This article examines the systemic constraints and opportunities confronting the United Nations, specifically as an instrument for making and implementing `global policy', in an era in which universal and formal organizational approaches to international co-operation are seriously being called into question. The author argues that global policy entails some manner of global organization which can provide the necessary apparatus for engaging the international system in policy-relevant political-intellectual routines at the system-wide level. The UN could play a special role in facilitating decisions by the international community as to what type of policy device is possible and desirable in a given problem area (norms, rules, organizations, or other outputs) as well as what the policy scope might be (global or subglobal). However, under the present set of arrangements - labeled `functional eclecticism' - the UN is poorly equipped to help determine how much formal institutionalism and globalism is optimal for the international system. Another model - `dirigible pluralism' - is articulated that suggests an alternative set of arrangements whereby the UN might move toward routinizing international public policy processes and furnishing a degree of central guidance compatible with an increasingly subsystem-dominant, polyarchical world.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, James E. , 1975. Public Policy-Making: Decisions and Their Implementation. New York: Praeger.
2.
Atlantic Council Working Group on the UN , 1977. The Future of the UN: A Strategy for Like-Minded Nations. Boulder: Westview.
3.
Axelrod, Robert , 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
4.
Axelrod, Robert & Robert O. Keohane, 1985. `Achieving Cooperation Under Anarchy: Strategies and Institutions', World Politics, vol. 38, no. 1, October, pp. 226-254.
5.
Bardach, Eugene , 1977. The Implementation Game. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
6.
Bilder, Richard B. , 1981. Managing the Risks of International Agreement. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
7.
Braybrooke, David & Charles E. Lindblom, 1963. A Strategy of Decision. New York: Free Press.
8.
Brown, Seyom & Larry Fabian, 1975. `Toward Mutual Accountability in the Nonterrestrial Realm', International Organization, vol. 29, no. 3, Summer, pp. 877-892.
9.
Buzan, Barry , 1983. People, States and Fear. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
10.
Camps, Miriam & William Diebold, 1986. The New Multilateralism: Can the World Trading System Be Saved?New York: Council on Foreign Relations.
11.
Claude, Inis L. , 1972. `The Growth of International Institutions', pp. 281-300 in Brian Porter, ed., The Aberystwyth Papers. London: Oxford University Press.
12.
Conybeare, John , 1980. `International Organization and the Theory of Property Rights', International Organization, vol. 34, no. 3, Summer, pp. 307-334.
13.
Cox, Robert W. , 1984. `Social Forces, States, and World Order: Beyond International Relations Theory', pp. 258-299, in R. B. J. Walker, ed., Culture, Ideology, and World Order. Boulder, CO: Westview.
14.
Fromkin, David , 1981. The Independence of Nations. New York: Praeger.
15.
Gamble, John King , 1980. `Reservations to Multilateral Treaties: A Macroscopic View of State Practice', American Journal of International Law, vol. 74, April, pp. 372-394.
16.
Gochman, Charles S. & Zeev Maoz, 1984. `Militarized Interstate Disputes 1816-1976: Procedures, Patterns and Insights', Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 28, no. 4, December, pp. 585-616.
17.
Gowa, Joanne , 1983. Closing the Gold Window: Domestic Politics and the End of Bretton Woods. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
18.
Haas, Ernst B. , 1980. `Why Collaborate? Issue-Linkage and International Regimes', World Politics, vol. 32, no. 3, April, pp. 357-405.
19.
Haas, Ernst B. , 1986. Why We Still Need the United Nations. Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies.
20.
Hoffmann, Stanley , 1978. Primacy or World Order. New York: McGraw-Hill.
21.
Inkeles, Alex , 1975. `The Emerging Social Structure of the World', World Politics, vol. 27, no. 4, July, pp. 467-495.
22.
Jacobson, Harold K. , 1984. Networks of Interdependence. New York: Knopf.
23.
