Global Governance and the UN: An Unfinished Journey

5 Trade, Aid, and Finance

5 trade, aid, and Finance •฀Antecedents:฀The฀Long฀Trek฀toward฀Equality฀and฀Justice •฀Knowledge฀Gaps:฀Understanding฀Development •฀Normative฀Gaps:฀The฀Shape฀of฀Transfers฀from฀Rich฀to฀Poor •฀Policy฀Gaps:฀The฀NIEO฀Clash฀and฀Aid •฀Institutional฀Gaps:฀From฀GATT฀to฀the฀WTO •฀Compliance฀Gaps:฀Words,฀Deeds,฀and฀the฀MDGs •฀Reforming฀the฀Architecture฀of฀International฀Financial฀ ฀ and฀Economic฀Governance •฀Human฀Development฀and฀the฀Five฀Global฀Governance฀Gaps •฀Conclusion:฀Partial฀Gap฀Filling although the primary mandate of the united nations is maintaining international peace and security, the search for international security was polarized around the cold War almost immediately after the organization came into being. in the meantime, decolonization brought into being a vast number of newly independent countries that joined the united nations as a final seal of their sovereign statehood; by the mid-1960s some 100 new member states had joined the original fifty-one charter signers, and today’s members total 192. The organization’s membership did not simply multiply; the newer members also inscribed their own concerns into the un’s agenda.1 Those located in what was becoming known as the “Third World” were mainly interested in state-building, nation-building, and economic development in order to lift their peoples out of subsistence , poverty, and unemployment. because the security council was nearly paralyzed by the East-West rivalry and the new member states were united in their concerns, economic and social development became the un’s main activity during the cold War. during this period, economic and social objectives became essential in and of themselves instead of being mainly viewed as a way to ensure international peace and security. 156 develoPment Antecedents:฀The฀Long฀Trek฀toward฀Equality฀and฀Justice in International Organization and Industrial Change: Global Governance since 1850, craig murphy draws on antonio Gramsci’s work on historical blocs to argue that world order in a particular period is not created solely by the actions of states but through the blocs that become dominant. Through the creation of specific organizational forms, structure can accumulate around historically contingent coalitions of powerful social forces and prevailing ideas. These historical blocs are in constant dialectical contention ; when one order declines, another springs from its ashes. regulatory regimes are thus usually created in the wake of crisis and upheaval, if not actual war. There have been three generations of global governance institutions thus far: “public international unions,” whose heyday ran from the age of railroads in the middle of the nineteenth century through the first age of mass production at the outset of the twentieth century; the League of nations and un systems, which run from approximately World War i to the 1980s; and “third generation” international organizations , which murphy dates from the creation of intelsat (the international Telecommunications satellite organization) in 1964. These agencies have penetrated far into the state by championing certain ideas about the regulation of industrial capitalism—evidence of global governance. indeed, the notion of establishing “peace by pieces” was the foundation for david mitrany’s scholarly work on functional cooperation during the interwar years,2 a line of reasoning followed by jean monnet, chief architect of European integration, and others who began with cooperation in “low politics” in Europe before moving to the “high politics” of security and foreign policy.3 as with so much else, the roots of the un’s interest in social and economic issues and its evolving role in global governance lie in the history of the League of nations. another reason for the un charter’s greater focus on social and economic issues compared to the League covenant was that the latter had been notably more successful in these domains than in security, including during the interwar period when the League and the iLo continued working on economic issues during the Great depression. indeed, some League officials moved to princeton, new jersey, and continued their research during the war long after the League’s security machinery had stopped. trAde, Aid, And FinAnce 157 While we repeatedly note that the un is not a world government, many readers may not fully appreciate the extent to which this understatement reflects the decentralized notions that drove the creation of the un system from the outset. The physical locations of un bodies reflect functional fragmentation. a government has a central location and ministries. Logistical problems are always created when a new capital is created— for example, in brasilia rather than rio or abuja...