Part Ⅱ

International Governance and Organizations

Globalized society offers a complex web of forces and factors that bring people,cultures,markets,beliefs and practices into increasingly greater proximity to one another.At the same time,it arises various global problems and needs international governance.

An international organization is an organization with an international membership,scope,or presence.There are two main types:International nongovernmental organizations(INGOs),nongovernmental organizations(NGOs)that operate internationally.These include international non-profit organizations and worldwide companies such as the World Organization of the Scout Movement,International Committee of the Red Cross,etc..

Intergovernmental organizations,also known as international governmental organizations(IGOs),are made up primarily of sovereign states(referred to as member states).Examples include the United Nations(UN),Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe(OSCE),Council of Europe(COE),International Labour Organization(ILO)and International Police Organization(INTERPOL).

The United Nations

The United Nations(UN)is an intergovernmental organization established on 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation.The organization was created following the Second World War to prevent another such conflict.At its founding,the UN had 51 member states;there are now 193.The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan,New York City,and enjoys extraterritoriality.Further main offices are situated in Geneva,Nairobi and Vienna.The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states.Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security,promoting human rights,fostering social and economic development,protecting the environment,and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine,natural disaster,and armed conflict.

The UN‘s mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies.The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo,as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947.The organization‘s membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s,and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping.After the end of the Cold War,the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.

The UN has six principal organs:the General Assembly(the main deliberative assembly),the Security Council(for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security),the Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC)(for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development),the Secretariat(for providing studies,information,and facilities needed by the UN),the International Court of Justice(the primary judicial organ),and the United Nations Trusteeship Council(inactive since 1994).UN System agencies include the World Bank Group,the World Health Organization,the World Food Programme,UNESCO,and UNICEF.The UN‘s most prominent officer is the Secretary-General.Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN‘s work.The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Another primary purpose of the UN is“to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic,social,cultural,or humanitarian character”.Numerous bodies have been created to work towards this goal,primarily under the authority of the General Assembly and ECOSOC.

The UN Development Programme(UNDP),an organization founded in 1945,is one of the leading bodies in the field of international development.The Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO),also founded in 1945,promotes agricultural development and food security.UNICEF(the United Nations Children‘s Fund)was created in 1946 to aid European children after the Second World War and expanded its mission to provide aid around the world and to uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund(IMF)are independent,specialized agencies and observers within the UN framework,according to a 1947 agreement.They were initially formed separately from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944.The World Bank provides loans for international development,while the IMF promotes international economic co-operation and gives emergency loans to indebted countries.

The World Health Organization(WHO),which focuses on international health issues and disease eradication,is another of the UN‘s largest agencies.In 1980,the agency announced that the eradication of smallpox had been completed.In subsequent decades,WHO largely eradicated polio,river blindness,and leprosy.The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS(UNAIDS),begun in 1996,co-ordinates the organization‘s response to the AIDS epidemic.The UN Population Fund,which also dedicates part of its resources to combating HIV, is the world‘s largest source of funding for reproductive health and family planning services.

Along with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,the UN often takes a leading role in coordinating emergency relief.The World Food Programme(WFP),created in 1961,provides food aid in response to famine,natural disasters,and armed conflict.The organization reports that it feeds an average of90 million people in 80 nations each year.The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR),established in 1950,works to protect the rights of refugees,asylum seekers,and stateless people.UNHCR and WFP programmes are funded by voluntary contributions from governments,corporations,and individuals,though the UNHCR‘s administrative costs are paid for by the UN‘s primary budget.

Other

Since the UN‘s creation,over 80 colonies have attained independence.The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers.The UN works toward decolonization through groups including the UN Committee on Decolonization,created in 1962.The committee lists seventeen remaining“Non-Self-Governing Territories”,the largest and most populous of which is Western Sahara.

Beginning with the formation of the UN Environmental Programme(UNEP)in 1972,the UN has made environmental issues a prominent part of its agenda.A lack of success in the first two decades of UN work in this area led to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil,which sought to give new impetus to these efforts.In 1988,the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization(WMO),another UN organization,established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,which assesses and reports on research on global warming.The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol,signed in 1997,set legally binding emissions reduction targets for ratifying states.

