Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center and Director Emeritus (2001–14) of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies who was named 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Past president of the International Studies Association (2009–10) and recipient of its “IO Distinguished Scholar Award 2016,” he also directed the United Nations Intellectual History Project (1999–2010) and was research professor at SOAS, University of London (2012–15), chair of the Academic Council on the UN System (2006–9), editor of Global Governance, research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, research professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, executive director of the Academic Council on the UN System and of the International Peace Academy, a member of the UN secretariat, and a consultant to public and private agencies. He has written extensively about multilateral approaches to international peace and security, humanitarian action, and sustainable development. His most recent single-authored volumes include Humanitarianism Intervention: Ideas in Action (2016); What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (2016); Governing the World? Addressing “Problems without Passports” (2014); Global Governance: Why? What? Whither? (2013); Humanitarian Business (2013); and Thinking about Global Governance: Why People and Ideas Matter (2011).

I begin with my profound gratitude to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which named me a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. The generous support provided two years for the kind of research and reflection that I hope is present on every page in this book. Vartan Gregorian was my boss at Brown University and as a consultant to the corporation when he first arrived in New York. But he has become far more than that over the years, inspiring me to push myself and my thoughts about the past, present, and future of multilateralism and the United Nations. Most charitable foundations and governments invest in institutions rather than individuals and in soundbites rather than research. The Carnegie Corporation under his stewardship has gone against that conventional grain, and so other fellows and I have been the beneficiaries. This book would not have appeared as it has, or as quickly, without the foundation’s generosity of spirit and vision.

The most congenial and productive of my professional homes has, since 1998, been The City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Former president William Kelly hired me when he was provost and consistently and enthusiastically supported my professional activities as well as tolerated my sense of humor. Current president Chase Robinson has continued to build the distinction of the Graduate Center and nominated me to be a Carnegie Fellow, which has made possible a wonderfully rich last two years.

I have benefited over the years from a number of wonderful intellects and helping hands among my advanced graduate students. This volume reflects research by Paul Celentano, who helped fill in some of the holes that existed after I formulated the book outline. Danielle Zach, as she has over the last decade, abandoned her own work as a post-doc to apply a sharp mind and eye to the raw manuscript, improving substantially its structure and content. This book simply would not have been as timely or persuasive without Paul’s and Danielle’s able helping hands.

This volume marks the culmination of career-long efforts, and I repeat a bit of what I wrote in a 2011 collection of essays.¹ What has united, or perhaps haunted, my work over the years is what many would deem a curious conviction – namely, that community interests should hold sway but are invariably shortchanged, nationally or internationally. Long before the “America First” of Donald Trump in the United States, the country’s welfare had often been sacrificed on the altar of individualism; but globally those of the commons are typically and tragically trampled by great powers as well as by tin-pot dictators and megalomaniacs. Yet, I have remained steadfast in believing that multilateral cooperation is a way not only to attenuate American and big-power arrogance but also to solve many, albeit not all, thorny problems that defy national boundaries.

My analyses of contemporary world politics might very well “depress Dr Pangloss,” the character in Voltaire’s Candide who believes that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. The gaps are enormous between what happens in the world polis and what is on the books – spelled out in the UN Charter and hundreds of international treaties, as well as in public statements by politicians, pundits, prime ministers, princes, and presidents. Surely, ours cannot be the best of all possible worlds. I remain persuaded that good people and good ideas can make a difference to the quality of both human life and international society.

That optimism needs to be asserted amidst the disturbing populist and inward-looking politics in the West and elsewhere that accompanies the most gut-wrenching humanitarian disaster in recent memory. Our collective conscience apparently was beyond shocking, as a halfmillion Syrians died in real time, including children suffocating from chemical weapons. That said, the bottom line for my last lecture would also resemble that from my first: I’m an inveterate optimist who believes that it is better sometimes to be wrong, rather than a pessimist and always right.

