ABSTRACT
The UN’s record as a key institution in the promotion of global governance is somewhat mixed. From one perspective, the UN has probably done more than any other international organization. The UN has published and endorsed some of the most explicit calls for the establishment of new norms of global governance based on liberal conceptions of the best way of constructing a peaceful and prosperous global order. But this vision of the UN as a definer and promoter of global governance sits in stark contrast to visions of the UN as an ineffective and/or unwilling actor in war-ravaged societies. When millions die in civil wars in Africa, and major powers ignore the UN if it gets in the way of their agendas, where is the evidence that the UN does anything at all in practical terms to establish new forms of global governance?
