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The Third UN is the ecology of supportive non-state actors-intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, NGOs, the for-profit private sector, and the media-that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN (member states) and the Second UN (staff members of international secretariats) to formulate and refine ideas and decision-making at key junctures in policy processes. Some advocate for particular ideas, others help analyze or operationalizetheir testing and implementation; many thus help the UN 'think'. While think tanks, knowledge brokers, and epistemic communities are phenomena that have entered both the academic and policy lexicons, their intellectual role remains marginal to analyses of such intergovernmental organizations as theUnited Nations.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: The 'Third' UN: Non-State Actors and the World Body's Thinking
- 2: NGOs: Sovereignty-Free Partners for UN Policy Development
- 3: Commissions and High-Level Panels: How Eminent Individuals Shape UN Thinking
- 4: The UN's Knowledge Economy: Think Tanks, Academics, and Knowledge Brokers
- 5: Alternative Voices: Challengers of the Normative Post-War Order
- 6: Fitter for Purpose? The UN's Normative Future
About the author
Tatiana Carayannis is Director of the Social Science Research Council's Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (CPPF) and Understanding Violent Conflict (UVC) program. She also leads the Council's China-Africa Knowledge Project and has a visiting appointment at the London School of Economics and Political Science's Africa Centre, where she also serves as a Research Director for the Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID). Her publications include UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice? (with T G Weiss, L Emmerij, and R Jolly, Indiana University Press, 2005), and Understanding the Central African Republic (with Louisa Lombard, Zed Book, 2015).
Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director Emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York's Graduate Center; he is also Co-Chair, Cultural Heritage at Risk Project, J. Paul Getty Trust; Distinguished Fellow, Global Governance, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; and Eminent Scholar, Kyung Hee University, Korea. His most recent single-authored publications include Would the World Be Better without the UN? (Polity Press, 2018), What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (Polity Press, 2016); and Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action (Polity Press, 2016).
Summary
People often refer to the 'United Nations' but without specifying which specific parts are responsible for success or failure. This book explores supportive the non-state actors that are essential players in developing global policies and norms, alongside the traditional categories of member states (first UN) and staff (second UN).
Additional text
The book presents the most comprehensive overview to date of external actors contribution to the formulation of ideas for decision-making in the UNs policy processes... the authors have given UN scholars many opportunities to connect the book to scholarship on international organizations and non-state actors and advance research in this area in a more fruitful and systematic manner...Tatiana Carayannis and Thomas G. Weiss have written a fascinating book of immense value to every student and scholar researching the UN, that will also give UN experts and global policymakers fresh insights, thanks to the original data the authors were able to assemble because of their unique expertise.
Report
In this impressive book, the authors Tatiana Carayannis and Thomas G. Weiss remind us that the UN system cannot survive without the input and ideas of an array of independent thinkers and players and actors, including research centers, human rights experts, economists, consultants, digital networks, and specialists of all sorts who daily help the UN carry out its Charter obligations. Indeed, in many ways, the unheralded 'Third UN' serves as one of the great strengths of the world's most indispensable security body. Dr Stephen Schlesinger, Author of Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations
