Six decades after its establishment the United Nations and its system ofrelated agencies and programs is perpetually in crisis. While World War I andWorld War I... » 

Six decades after its establishment the United Nations and its system ofrelated agencies and programs is perpetually in crisis. While World War I andWorld War II gave rise to groundbreaking efforts at international organizationin 1919 and 1945 the UN today seems illequipped to deal with modernchallenges to world order. Neither the end of the Cold War nor the aftermath of911 has led to the creation of a next generation of multilateralinstitutions. But what exactly is wrong with the UN and how can we fix it? Isit possible to retrofit the world body? In this succinct and illuminatinganalysis Thomas G. Weiss takes a diagnosis and cure approach to the worldorganizations inherent difficulties. In the first half of the book heconsiders the problems of international leadership and decision making in aworld of selfinterested states the diplomatic difficulties caused by theartificial divisions between the industrialized North and the global South thestructural problems of managing the UNs many overlapping jurisdictionsagencies and bodies and the everdemanding challenges of bureaucracy andleadership. The second half examines how to mitigate these maladies and pointsthe way to a more ideal world in which the UNs institutional ills might becured. His remedies are not based on pious hopes of a miracle cure for theUN but rather on specific and encouraging examples that could be replicated.With considered optimism and in contrast to received wisdom Weiss contendsthat substantial change in intergovernmental institutions is plausible andpossible. This indispensable book will spark debate amongst students scholarsand policymakers concerned with international politics as well as anyonegenuinely interested in the future of the United Nations and internationalcooperation. «