Universality, Multilateralism and Many-Lateralism Does the changing nature of the international order in the 21st century influence the nature and forms of multilateralism? And if yes, how does it impact the United Nations, an institution at the apex of the multilateral process, but which in some crucial respects still reflects the international order of the mid-twentieth century? This is the question that this paper attempts to explore. B.S. Prakash | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
Reforming the United Nations Any organisation established in the aftermath of the Second World War obviously cannot fulfil its functions, in a world that has changed so dramatically, without adapting itself to the contemporary realities of international politics and economics. When the United Nations Charter was promulgated on 26 June 1945, it reflected the immediate post-war situation and most importantly the international political balance of power that existed in 1945. Prakash Shah | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
National Interests and International Commitments: the Problem of Enforcing Sanctions Recently it has been proposed by the United States that economic sanctions be applied by the international community against the Khomeini regime. Economic pressure is sought to be initiated against the regime in an attempt to force it to change its stand on certain policy matters, more specifically on the issue of holding Americans in Iran as hostages. Once again the whole concept of sanctions has been brought into prominence. The viability of sanctions as instruments of pressure, aimed at bringing about certain internal and/or external changes within the target state is open to debate. Neera Chandhoke | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
Towards a World Community: Thoughts on India and the Idea of United Nations Reform The title of this article is derived from a famous speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, at the United Nations in December 1956. Over the previous decade, Nehru, together with his sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, and Mahatma Gandhi, had been working to build the UN into a form of global government. They termed their vision One World, and it had democracy and human rights as its basis. Manu Bhagavan | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Limits of Nations and the Pursuit of a New Politics by Mark Malloch-Brown Books about the UN, like the politicians who support it, evidently do better when they make little outward mention of that international organisation. While the cover of most editions of this nine-chapter book is adorned with UN blue and those initials are highlighted in the ‘unfinished’ of the title, the United Nations is mentioned nowhere explicitly until a chapter or two in. This is no criticism: the UN is a flawed body that everyone knows but few understand, and smuggling it onto people's reading lists may be one of the few ways to address that. Ellie B. Hearne | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
India and the United Nations To paraphrase the mantra of realism—international politics, like all politics, is a struggle for normative ascendancy: the establishment and maintenance of the dominant normative architecture of international order created and maintained by the interplay of power and ideas. As China, India and Brazil emerge as important growth centres in the world economy, the age of the West and its disrespect for the role, relevance and voice of the rest of the world is passing. Ramesh Thakur | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
State Sovereignty to Sovereignty of Individuals: Evolution of R2P Intervention across borders of other states with the intention of protecting the civilian population from atrocities committed against them is not a new phenomenon. According to Thomas Weiss, 1 the evolution of humanitarian intervention precedes the appearance of the current generation of international institutions. After the Second World War, the United Nations Charter under Article 2(1) stipulated that the UN be based upon the sovereign equality of all its members. Keerthi Sampath Kumar | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
The Emerging Principle of the Responsibility to Protect: An Asian Perspective In the aftermath of the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust, during which war crimes were committed on an unprecedented scale, the international community came together to declare ‘never again’ and set up the United Nations. Governments agreed that they would cooperate to prevent the commission of genocide and punish the perpetrators. Satish Nambiar | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
The Role of UNHCR and Afghan Refugees in Pakistan The protection and shelter of millions of Afghans on Pakistan soil for over three decades has amplified the image of UNHCR as a humanitarian institution, which has worked along with the government of Pakistan to manage the burden of the largest caseload of refugees in the world. The office is credited with having carried out the largest repatriation of Afghans (approximately 3.6 million) to their home country since 2002. This operation has greatly enhanced the credibility and esteem of the UNHCR both within Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nasreen Ghufran | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
UN’s Role in South Asia: The Case of Nepal Nepal has conducted a slew of political experiments since 2006. By inviting the Maoists into the mainstream and collectively deciding to dump the Constitution of 1990, there was hope that a new era of peace and stability would begin with the end of the decade-long armed insurgency. The Constituent Assembly (CA) elections of 2008 saw the emergence of the Maoists as the largest party—which was a totally unexpected and surprising outcome for the international community. Nishchal Nath Pandey | November 2011 | Strategic Analysis
