The United Nations (UN) has always loomed large in international conflicts, but today accepted wisdom declares that the organization has lost its way. Liberating The United Nations is a thorough review of its founding and history that tracks critical junctures that obscured or diverted the path to a powerful and just UN that abides by international law. Based on the extensive expertise of two former UN-insiders, Richard Falk and Hans von Sponeck, the book goes beyond critique and diagnosis, proposing ways to achieve a more effective and legitimate UN. The historical sweep of the book offers a uniquely broad perspective on how the UN has evolved from the time of its establishment, and how that evolution reflects, and was defined by, world politics. The book explores these themes through the specific cases of intervention in Palestine, Iraq, and Syria. Liberating The United Nations hopes to reinvigorate the original vision of the UN by asserting its place in a world of amplifying chauvinistic nationalism. Falk and von Sponeck argue for how important the UN has become, and could be, in aiding with the transnational and global challenges of the present and future, including pandemics, environmental crises, and mass migration.
Table of Content
Geopolitical World Map
UN Organigram
The UN Global Governance System in 2023
Preface: Overcoming UN Marginalization—an Urgent Imperative
Foreword by Dr. Walden Bello
Part One: An Evolving Narrative
1. Profiling the UN
2. From the League of Nations to the United Nations
3. Multilateralism during the Cold War and Beyond
4. The UN Global Policy Agenda for the Twenty-First Century
Part Two: How the UN Copes with Challenges to the Charter, Institutional Integrity, Geopolitical Manipulation
5. Palestine Occupied: The UN Frustrated
6. Iraq: Oil for Food—the Dilemma of Geopolitical Humanitarianism
7. Syria: The Douma Deception—Institutional Integrity versus the Primacy of Geopolitics
Part Three: Institutional Obstacles to Mitigate
8. Responsibility to Protect (R2P), National Sovereignty, and Geopolitical Ambition
9. Civil Society Participation in the UN: Opportunities, Obstacles, and Pitfalls
Part Four: Toward the Future
10. The Unmet Challenge of UN Reform: Institutional and Operational Perspectives
11. Institutional Reforms: Amending the Charter, Prospects and Options
12. The UN of the Future: The Grand Challenge—Realism with Hope
Reflections: Nine Young Leaders and Their Visions about the UN of Tomorrow
Afterword by Ahmet Davutoğlu
Note of Acknowledgment
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
Richard A. Falk is Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law at Queen Mary University London, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 from 2008 to 2014. He is the author of several books including
This Endangered Planet (2021) and
Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim (2021).
Hans von Sponeck is a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and served as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq from 1998 to 2000. Training Consultant at the UN System Staff College in Torino (Italy) (2006 to 2015) and Senior Lecturer at the Conflict Research Centre of the University of Marburg (Germany) (2007 to 2019). He is the author of
A Different Kind of War (2006).
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