Introduction to the United Nations Lecture 10 - Can the UN Be a Global Leader for the 21st Century?
Michael Rossi
Department of Political Science
Program in International Relations
Long Island University Brooklyn
Can the United Nations be reformed to work better? Can the UN serve as a global leader in meeting a number of transnational challenges and problems such as climate change and environmental protection, global terrorism and political extremism, political refugees and asylum seekers, and conflict resolution and human rights?
The short answer is yes it can, but in order to remain credible in the eyes of global citizens, the United Nations will need to undergo a number of reforms and reorganizations to overcome its own internal dysfunctions, corruption, mismanagement, and overlapping administration. While talking about reform at the UN has been a topic since the 1970s, serious efforts will have to happen if the UN is to remain relevant, dynamic, and able to transform rhetoric into policy.
This final lecture of the series examines the need, despite limits, for reform at the Security Council, the expansion of the Secretariat and the Office of the Secretary General into international pubic relations, the streamlining of ECOSOC, the reinvention of the Trusteeship Council to account for parastates and other other disputed territories, and the importance of UN multilateralism in a multipolar world.
This concludes the series and offers students and listeners the possibility of pursuing careers at the UN for those interested.
Chapter Markers:
00:00:00 - 00:06:38 - Reform and Future of the United Nations
00:06:38 - 00:10:48: The Beginning of Our Last Section
00:10:48 - 00:24:35 - A Recap of This Course's Major Talking Points
00:24:35 - 00:27:18 - Areas for Improvement
00:27:18 - 00:52:47 - Reform at the Security Council
00:52:47 - 01:04:13 - Enhancing the Power of the Secretariat
01:04:13 - 01:18:20 - What to do with ECOSOC?
01:18:20 - 01:26:58 - Eliminate or Redirect the Trusteeship Council?
01:26:58 - 01:30:47 - The Need for UN Multilateralism
01:30:47 - 01:51:50 - Conclusion: The UN in the Next 75 Years
