The United Nations and the future peace

The end of the Cold War promised a great improvement in the UN's effectiveness as a framework for international peace and security. Yet, it soon became evident that the UN was having great difficulty in coming to grips with countless new conflicts. Several practical measures are suggested for making the UN a more credible and relevant instrument/or a more peaceful and less destructive post‐Cold War world     

The United Nations in Katanga

The following address by the Conservative Member of Parliamentfor Mid-Bedfordshire was given at a joint meeting of the RoyalAfrican Society and the Royal Commonwealth Society on March1, 1962. Major Lewis Hastings, M.C., author and broadcaster,took the chair.     

The Quest for a United Nations Specialised Agency for the Environment

Abstract

Recent years have seen intense intergovernmental deliberations on issues concerning governance in the field of environment. Their aim has been to address the role of the institutions that provide platforms for international environmental cooperation. There are two main lines of enquiry: the role of regime-specific institutions that cater to sectoral regulatory frameworks (popularly known as multilateral environmental agreements, or MEAs); and the role of institutions that are established to follow up on global environmental conferences or a specific environmental task. Most of these institutions reflect intergovernmental consensual process. However, there are concerns about their proliferation and there is a growing cacophony of calls to ‘bring coherence to the fragmented landscape of MEAs, intergovernmental bodies, UN system entities and other international organizations’ (Sha Zukang (2011) ‘Legal and policy dimensions of sustainable development: expected contribution of Rio + 20’, Environmental Policy and Law, 41(6), pp. 244–246, at p. 245). In fact the need to bring order to environmental governance has assumed great importance and urgency if environmental cooperation is to be achieved. This paper explores, in particular, the role of the United Nations Environment Programme and its potential for conversion to a specialised agency of the UN.     

Cambodia and the United Nations - Legal Documents

ABSTRACT

This study examines the evolution of political party finance in Thailand, which has been crucial for party development. The nature of party finance cannot be examined separately from the country's democratization given that the military early on dominated political parties. At the same time, such financing traditionally depended upon either regional factions (for larger parties) or party leaders (for micro-parties), while state funding for parties was nonexistent. The 1998 and 2007 Organic Acts on Political Parties contained finance reforms to strengthen parties, making them more transparent and accountable. Yet these reforms have only been partly successful. Today party leaders, faction leaders, and the military continue to influence party finance. This study addresses the issue of party finance in Thailand by scrutinizing its historical evolution from the dawn of Thai parties and party laws in the 1950s to the present. The authors conclude, first, that the limited nature of party finance laws in the pre-1998 period legitimized military-backed parties while facilitating intra-party factionalism. Second, they contend that despite reforms in party finance laws in Thailand major flaws remain to be corrected.     

South-West Africa, the Union and the United Nations

The following address was given at a joint meeting of the RoyalAfrican Society and Royal Commonwealth Society on December 3,1959, by Sir Charles Arden-Clarke G.C.M.G., Chairman of theCouncil, former Governor-General of Ghana, and Chairman of theUnited Nations Good Offices Committee that visited South Africain 1958 to discuss the problem of South-West Africa with theUnion Government. Sir John Macpherson, G.C.M.G., former Governor-Generalof Nigeria, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office,took the chair.     

The Japan-Soviet far east trade relationship: A case of the cautious buyer and the overconfident seller

Given Japan’s resource scarcity, the eastern Soviet Union’s wealth of natural resources and dire need for large infusions of investment capital and technology, and the close distance between the two, one would believe that trade between the two countries would be quite sizable. However, the converse is the case, with each country providing no more than 2 percent of the other’s foreign trade. To explain this phenomenon, it is necessary to explore the intrinsic and self-imposed obstacles to expanded Japanese-USSR trade. It turns out that both countries do not pursue trade for mutual advantage but rather seek an entirely different set of ulterior zero-sum motives. The article discusses what would appear to be a natural “fit” between the two countries’ needs and abilities, explores the extensive joint Siberian development projects of the 1960s and 1970s to explain the undesired side effects of Japanese-Soviet trade, details Japanese and Soviet business, government, and economist arguments for and against expanded economic relations, explains the maldevelopment of a resource-extractive versus commodity-producing eastern USSR as a product of climate, labor shortages, investment policies, and a Stalinist-planned system, outlines Japanese desires to accrue political advantages from its trade with the Soviet Union, and predicts the inability of Gorbachev’s economic reforms to truly expand Japanese-Soviet trade at a low cost to its larger geopolitical concerns. Although continuing private Japanese efforts are being made to work out joint venture deals with the USSR (thus belying the notion of a completely consensus-unified “Japan, Inc.”), they are still anomalies. Ultimately, if expanded trade ties are to occur (and indeed it is this article’s contention that they must for the USSR to survive as a superpower), then they must be made on Japan’s terms.     

The Soviet union,Japan, and east Asia: The security dimension

This article explores the ways in which the Gorbachev regime has tried to improve what Soviet policymakers perceive as an unfavorable balance of power in Northeast Asia. It argues that Gorbachev’s initial response, which emphasized regional arms control proposals, has not been successful because Japanese leaders do not see them as meaningful concessions. More recent changes in Soviet policy offer greater prospects for accommodation. Changes in the global East-West environment and domestic trends in Japan also may have a positive impact on Soviet-Japanese security relations. She is the author ofJapan and Arms Control (Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament, Ottawa, 1987).     

Restoration of China's lawful rights in the United Nations

Abstract

Right after martial law was declared, the military, through the Office of Community Relations (OCR) of the headquarters of the Philippine Armed Forces, decided which media organizations could operate, which publications might be printed, and which newsmen were to be given a clean bill of health. On May 11, 1973, these functions were turned over to the Media Advisory Council, a “private” body established to exercise the functions of a press council. In mid-October, President Marcos “froze” the MAC and to date, the question of who will watch the press is still unanswered. The choice, it appears, is between the military and the Department of Public Information (DPI).     

美国与东亚能源安全

本文认为,美国是影响东亚能源安全最重要的外部因素之一.在维护海洋运输线路和保障全球能源安全等方面,美国对东亚能源安全的影响大体上是积极的;但美国的单边制裁和能源外交,对东亚能源安全则是不利的.在解决东亚地区内部能源争端方面,美国目前的立场有助于各方保持克制,但是其立场的多变性则可能不利于争端的最终解决.美国对东亚的能源政策以将东亚纳入自己主导的全球能源安全体系为目标,目前的重点是处理中美能源关系.     

Showtime for Southeast Asia: An economic and political crossroads

In the ASEAN region, booming exports and imports, and rapidly rising per capita incomes, have brought new challenges to trade policy. ASEAN is promoting its own “free trade area”; the United States backs the much wider and all-inclusive APEC format; and Malaysia urges a “caucus” restricted ethnically and racially to East Asians. The result is a genuine trade debate, along lines familiar in the already-industrialized nations. If ASEAN follows genuine openness there are considerable opportunities, but if it takes the timeworn paths of protectionism, restrictions on investment, and excessive sensitivity to fears of “foreign manipulation,” the future is liable to be less bright.