Jacobson, Harold K. , William M. Reisinger & Todd Mathers, 1986. `National Entanglements in International Governmental Organizations', American Political Science Review, vol. 80, no. 1, March, pp. 141-159.
24.
Janis, Mark W. , 1988. An Introduction to International Law. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
25.
Jervis, Robert , 1988. `Realism, Game Theory, and Co-operation', World Politics, vol. 40, no. 3, April, pp. 317-349.
26.
Jones, Charles O. , 1984. An Introduction to the Study of Public Policy. Monterey, CA: Brooks Cole.
27.
Jönsson, Christer , 1986. `Interorganization Theory and International Organization', International Studies Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, March, pp. 39-57.
28.
Kay, David A. , 1976. `On the Reform of International Institutions: A Comment', International Organization, vol. 30, no. 3, Summer, pp. 533-538.
29.
Keohane, Robert O. , 1984. After Hegemony. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
Keohane, Robert O. & Joseph S. Nye, 1985. `Two Cheers for Multilateralism', Foreign Policy, no. 60, Fall, pp. 148-167.
31.
Keohane, Robert O. & Joseph S. Nye, 1989. Power and Interdependence. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
32.
Krasner, Stephen D. , 1985. Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
33.
Kratochwil, Friedrich & John Gerard Ruggie, 1986. `International Organization: A State of the Art on an Art of the State', International Organization, vol. 40, no. 4, Autumn, pp. 753-775.
34.
MacRae, Duncan & James E. Wilde, 1979. Policy Analysis for Public Decisions. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury.
35.
Meadows, Donellaet al. , 1972. The Limits to Growth. New York: Universe.
36.
Meehan, Eugene J. , 1985. `Policy: Constructing a Definition', Policy Sciences, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 291-311.
37.
Ness, Gayl D. & Steven R. Brechin, 1988. `Bridging the Gap: International Organizations as Organizations', International Organization, vol. 42, no. 2, Spring, pp. 245-273.
38.
Nye, Joseph S. , 1987. `Nuclear Learning and US-Soviet Security Regimes', International Organization, vol. 41, no. 3, Summer, pp. 371-402.
39.
Oye, Kenneth A. , 1985. `Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies', World Politics, vol. 38, no. 1, October, pp. 1-24.
40.
Oye, Kenneth A. , ed., 1986. Cooperation Under Anarchy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
41.
Pirages, Dennis , 1989. Global Technopolitics. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole.
42.
Rochester, J. Martin , 1986. `The Rise and Fall of International Organization as a Field of Study', International Organization, vol. 40, no. 4, Autumn, pp. 777-813.
43.
Romulo, Carlos , 1954. `The UN Is Dying', Colliers, July 23, pp. 31-35.
44.
Rubington, Earl & Martin S. Weinberg, eds, 1977. The Study of Social Problems. New York: Oxford University Press.
45.
Small, Melvin & J. David Singer, 1985. `Patterns in International Warfare 1816-1980', pp. 7-19 in Small & Singer, eds, International War: An Anthology and Study Guide. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
46.
Soroos, Marvin S. , 1986. Beyond Sovereignty: The Challenge of Global Policy. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
47.
United Nations Association-USA , 1987. A Successor Vision: The UN of Tomorrow. New York.
48.
US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , 1988. World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1987. Washington, DC.
49.
US House of Representatives , 1964. United Nations in Crisis. Washington, DC.
50.
Young, Oran R. , 1980. `International Regimes: Problems of Concept Formation', World Politics, vol. 32, no. 3, April, pp. 331-356.
51.
Young, Oran R. , 1986. `International Regimes: Toward a New Theory of Institutions', World Politics, vol. 39, no. 1, October, pp. 104-122.
52.
Waltz, Kenneth N. , 1979. Theory of International Politics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
53.
Wilkenfeld, Jonathan & Michael Brecher, 1984. `International Crises 1945-1975: The UN Dimension', International Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 1, March, pp. 45-67.
