New Book:
International Commissions and the Power of Ideas
Edited By Ramesh Thakur, Andrew F. Cooper, and John English
Published by United Nations University Press
International Commissions provide a catalyst for turning ideas into policy initiatives.
The Brandt, Bruntland, Kosovo, the Commission on Global Governance, and the International Commission on Global Governance all provide a means for turning good ideas into action plans. However as an expression of the power of ideas they remain under-analyzed.
A new book published by United Nations University Press and set to be launched in June, International Commissions and the Power of Ideas, looks at the role of international commissions as providing an inter connected process shaping the mind – and the architectural body –of global governance. On the one hand the book looks at commissions in a generalized context and the impact that they have and the part they play in creating initiatives, and on the other provides detailed analysis of the character and record, style and substance of individual commissions.
The book is edited by Ramesh Thakur, Senior vice rector, United nations University, Tokyo, Japan and Assistant Secretary-general United Nations; Andrew F. Cooper, Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, and Associate Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation; and John English, Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada.
Contributors to the volume are:
Andrew F. Cooper is Associate Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo
John English is Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Professor of History at the University of Waterloo.
Jean-Phillipe Therien is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal
Heather A. Smith is an Associate Professor and Chair, International Studies Programme, University of Northern British Columbia
W. Andy Knight is Professor of International Relations and McCalla Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta
Marianne Hanson is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Director of the Rotary Centre for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution at the University of Queensland
Sanjeev Khagram is a faculty member at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University
Richard J. Goldstone is presently teaching in New York (NYU and Fordham Law Schools) and is a member of the Independent Inquiry Committee investigating allegations concerning the Iraq Oil for Food Programme
Nicole Fritz is a lecturer in international and constitutional law at the University of Witwatersrand's School of Law
Ramesh Thakur is the Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations
Jennifer Welsh is University Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford
Carolin Thielking is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford.
S. Neil MacFarlane is Lester B. Pearson Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford
Jorge Heine is ambassador of Chile to India
Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon is a Professor of international relations at the University of Western Ontario
Jon Pedersen is currently Deputy Managing Director of Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies in Oslo, Norway
Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala serves as a Commissioner on the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission
Edward C. Luck is Director of the Center on International Organization and Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
Geoffrey Wiseman currently teaches diplomacy and international security in the School
of International Relations at the University of Southern California
Table of Contents:
International Commissions and the Mind of Global Governance
An Overview
The Brandt Commission
The End of an Era in North-South Politics
The Palme Commission
New Thinking about Security
The World Commission on Environment and Development
Ideas and Institutions Intersect
Equivocating on the Future of World Order
The Commission on Global Governance
Regulating the Possession and Use of Nuclear Weapons
Ideas, Commissions and Agency in International Security Politics
the Case of the Canberra Commission
Beyond Temples and Tombs
Towards Effective Governance for Sustainable Development Through The
World Commission on Dams
Fair Assessment
The Independent International Commission on Kosovo
Intervention, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect
Assessing the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty
Humanitarian Intervention and the Principle of Non-intervention in the Americas
Ideas, Institutions and the Evolution of Women's Human Rights
Ideas, Think Tanks, Commissions and Global Politics
International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction
UN Reform Commissions
Is Anyone Listening?
Publication date: June 2005
Page count: 350
Paperback
ISBN: 928081110X
List price: US$45.00
For more information see:
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/2005/internationalcommissions.html
Contact: Scott McQuade, Publisher
Tel: 81-3499-2811
e-mail: sales@hq.unu.edu
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