ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the United Nations (UN) as a competitive arena on two levels - one formal and one informal - where states, think tanks, academia, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) try to avoid internal UN spoiling, turf battles, and political tugs-of-war by often forming informal policy alliances to further norm goals. Taking inspiration from the Norwegian case, the chapter moves on to expand on the two understandings of the arena concept. Examining policy processes related to peacekeeping at the African Union and in Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey, the chapter identified similar patterns in organizations and countries traditionally not among those that have most vigorously advocated change at the UN as norm entrepreneurs. The United Nations has two main functions - it is an arena where member states meet and establish regimes for global governance, and it is an actor that implement the various tasks entrusted to it by member states.
