Bøker i Global Institutions-serien

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of the least written about and least understood of our major global institutions. This book provides an understanding of this crucial institution, with a range of chapters that outline its origins and evolution, and present a framework for understanding the OECD.

Will tensions and disputes among states sharing international water courses and lakes turn into active conflicts? Addressing this question, the book shows that these concerns are more prominent due to the locations and underlying political dynamics of some of these large rivers and the strategic interests of major powers.Written by a combination of leading practitioners and academics, this book shows that states are more prone to cooperate and manage their transboundary issues over the use of their common water resources through peaceful means, and the key institutions they employ are international river basin organizations (RBOs). Far from being mere technical institutions, RBOs are key mechanisms of water diplomacy with capacity and effectiveness varying on four key interrelated factors: their legal and institutional development, and the influence of their technical and strategic resources. The basins analyzed span all continents, from both developed and developing basins, including the Columbia, Great Lakes, Colorado, Senegal, Niger, Nile, Congo, Jordan, Helmand, Aral Sea, Mekong, Danube and Rhine.Contributing to the academic discourse on transboundary water management and water conflict and cooperation, the book provides insights to policy-makers on which water diplomacy engagements can be successful, the strengths to build on and the pitfalls to avoid so that shared water resources are managed in a cooperative, sustainable and stable way.

How has contemporary humanitarianism become the dominant framework for how states construct their moral obligations to non-citizens? To answer this question, this book examines the history of humanitarianism in international relations by tracing the relationship between transnational moral obligation and sovereignty from the 16th century to the present. Whereas existing studies of humanitarianism examine the diffusion of such norms or their transmission by non-state actors, this volume explicitly links humanitarianism to the broader concept of sovereignty. Rather than only focusing on the expansion of humanitarian norms, it examines how sovereignty both challenges and sets limits on them. Humanitarian norms are shown to act just as much to reinforce the logic of sovereignty as they do to challenge it.Contemporary humanitarianism is often described in universalist terms, which suggests that humanitarian activity transcends borders in order to provide assistance to those who suffer. In contrast, this book suggests a more counterintuitive and complex understanding of moral obligation, namely that humanitarian discourse not only provides a framework for legitimate humanitarian action, but it also establishes the limits of moral obligation. It will be of great interest to a wide audience of scholars and students in international relations theory, constructivism and norms, and humanitarianism and politics.

Accessing human rights and justice mechanisms is a pressing issue in global politics. Although an understanding of justice is inherent in broad human rights discourses, there is no clear consensus on how to develop adequate means of accessing them in order to make a difference to people's lives. Further, expansions of the boundaries of both human rights and justice make any clear and settled understanding of the relation difficult to ascertain.This volume tackles these issues by focusing on the dilemmas of accessing and implementing human rights and justice across a range of empirical contexts while also investigating a range of conceptual approaches to, and understandings of, justice, including issues of equality, retribution, and restoration, as well as justice as a transnational professional project. The contributors, representing a range of disciplinary backgrounds and diverse voices, offer empirical examples from Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Tunisia, and Uganda to explore the issues of accessing and implementing human rights and justice in conflict, post-conflict, and transitional settings.This work will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, human rights, international criminal justice, and conflict response.

Today, there are over 40 million conflict-induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) globally, almost double the number of refugees. Yet, IDPs are protected only by the soft-law Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement at the global level. Instead of a dedicated international organization, IDPs receive protection and assistance only through the UN's cluster approach.Orchard argues that while an international IDP protection regime exists, many aspects of it are informal, with IDP issues bound up in a humanitarian regime complex that divides the mandates of key organizations and even the question of IDP status itself. While the Guiding Principles mark an important step forward, implementation of laws and policies based on them at the domestic level remains haphazard. Action at the international level similarly reflects an all-too-often ad hoc approach to IDP issues. Through an in-depth examination of IDP efforts at the international level and across the forty states which have adopted IDP laws and policies, Orchard argues that while progress has been made, new and greater monitoring and accountability mechanisms at both the domestic and international levels are critical.This work will be valuable to scholars, students, and practitioners of forced migration, international relations theory, and the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

This book considers the past and present legacies, continuities and change of the United Nations Trusteeship System by assessing consequences and legacies of decolonization in contemporary society, international organizations, and international politics.

This book is the first comprehensive and comparative contribution to explore and identify the key factors that hamper and enable the development and deployment of multinational rapid response mechanisms.

Although an understanding of justice is inherent in broad human rights discourses, there is no clear consensus on how to integrate and reconcile these concepts. This volume examines a range of philosophical, economic, and social perspectives that are key to understanding the nature of the linkages between human rights and justice.

This book seeks to move away from the discussions of whether the Security Council ¿in its current composition and working methods¿is representative, capable, or productive ¿ as such issues are already extensively debated in other forums. Rather the book seeks to assess whether the specific legislative activity by the Security Council as such, in principle, can be beneficial to international peace and security. If instead of waiting for `threats to the peace¿ to emerge from country-specific situations (where permanent members can also be biased and use veto) the Security Council is addressing generic international threats¿such as terrorism, weapons proliferation, targeting of civilians, recruitment of child soldiers, piracy etc.¿can this be instrumental in adding a preventive and standard-setting framework to the Security Council¿s more traditional roles for the maintenance of international peace and security?

Analyzing the role and impact of Diaspora Organizations (DOs) in International Relations (IR), this interdisciplinary volume provides empirical accounts of their work across Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.

This work analyses the extent to which the concept of coexistence explains the individual foreign policies of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)