Set against the backdrop of dramatic world order transformations across the 1970s and 1980s, this book examines the competing planetary perspectives of the Brandt Commission and the multinationals, arguing that the missed opportunities of these decades created a path for contemporary political and economic crises. At the Global South’s request for a New International Economic Order, the Brandt Commission, chaired by Willy Brandt, was appointed in 1977. The commission, with a goal to formulate arguments on how to close the gap between the North and South, developed a planetary perspective grounded in economic redistribution, ecological considerations, and disarmament. The multinationals, at that time, a new kind of business corporation, repressed Brandt’s vision by seeking freedom from political monitoring. This book discusses the ways that global corporations created facts that changed the world and the preconditions of politics. It moves beyond existing research that considers the competition merely a theoretical clash between Keynesianism and neoliberalism. Featuring a thorough analysis of the decades’ trends and a new interview with Shridath Ramphal, the Commission’s unofficial vice chair, this is a timely volume for students and researchers of international relations, political science, and contemporary history.

More than fifty years after most Canadian women received the right to vote, very few women were elected as members of Parliament and none came from Quebec. Canada's 1972 federal election marked a refreshing transition. Twice as many female candidates ran for office than in the previous election, and, of the five women elected to the House of Commons that year, three Liberal Party candidates – Monique Bégin, Albanie Morin, and Jeanne Sauvé – shared the honour of being the first Quebec women MPs. In this riveting memoir of a trailblazing female politician, Monique Bégin tells the story of her journey into politics and beyond. Born in Italy, Bégin spent her childhood in France and Portugal before arriving in Montreal as a refugee of the Second World War. In 1967, she was swept into the world of politics when she became executive secretary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Inspired by Pierre Trudeau, she then ran for the House of Commons and served in various cabinet positions, ultimately spearheading the landmark Canada Health Act before retiring to pursue a career in academia. Offering a revealing glimpse into the pervading sexism of Canadian public life, Ladies, Upstairs! details the experiences of a feisty, candid outsider who, through sheer fortitude, intelligence, and hard work, became minister of health and welfare, a university dean, a sought-after member for commissions of inquiry, and an international expert on public health. The voice of a woman in a male world, a francophone among anglophones, and a skeptical politician, Ladies, Upstairs! provides a fascinating account of one of Canada's most impressive federal ministers and her discoveries through the decades.

Virtually every important question of public policy today involves an international organization. From trade to intellectual property to health policy and beyond, governments interact with international organizations in almost everything they do. Increasingly, individual citizens are directly affected by the work of international organizations. Aimed at academics, students, practitioners, and lawyers, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the world of international organizations today. It emphasizes both the practical aspects of their organization and operation, and the conceptual issues that arise at the junctures between nation-states and international authority, and between law and politics. While the focus is on inter-governmental organizations, the book also encompasses non-governmental organizations and public policy networks. With essays by the leading scholars and practitioners, the book first considers the main international organizations and the kinds of problems they address. This includes chapters on the organizations that relate to trade, humanitarian aid, peace operations, and more, as well as chapters on the history of international organizations. The book then looks at the constituent parts and internal functioning of international organizations. This addresses the internal management of the organization, and includes chapters on the distribution of decision-making power within the organizations, the structure of their assemblies, the role of Secretaries-General and other heads, budgets and finance, and other elements of complex bureaucracies at the international level. This book is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and students alike.

Just Security in an Undergoverned World examines how humankind can manage global problems to achieve both security and justice in an age of antithesis. Global connectivity is increasing, visibly and invisiblyin trade, finance, culture, and informationhelping to spur economic growth, technological advance, and greater understanding and freedom, but global disconnects are growing as well. Ubiquitous electronics rely on high-value minerals scraped from the earth by miners kept poor by corruption and war. People abandon burning states for the often indifferent welcome of wealthier lands whose people, in turn, draw into themselves. Humanity's very success, underwritten in large part by lighting up gigatons of long-buried carbon for 200 years, now threatens humanity's future. The global governance institutions established after World War II to manage global threats, especially the twin scourges of war and poverty, have expanded in reach and impact, while paradoxically losing the political support of some of their wealthiest and most powerful members. Their problems mimic those of their members in struggling to adapt to new problems and maintain trust in norms and public bodies. This volume argues, however, that a properly mandated, managed, and modernized global architecture offers unparalleled potential to midwife solutions to intractable issuesfrom violent conflict and climate change to poverty and pandemic diseasethat transcend borders and the capacities of individual actors. It offers just security as a new framework for charing innovating solutions and strategies for effective and essential global governance.

How best to improve the position of the world's poorest people remains one of the major issues facing the human species. This book investigates the role that legal empowerment and rights (including human rights) can play in tackling poverty and enabling poor people in developing countries to take action to improve their positions.

The current system of international governance (including the United Nations, the G7/G8, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank) is undergoing serious problems in its attempts to address contemporary global challenges, seemingly ill-equipped to bridge growing political and economic divides and to accommodate the needs of emergent markets. Given these developments, some scholars and practitioners argue there is a need to establish new multilateral forums that reflect 21st century realities, such as a new Leaders Summit comprised of the leaders of 20 nations (called L20, an institution that draws its inspiration from both the current G7/8 leaders' meetings and the G20 finance ministers' meetings). This publication explores the changing nature of relationships in a globalised world and considers the role that a L20 grouping could play in bringing about reform of international economic and financial systems.

At a time when diplomatic practices and the demands imposed on diplomats are changing quite radically, and many foreign ministries feel they are being left behind, there is a need to understand the various forces that are affecting the profession. Diplomacy remains a salient activity in today's world in which the basic authoritative actor is still the state. At the same time, in some respects the practice of diplomacy is undergoing significant, even radical, changes to the context, tools, actors and domain of the trade. These changes spring from the changing nature of the state, the changing nature of the world order, and the interplay between them. One way of describing this is to say that we are seeing increased interaction between two forms of diplomacy, 'club diplomacy' and 'network diplomacy'. The former is based on a small number of players, a highly hierarchical structure, based largely on written communication and on low transparency; the latter is based on a much larger number of players (particularly of civil society), a flatter structure, a more significant oral component, and greater transparency. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy is an authoritative reference tool for those studying and practicing modern diplomacy. It provides an up-to-date compendium of the latest developments in the field. Written by practitioners and scholars, the Handbook describes the elements of constancy and continuity and the changes that are affecting diplomacy. The Handbook goes further and gives insight to where the profession is headed in the future. Co-edited by three distinguished academics and former practitioners, the Handbook provides comprehensive analysis and description of the state of diplomacy in the 21st Century and is an essential resource for diplomats, practitioners and academics.

In the 21st century, the world is faced with threats of global scale that cannot be confronted without collective action. Although global government as such does not exist, formal and informal institutions, practices, and initiatives—together forming "global governance"—bring a greater measure of predictability, stability, and order to trans-border issues than might be expected. Yet, there are significant gaps between many current global problems and available solutions. Thomas G. Weiss and Ramesh Thakur analyze the UN's role in addressing such knowledge, normative, policy, institutional, and compliance lapses. The UN's relationship to these five global governance gaps is explored through case studies of some of the most burning problems of our age, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crises, development aid, climate change, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.