Annual Review of United Nations Affairs 2009/2010 VOLUME VII

Book excerpt: a. The set generallySince the publication of its first edition in 1950, the Annual Review of United Nations Affairs has stood as the authoritative resource for scholars, students, and practitioners researching the latest developments of that august body. From the insightful introduction, prepared each year by adistinguished expert on UN affairs, to the full-text presentation of reports and resolutions and the helpful subject index, ARUNA provides a practical tour of each year''s U.N. actions and debates. The expert selection of documents by Joachim Muller and Karl Sauvant and the topic-based organizationof those documents make any researcher''s task much easier than the vast searching, sorting, and pruning required by the U.N.''s website. The series'' topic-based organization of the materials and subject index lend invaluable guidance to all researchers.ARUNA presents comprehensive documentation of the work of the UN on an annual basis, starting in September of each year with the beginning of the regular sessions of the General Assembly. Coverage of the UN''s key organs is provided, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economicand Social Council (ECOSOC), the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. In addition, selected reports of intergovernmental bodies and expert groups are included. Solely official UN documentation is used. ARUNA occupies a special place in the publications on the work of the UN, as itallows readers to obtain an overview of the principal developments in its key organs. This makes it an important reference source for policy-makers and academic researchers.b. The 2009-2010 volumesThis year''s edition continues to focus on the world financial crisis and the reaction of the United Nations and the international financial system to that crisis. The Overview to this year''s edition, written by Joachim Muller and Karl Sauvant, examines the changing role of the United Nations andexplores ways in which the management of the financial crisis has impacted that role.The Introduction to this year''s edition also examines the effects of this crisis; this Introduction is drawn from the "Report of the Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System," as well as a slightlyedited version of a Preface to that report written by Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz. The Introduction discusses the findings of the Commission and proposes the creation of a new institution, a Global Economic Coordination Council, which would be supported by an International Panel of Experts with ageographically diverse membership that would represent the interests of emerging and developing countries as well as those of developed countries.Dr. Joseph E. Stiglitz, who served as Chairman of the Commission and wrote the Preface to the Commission''s Report, holds joint professorships at Columbia University''s Economics Department and its Business School. He is also Co-founder and Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. From 1997to 2000 he was the World Bank''s Senior Vice President for Development Economics and Chief Economist. From 1995 to 1997 he served as Chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and as a member of President Clinton''s cabinet. From 1993 to 1995 he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.He was previously a professor of economics at Stanford, Princeton, Yale, and All Souls College. Dr. Stiglitz is also a leading scholar of the economics of the public sector and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 in addition to the American Economic Association''s biennial John BatesClark Award in 1979. His recent publications include Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy (2010), Making Globalization Work (2006), Fair Trade for All (2005), and Globalization and its Discontents (2002).The 2009-2010 volumes of ARUNA therefore also devote considerable attention to the financial crisis as well as other international crises. Among the documents in the 2009-2010 volumes are the complete General Assembly resolutions, as well as the Report and Resolutions of the Security Council and theEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Annual Reports of note include reports of the United Nations Children''s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme and UN Population Fund, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Relief and Works Agency forPalestine Refugees in the Near East, and the World Food Programme. Mr. Muller and Dr. Sauvant have also selected progress reports on key peacekeeping, peace-building, and political missions, including those for Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, the Middle East, Sudan,and West Africa.c. Volume VII (this volume)This volume contains the following:Chapter 1: General Assembly, Sixty-fourth Session (continued)3. Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly at Its Sixty-fourth Session (continued) (Resolutions 64/104 through 64/199)d. Guest Authors of previous years'' editionsEach annual edition of ARUNA is introduced by a Guest Author, a distinguished expert on UN affairs, who highlights the outstanding themes of the year in review. Together with an overview provided by the editors, this introduction is intended to facilitate access to the material and, above all, tomake it easer for users of ARUNA to "see the forest for the trees." This year''s ARUNA includes excerpts from the "Report of the Commission of Experts of the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System" (21 Sept. 2009), and from aslightly edited version of a Preface to that report written by Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz. However, the roster of distinguished experts who have contributed this introduction in the past is also worthy of mention:Jose Antonio Ocampo: ARUNA 2008/2009 editionProfessor Jose Antonio Ocampo is Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue. He is also Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs and Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Professor Ocampo previously held the positions of Under-Secretary-Generalof the United Nations for Economic and Social Affairs, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Minister of Finance, Agriculture, and Planning of Colombia. In 2009, he was a member of the Commission of Experts of the President of theUnited Nations General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System. Professor Ocampo is also the author of numerous books and articles on macroeconomics policy and theory, economic development, international trade, and economic history. His recent publications includeStability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development, with Joseph E. Stiglitz, Shari Spiegel, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Deepak Nayyar (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).Jeffrey D. Sachs: ARUNA 2007/2008 editionProfessor Jeffrey D. Sachs is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the UN on the Millennium Development Goals. Professor Sachs''s introduction to ARUNA 2007/2008 was titled "Towards a New Global Protocol on Climate Change," in which heargued that solving the climate change problem will demand four steps: scientific consensus, public awareness, the development of alternative technologies, and a global framework for action. He dealt, in particular, with the science underpinning the negotiations for a new global protocol on climatechange, as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Professor Sachs argued that climate change crises can only be solved through the goals, leadership, and treaty mechanisms of the UN.Edward C. Luck: ARUNA 2006/2007 editionProfessor Edward C. Luck is UN Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect and Vice President and Director of Studies at the International Peace Academy. From 1984 to 1994, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the UN Association of the USA (UNA-USA). Professor Luck''sintroduction to ARUNA 2006/2007 covered "The responsible sovereign and the responsibility to protect," in which he addressed the scope and content of what was agreed at the 2005 World Summit, the implications of the responsibility to protect (RtoP) for notions of state sovereignty, and some of theconceptual, architectural, and policy challenges then facing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon''s commitment to "operationalizing" the responsibility to protect and translating it "from words to deeds."Louise Frechette: ARUNA 2005/2006 editionMs Louise Frechette is Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario. Until March 2006, she was the first Deputy Secretary-General of the UN; before that, she was Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN. Ms Frechette''s introduction to ARUNA2005/2006 covered "United Nations reform: an unfinished story." As the first Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Ms Frechette was uniquely positioned to undertake a personal assessment of what has changed and what has not changed in the past decade at the UN and why. She examined if the UN isfunctioning better than it was 15 years ago, why reform is so difficult to achieve and what the future holds for the institutions.Rubens Ricupero: ARUNA 2004/2005 editionMr Rubens Ricupero is Dean of the Fundacno Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), Sao Paulo and was formerly Secretary-General of UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Minister of Finance of Brazil. Mr Ricupero''s introduction to ARUNA 2004/2005 covered "The difficulty of building consensusin an age of extremes" and examined the mysteries of the negotiating process leading to the outcome of the 2005 World Summit. Rather than a "Grand Bargain" of a comprehensive UN reform in the area