Reforming UN Decision-Making Procedures

The institutional procedures for the UN's decision-making on issues of global peace and security, first and foremost the Security Council (SC), were conceived with the objective of enabling a swift but internationally coordinated response to irregular situations of crises. Today, however, the UN is constantly involved in situations of conflict and has expanded its range of activities. This book offers a concrete and practically applicable answer to the question of how to reform the UN and increase the legitimacy of the UN's decision-making procedures on issues of global peace and security. In order to provide this answer, it connects the minutia of institutional design with the abstract principals of democratic theory in a systematic and reproducible method, thereby enabling a clear normative evaluation of even the smallest technical detail of reform. This evaluation demonstrates that there is a range of feasible proposals for reform that could improve the SC's accountability both to the General Assembly and to the general public, that could increase the opportunities for effective input from the UN membership and NGOs. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the United Nations, International Organizations and regional governance.

Martin Daniel Niemetz has just completed his PhD at London School of Economics, UK. He is currently a Political Advisor to the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Vienna, Austria.

INTRODUCTION, PART ONE: FRAMEWORK 1. Promoting a Deliberative System: The Desirability Score 2. The Politics of UN Reform: The Feasibility Score 3. Overview of Reform Proposals PART TWO: EVALUATION 5.SC Membership and Voting 6. SC Working Methods 7. Relations between SC and GA 8. Relations between SC and Civil Society 9. Overview of Evaluation Results CONCLUSION