible as no organisation can military compel
    • International relations scholars Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore listed the powers of International Organizations (IOs)
    • The power of IOS
      • Power of classification
      • Power of fix meanings
      • Power to diffuse norms