This completely revised and updated eighth edition serves as the definitive text for courses in which the United Nations is either the focus or a central component. Built around three critical themes in international relations (peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and sustainable human development) the eighth edition of The United Nations and Changing World Politics guides students through the seven turbulent decades of UN politics.
This new edition is fully revised to incorporate recent developments on the international stage, including new peace operations in Mali and the Central African Republic; ongoing UN efforts to manage the crises in Libya, Syria, and Iraq; the Iran Nuclear Deal; and the new Sustainable Development Goals. The authors discuss how international law frames the controversies at the UN and guides how the UN responds to violence and insecurity, gross violations of human rights, poverty, underdevelopment, and environmental degradation. Students of all levels will learn that the UN is a complex organization, comprised of three interactive entities that cooperate and also compete with each other to define and advance the UN's principles and purposes.
Table of Contents:
Contents Tables and Illustrations Acknowledgments Foreword to the Eighth Edition, David M. Malone Acronyms Introduction What Is the United Nations? Politics and Power in the First, Second, and Third UN The Principles of the United Nations Structure of the Book Central Themes Notes Part One: International Peace and Security 1 The Theory and Practice of UN Collective Security Collective Security Regional Arrangements Notes 2 UN Security Efforts During the Cold War The Early Years: Palestine, Korea, Suez, the Congo Understanding Peacekeeping Economic Sanctions Notes 3 UN Security Operations After the Cold War, 1988--1998 UN Military Operations, 1988--1993 The Rebirth of Peacekeeping Moving Toward the Next Generation Moving Toward Enforcement Sanctions in the Post--Cold War Era: Humanitarian Dilemmas Operational Quandaries: Cambodia, the Former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Rwanda, and Haiti Lessons Learned Notes 4 Security Operations Since 1999 The Responsibility to Protect Stabilized Security Operations Evolving Security Operations Whither the Responsibility to Protect? Notes 5 Confronting Contemporary Challenges Security Challenges Political Challenges The Challenges of Reform Incremental Change Notes Part Two: Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs 6 The United Nations, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Affairs Understanding Human Rights Basic Norms in the UN Era International Humanitarian Law (Human Rights During War) Notes 7 Applying Human Rights Standards: The Roles of the First and Second UN Human Rights and the First UN Human Rights and the Second UN Human Rights and National Interest Notes 8 The Third UN in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs: The Role of Independent Experts and NGOs Experts and the Human Rights Council Supplemental Human Rights and Treaty Monitoring Bodies Nongovernmental Organizations Notes 9 Theories of Change Theoretical Considerations The International Criminal Court: Knowledge and Learning Learning and Democracy Human Rights and Development A Web o
About the Author :
Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and Director-Emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies.
David P. Forsythe is the Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Roger A. Coate is Paul D. Coverdell Professor of Public Policy at Georgia College & State University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of South Carolina.
Kelly-Kate Pease is Professor of International Relations at Webster University in St. Louis and the Director of the International Relations Program Worldwide. She also serves as a Fellow in the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies.
Review :
Praise for Prior Editions
“Four expert authors join forces to provide a theoretically sophisticated survey of the UN as an actor—and not merely a stage—in international politics.” —Robert E. Williams, Jr., Pepperdine University
“Few stories are as complex, as misunderstood, or as urgent as that of the United Nations. No one tells it better than this dynamic author team. Already a classic, their text offers invaluable insights into how the world tries, fails, and tries again to govern itself.” —Edward Luck, Columbia University
“Since its first edition in the mid-1990s, this book has been the standard text on the UN for courses in international organization. No other book can compete with its sophisticated analysis and up-to-date information.” —Craig N. Murphy, Wellesley College
“[The authors] focus on the most important questions of international governance—human security, human rights, and sustainable development—and provide students with a wealth of information enabling them to make their own informed conclusions about the UN system’s contributions to answering them.” —M. J. Peterson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“These civilized voices from the ‘other America’ have done it again! Taking as their principal themes peace and security, human rights and humanitarian issues, as well as sustainable human development, [the authors] guide us through the intricacies of politics at the UN in the form of an analytical narrative of global problems. This is not only for students and practitioners in the United States, but elsewhere, too, if we are to get an authentic and welcome voice of that ‘other America.’” —A.J.R. Groom, University of Kent
