Contention over the Post of UN Secretary General

United Nations Secretary General Kofi A. Annan is going to complete his second term of office by December 31 this year. Although the day is some time away, competition for the position of the next secretary general has unfolded within and outside the United Nations. Given the importance of the post which has a bearing on the orientation and future development of the organization, and due to the different approaches and policies taken by the parties concerned, there is bound to be a sharp contention among the various parties.     

China＇s Expanding Participation in the UN Peacekeeping Operations

The UN-led peacekeeping operation is a lodestar within the field of current international security. As an important example of her peaceful diplomacy, China has consistently and continuously supported the UN-led peacekeeping operations since 1998 when China joined the UN peacekeeping Operation Special Committee. The Chinese peacekeepers accomplished their UN-authorized missions successfully. With their impressive professionalism, high spirits, combat capabilities, and outstanding achievements, the Chinese peacekeepers have been highly acknowledged by the UN organizations, the host nations and the international media.     

Comments on UN Reform

OnOctober9-132004,UnitedNationsSecretary-GeneralKofiAnnanpaidanofficialvisittoChina.Duringhisstay,hehaddiscussionswithChineseleadersonUNreformandchangesintheinterna-tionalsituationandetc.Inrecent59thUNGeneralAssemblySession,UNreformwasalsooneofthehottopics.ThenecessityofUNreform.UNisnowfacingarigorousrealityofinternationalpolitics.Althoughpeaceanddevelopmentstillremainthemainthemesofourtime,theworldisfarfromtranquility.Thegeneralinternationalsituationhaskeptitsba-sicfeaturesasoverall…     

Africa and UN Reform

On October 31, 2005, the UN reform proposal put forward by African countries in July was re-deliberated at the 5th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) held in Ethiopia. In the joint communiqué issued afterwards, AU urged all its member states …     

The UN factor in the “regional power role” and the Turkish case in the 2000s

This article aims to explore the relationship between regional powers and the United Nations (UN) with respect to regional issues by examining UN-Turkish ties concerning the Middle East during the 2000s. Bidding for a leading regional role in the Middle East, especially in the 2000s, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Turkey has increasingly used international platforms, including the UN, to gain a significant regional position in the Middle East. Turkey’s relationship with the UN in this respect could provide a relevant example to explore multilateralism and multilateral instruments in Turkey’s perceived regional power role during the last decade. The term “regional power” will be used as a conceptual framework to explore Turkey’s behavioural pattern with respect to the UN in view of the regional-global linkage, as global activism is nearly a standard behaviour of any state with a leading regional power role/claim. In view of this, the period during which Turkey held a temporary seat on the UN Security Council between 2009 and 2010 will be given particular attention in order to identify any significant link or at least any tentative correlations between Turkey’s then-closer involvement in the UN and its regional power role/claim in the Middle East. Moreover, fluctuations recorded in Turkey’s relations with the UN with respect to the Middle East during the last decade will be taken into account to examine a variety of challenges involved in any regional state’s relations with the UN regarding regional issues. Conducting a periodical analysis of Turkey-UN relations with respect to the Middle East could provide some provisional answers regarding both limitations and opportunities related to the future state of relations between any regional power and the most universal organization of world politics.     

Statement to the High Level Segment of UN Economic and Social Council

Distinguished President of ECOSOC Mr. Ali Hachani Dear Government Excellencies and Fellow NGO Colleagues, Mr. Chairman, It is a great honor to address this High Level Segment meeting on employment on behalf of 26 Chinese national NGOs. Most of them have the Consultative Status with ECOSOC. I would like to thank the President of ECOSOC Mr. Ali Hachani for the invitation and Mme. Bloem, President of CONGO for organizing the Civil Society Forum. In particular I would like …     

Britain and Kashmir, 1948: “The Arena of the UN”

The Jammu and Kashmir dispute of 1947–1949 between India and Pakistan became the first inter-state conflict to be discussed at the United Nations Security Council. This analysis looks at the views of the government and the delegation of Great Britain, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, on Kashmir through the year of 1948. It argues that the British attitude was determined more by Imperial and Commonwealth strategic and ideological imperatives in South and Central Asia and the Middle East and less by the merits of the cases of the disputants. Operating within the twin backdrop of decolonisation and the Cold War, the British official mind juggled Kashmir's accession to India, India's complaint of aggression against Pakistan, and Pakistan's demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir with an eye to their own hopes and fears in a region that it understood as the key vantage on Communism and Islam.     

