This timely book reviews key management areas of United Nations organizations now under attack: the political selection of executive heads, the role of inspection bodies, the financial crisis, charges of corruption and fraud, the 'overpaid' staff, sex discrimination in the secretariats, the impact of the Administrative Tribunals' judgements. Reform proposals are reviewed and assessed. While executive heads are accountable for their agency's performance, Member States have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that reform is actually carried out. Do they really want UN organizations to be more effective?

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

The United Nations in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the United Nations, exploring the historical, institutional, and theoretical foundations of the UN. This popular text for courses on international organizations and international relations also discusses the political complexities facing the organization today. Thoroughly revised throughout, the fifth edition focuses on major trends since 2012, including changing power dynamics, increasing threats to peace and security, and the growing challenges of climate change and sustainability. It examines the proliferating public-private partnerships involving the UN and the debates over reforming the Security Council and the Secretary-General selection process. This edition also includes new case studies on peacekeeping and the use of force in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, transnational terrorism and the emergence of ISIS, the Security Council's failure to act in Syria, the Syrian and global refugee/migrant crisis, and the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals and framing of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The United Nations is at a critical juncture. It is faced with two distinct choices: to remain a 'decision frozen in time' or to develop a long-term adaptation agenda (and strategy) that would allow it to be a relevant institution of global governance for the twenty-first century. Reform and reflexive institutional adjustments have failed to address underlying problems facing this organization. After fifty-five years of existence it is still considered an inefficient and ineffective world body. Worse yet, its relevance is being questioned. This study offers a critique of existing UN change processes and then shifts focus to considerations of institutional learning strategies that would allow the UN to maintain relevance amidst the evolution of global governance arrangements.

The former President of South Africa, H.E. Nelson Mandela, states in the Foreword that 'the debate on the reform of the United Nations System must move beyond the costeffectiveness & efficiency issues, to that of relevance'. The President of Malta, H.E. Guido de Marco, a former President of the General Assembly, in the Preface calls for a reform that requires 'not merely tinkering with the institutional set-up of the Organization but rather a reorientation of the principles projected in the Charter so as to enable them to be applied to current realities'. The authors respond by giving a blueprint for a relevant United Nations, more in line with the Charter, emphasizing wider participation in its work, & the supremacy of its General Assembly. This is followed by a vision of a United Nations, supported by an Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), transformed into a Policy & Coordination Board (PCB), that would bring out the best in a United Nations System that would include, in addition to the Specialized Agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) & other global, regional & subregional organizations, which share the same objectives of peace, security, & fair & equitable development for all the peoples of the world.