A career in any business, let alone the academy, involves heavy debts accumulated from both deliberate and unintended encounters with too many smart people to mention; but a few nonetheless stand out whose names I would like to register at the outset because much of what follows in these pages draws on collaborative work over the years. I have drawn on joint products and so would like to indicate clearly up front my debt to a number of individuals. I cite our main joint work here and will not repeat them in subsequent chapters, nor will I refer readers to my three previous Polity Press books.²

This book asks an honest question: “Would the World Be Better without the UN?” The answer is “no,” a response that draws on four and a half decades of close encounters of a different (not “third”) kind. I begin with my dear friend and mentor Leon Gordenker, whose own scholarship and unpretentious demeanor have always provided a beacon; as I pulled together the outline and elaborated the manuscript, I became even more fully aware of the extent to which I am indebted to him. Over the years, my remedial education about the world organization has continued through collaboration with David P. Forsythe and Roger A. Coate (and later Kelly-Kate Pease) on eight editions of our UN textbook.³ I have learned much from Sam Daws on two editions of a major handbook about the world body.⁴ And, on the related topic of global governance and its relationship to the UN, I have always taken away more than I contributed from collaborations with Craig Murphy, Ramesh Thakur, and Rorden Wilkinson.⁵

I would like to draw attention to my collaboration between 1999 and 2010 with Tatiana Carayannis, Louis Emmerij, and Richard Jolly in the United Nations Intellectual History Project (UNIHP), a long overdue effort to document the world organization’s ideational contribution to economic and social development. The sixteen volumes and oral history are now widely cited, and I am especially pleased with our three “synthesis” volumes whose conclusions penetrate the analysis here.⁶ Collaboration with Dan Plesch on the UN’s wartime history filled another knowledge gap.⁷ And research with Stephen Browne helped me return to the development vineyards with the Future UN Development System Project (FUNDS).⁸

My preoccupation with the humanitarian struggle to protect and help people caught in the cross-hairs of armed violence was formed in collaboration with Larry Minear in directing the Humanitarianism & War Project. Gareth Evans, Michael Ignatieff, and Ramesh Thakur were especially appreciated colleagues during the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), which resulted in The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and an accompanying research volume.⁹ Peter Hoffman went from my classroom to ICISS to helping to introduce me to the theory of new wars and of new humanitarianisms in two books.¹⁰ Finally, Michael Barnett and I worked together on two volumes that seek to re-examine humanitarian shibboleths and rethink standard operating procedures and principles.¹¹

I am deeply grateful that former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan agreed to grace these pages with a foreword. I have known and admired this gracious and dedicated man for the last three decades. The world definitely would be a less kind and safe place without him.

I end by dedicating this volume to the next generation, and more especially to my grandchildren Amara, Kieran, and Grace. They and their peers worldwide deserve a safer and more just planet; and a better United Nations could help make that wish a reality.

TGW
New York, July 2017

The United Nations was born from the ashes of war almost three-quarters of a century ago. Against that backdrop of unimaginable suffering and collapse in basic values, courageous politicians and citizens sought new institutional ways to deal with the life-threatening challenges of the day, and the future.

Ironically, today, as the number of threats has multiplied, the political mood has inexplicably turned inward, seeking to build walls rather than tear them down. Instead of being more central to global problem-solving, in the current climate of nationalism, the UN’s value-based framework and institutions are not only not accepted by everyone but actively under attack.

In a bold and original way, Thomas G. Weiss uses a counterfactual approach to examine what the United Nations does, what would happen if it ceased to exist, and what can be done to improve it. He does not shy away from lamenting the obvious shortcomings and failures of member states and international civil servants; but he also provides a timely reminder of the crucial normative and operational work undertaken by the world organization. He points out that we can await new unspeakable disasters to prove the need for better intergovernmental organizations and undoubtedly be rewarded with unimaginable calamities. Or we can make fitter for purpose the ones that we have.

My own decade at the helm of the UN leads me to salute this book because it helps us to understand the crucial importance of the world organization in tackling the considerable challenges facing the world today. Tom Weiss has engagingly and honestly asked a very tough question found in the book’s title, Would the World Be Better without the UN? His negative reply is an indispensable guide for anyone worried about the future of the planet and of the United Nations.

Kofi A. Annan
Geneva, July 2017