IPSA’s First Open Access Book Published

We are pleased to announce the publication of IPSA’s first Open Access book, Does the UN Model Still Work? Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Multilateralism.

Edited by Kim Fontaine-Skronski, IPSA Executive Director, Valériane Thool, Lecturer in International Law at University of Sherbrooke, and Norbert Eschborn, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Canada, the book is composed of original articles from scholars and policy notes from practitioners based on the contributions to the Conference “The UN at 75: Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Multilateralism” organized by IPSA in 2020.

Published by Brill, the book attempts to draw up the state of multilateralism through the UN model and identify potential ways to address its challenges and shortcomings. The contributors question the role of multilateralism, sometimes accused of being fragmented, inefficient and unrepresentative, and its impact on global governance, democracy, trade and investment, the environment, and human rights. Since most of the authors are not from the UN system, the content of the contributions provides an external and more neutral assessment of the UN’s ability to continue to function today as a serious actor within a global movement in favor of a renewed form of multilateralism.

Part 1: Special Contribution

Post-Bipolar Challenges to Multilateralism
Bertrand Badie

Part 2: Global Governance, New Actors and Challenges to Multilateralism

Is Classic Multilateralism Outdated? The Case of the UN
Marcello Scarone

Geopolitical Shifts: Issues and Challenges for the Arctic Region
Lutz Feldt

New Multilateralism: The United Nations and Governance in the Era of Nonstate Actors
Elizabeth A. Bloodgood

Inclusive Multilateralism: Cities Take a Seat at the Table
Henri-Paul Normandin

Part 3: Threats to Democracy Undermining the Multilateral System

Democratic Erosion and Multilateralism:When Authoritarian Leaders Challenge the Liberal International Order
Marianne Kneuer

Part 4: International Multilateral Trade Governance

Multilateralism, Interdependence and Globalization
Michèle Rioux

The Gradual and Uneven Consolidation of an International Investment Protection Regime Decoupled from Multilateral Economic Organizations
María Teresa Gutiérrez Haces

Reframing the International Trade and Investment Framework to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century
Mehdi Abbas

Part 5: Environmental Governance and the Climate Challenge

A New Climate Club Is the Best Way to Reduce Global Emissions of Greenhouse Gases
Guy Saint-Jacques

Biodiversity Loss Under the Lens of Multilateralism: An Environmental Governance and International Law Perspective
Valériane Thool

Fostering Sustainable Economic Growth, Transformation and Promotion of Responsible Consumption and Production: The Subnational Government’s Role in Contributions to Multilateralism
Patrícia Iglecias

Challenges for the Coming Years: Learning Regional Lessons on Environmental Protection and Achieving the Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations System
Walter Arévalo-Ramírez

Human Rights and Migration Governance

Migrants’ Protection and Assistance in the Face of a Changing World: Taking Stock of the Challenges and Responses
Emnet B. Gebre

What UNRWA Tells Us About Refugees and the United Nations
Yasmeen Abu-Laban

The Value of Re-socializing Boys and Men for Positive Gender Relations to Curb Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa
Christopher Isike

Special Contribution

The UN at 75: A Political Declarationand a Global Conversation
Cecilia Cannon

Index

READ THE BOOK