“But the UN Said So …”: International Organisations as Discursive Authorities

Many scholars take it as given that international governmental and non-governmental actors play a decisive role in international politics as regulative, moral or epistemic authorities. Hence, a denationalised “multi-centric world” (James Rosenau) is said to be emerging, although empirical evidence for this is incomplete at best. Building on a variety of communication theoretical approaches, I argue for a clear-cut differentiation between authority and the power of the better argument. Moreover, I claim that, by looking at the way actors select and refer to the statements of others (“authority talk”), we can research the reproduction of authority as a specific type of relational power exercised by a variety of political actors, including governments, international agencies and non-state actors. The usefulness of this kind of analytical framework for researching an emerging “world authority structure” (John Boli) is illustrated, using speeches and news pieces on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan/Darfur. Results suggest that the common perception of an existing “non-governmental order” in humanitarian politics is highly exaggerated. Instead, what we see is a high degree of “UN-isation” of debate and a pivotal role of national governments that are widely acknowledged as authoritative sources of meaning.     

UN Reforms： An Arduous Exploration

The year2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the victory of the an-ti-fascist war of the world and the founding of the United Na-tions. By resolution of 58/291 of May 6, 2004, the General Assem-bly of the United Nations held a summit meeting on September 14-16of the same year. Based on the report by UN Secretary-General An-nan In Larger Freedom: towards Development, Security and HumanRights for All, the participants in the meeting had a full discussion ofthe practices of Millennium Decl…     

Kofi Annan:New UN Chief

Kofi Annan,a Ghanaian career diplomat,has succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali,an Egyptian,as the new Secretary-general of the United Nations for a five-year term.This has ensured continued top UN administrative leadership forAfrica.Incidentally,Mr.Annan is also the first UN Secretary-general from sub-Saharan Africa.     

The World Calls for a Strong United Nations—In Commemoration of the 60~(th) Anniversary of the UN

On September 14-16, 2005, the 2005 World Summit, UN's largest summit meeting of heads of state and government in the new century, was held. 170 heads of state and government out of 191 member states gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the United     

Japan＇s UN Diplomacy and Its Prospects

Japan＇s diplomacy related to the United Nations can be traced back to 1956 when it formally joined the United Nations. After raising the goal of becoming a ＂political power＂ in the 1980s, Japan, in order to boost its international status, has spared no efforts on enforcing its diplomacy toward the United Nations. Boasting the world＇s second largest economy, Japan, after the end of the Cold War, openly declared its pursuance of permanent membership of the UN Security Council and competed for a permanent seat on the Council respectively during the 50th and 60th Sessions of the UN General Assembly held in 1995 and 2005. Besides, by rallying G4, Japan also aligned with Germany, India and Brazil in jointly claiming permanent seats on the UN Security Council. Though suffering repeated setbacks, Japan has never given up its attempt in this regard.     

Promote Sustainable Development and Build a Harmonious World Recommendation Paper of the Third Conference of UN-NGO-IRENE/Asia Pacific to UN ECOSOC

April 28,2008,Beijing,China The Third Conference of UN-NGO-IRENE/Asia Pacific was held in Beijing on the 28th of April, 2008 on the theme "Sustainable Development and Green Olympics". The Conference, co-sponsored     

Special Competence Status Granted to CAFIU by UN Economic and Social Council

AtitsresumedorganizationalsessioninApril2003,theUnitedNationsEconomicandSocialCouncil(UNECOSOC)decidedtograntSpecialConsultativeStatustoChineseAssociationforIn-ternationalUnderstanding(CAFIU).AccordingtotheUNCharter,theECOSOCisresponsibleforpromotinghigherlivingstandards,fullemployment,andeconomicandsocialprogress;identifyingsolutionstointernationaleconomic,so-cialandhealth-relatedproblems;facilitatinginter-nationalcooperationincultureandeducation;en-couraginguniversalrespectforhu…     

The 61~(st) Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference held in Paris

From September 3 to 5, the 61st Annual UN DPI/ NGO Conference was convened in Paris--the birthplace of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the UN Department of Public Information （DPI） with the assistance of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization （UNESCO）, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights （OHCHR） and the Government of France. The theme of this year＇s conference was “Reaffirming Human Rights： The Universal Declaration at 60”.     

Promote Sustainable Development and Build a Harmonious World Recommendation Paper of the Third Conference of UN-NGO-IRENE/Asia Pacific to UN ECOSOC——April 28, 2008, Beijing,China

The Third Conference of UN-NGO-IRENE/Asia Pacific was held in Beijing on the 28^th of April, 2008 on the theme ＂Sustainable Development and Green Olympics＂. The Conference, co-sponsored by China NGO Network for International Exchanges （CNIE） and the NGO Section of UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs （DESA ）, co-organized with Beijing NGO Association for International Exchanges, was attended by officials from UN DESA and UN Department of Public Information together with over 200 representatives of about 100 non-governmental organizations from India, Indonesia,     

Features of the International Situation at the Turn of the Century

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Feeling the Pulse of the World

Dizziness from preoccupation with the 20th century robbed us of the time to contemplate the 21st century. This is a well-known dictum early back in the 1960s by the late French strategist Raymond Aron. Now the new century is upon us. What were believed to be irrelevant then have turned out into hot topics these days. An early warning for the unfolding century, the September 11 events represent but only a prelude     

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations

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