United Nations Reform: Heading North or South?

Kofi Annan’s report In Larger Freedom contained the most wide-ranging proposals to reform the United Nations since it was founded in the wake of the Second World War. The plan contained recommendations for the reform of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission for Human Rights and several other UN organs. However, there is little to show for all this initiative. This book describes, analyzes and evaluates Kofi Annan’s endeavor to reform the United Nations. Spencer Zifcak seeks to understand not only why reform was unsuccessful in so many cases, but also how global politics and wider ideological divisions played so forcefully into the many and varied intra-institutional debates. He argues that UN reform ran aground because the nations of the North and the South could not agree either on the process or the content of the reforms and that if reform is to be more successful in the future, a comprehensive understanding of the complex politics and dynamics of the world body must be an essential pre-requisite.Making an important and valuable contribution to current debates about the future of this most crucial international, intergovernmental organization, this book will be of interest student and scholars of international law, international politics and the study of international institutions.