The UN also declares and co-ordinates international observances,periods of time to observe issues of international interest or concern.Examples include World Tuberculosis Day,Earth Day,and the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

G-20

The Group of Twenty(also known as the G-20 or G20)is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.The members include 19 individual countries—Argentina,Australia,Brazil,Canada,China,France,Germany,India,Indonesia,Italy,Japan,Mexico,Russia,Saudi Arabia,South Africa,South Korea,Turkey,the United Kingdom and the United States—along with the European Union(EU).The EU is represented by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank.Spain is a permanent invitee of G20 and participates annually of G20 summits.

The G-20 was founded in 1999 with the aim of studying,reviewing,and promoting highlevel discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability.It seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.Collectively,the G-20 economies account for around 85%of the gross world product(GWP),80%of world trade and two-thirds of the world population.The G-20 heads of government or heads of state have periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008.

On 25 September 2009,the leaders of the group announced that G-20 replaced the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.

The G-20 is the latest in a series of post-World War II initiatives aimed at international coordination of economic policy,which include institutions such as the“Bretton Woods twins”,the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,and what is now the World Trade Organization.

Though the G-20‘s primary focus is global economic governance,the themes of its summits vary from year to year.For example,the theme of the 2006 G-20 meeting was“Building and Sustaining Prosperity”.The issues discussed included domestic reforms to achieve“sustained growth”,global energy and resource commodity markets,reform of the World Bank and IMF,and the impact of demographic changes due to an aging world population.In a statement following a meeting of G7 finance ministers on 11 October 2008,US President George W.Bush stated that the next meeting of the G-20 would be important in finding solutions to the burgeoning economic crisis of 2008.

The G-20 Summit was created as a response both to the financial crisis of 2007-2010 and to a growing recognition that key-emerging countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance.After the 2008 debut summit in Washington,D.C.,G-20 leaders met twice a year in London and Pittsburgh in 2009,Toronto and Seoul in 2010.

Since 2011,when France chaired and hosted the G-20,the summits have been held only once a year.Russia chaired and hosted the summit in 2013;while the summit was held in Australia in 2014,with Turkey hosting it in 2015.

A number of other ministerial-level G20 meetings have been held since 2010.Agriculture ministerial meetings were conducted in 2011 and 2012;meetings offoreign ministers were held in 2012 and 2013;trade ministers met in 2012 and 2014 and employment ministerial meetings have taken place annually since 2010.

China has taken on the presidency of the G20 at a time when the world economy continues to face significant challenges associated with weakening global trade and investment,anemic economic growth and serious difficulties faced by some emerging markets.In order to address these challenges,the G20 trade ministers gathered in Shanghai in July,2016 and came up with trade and investment policy recommendations for the G20 Summit,which was held in Hangzhou in September.

President Xi Jinping emphasized that“building an innovative,invigorated,interconnected and inclusive world economy”was the theme of the G20 Hangzhou Summit.

He proposed five policy suggestions to counter the global slowdown in economic growth,trade and investment.

The first is to reinforce the G20 trade and investment cooperation mechanism,which includes the institutionalization of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting and its supporting working groups.The second is to stress the centrality of the multilateral trading system(MTS)in promoting trade liberalization and investment,while standing against trade and investment protectionism.The third is to propel global trade growth by initiating concrete measures for reducing trade costs and promoting e-commerce and the services sector.The fourth is to support policy measures that enable small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)and developing countries irrespective of their level of development to participate and derive maximum benefit from this participation in global value chains(GVCs).The fifth is to enhance global investment governance,which is currently fragmented because of numerous investment agreements.For this purpose,China has proposed developing non-binding global investment principles for all G20 members and increasing investment policy coordination.

As the G20 is gradually shifting from a crisis response mechanism to a global economic governance mechanism,the multilateral trading system(MTS)should play the central role in promoting global trade and investment.

Therefore,G-20 Summit should work out a mechanism for ensuring that such bilateral and regional trade agreements conform to the WTO norms and supplement the MTS rather than generating new risks and barriers.The G20 members should clarify the central position of the MTS in the current global trade and economic governance.

The main problem is that G20 members often make decisions but then do not implement them and their declarations have no binding force.China expects that the Hangzhou summit will demonstrate greater political will to address pressing economic challenges.China‘s economic size,foreign exchange reserves and expertise in infrastructure should stand to translate positive intentions into action. YFfg4cQK2FdWuHxEWrL5ql8fQJNNCt9FzUSkugQnkyTdFzeO+POVDw6GzVI2VGdg