S1513 Global Governance for Peace and Security, Cooperation and Development (Global Challenges core) - h 15.15 - 18.30

Monday, h 15.15 - 18.30

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of international organizations Its central theme is the interaction between international law and politics, illustrated through an in-depth examination of the United Nations and a secondary focus on selected regional organizations.
Modern threats to peace and security, such as international terrorism, drug trafficking, climate change, food scarcity, infectious diseases like Ebola, illegal poaching, are proving impossible to solve through traditional structures of national governments and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), or to fully understand through the lens of a single academic discipline. The Course in Global Governance for Peace and Security, Cooperation and Development is an interdisciplinary program that seeks to address global issues from multiple perspectives and methodological approaches. Its goal is to analyze the role of the United Nations (UN) and its main specialized agencies (i.e. the World Health Organization – WHO) and subsidiary bodies (i.e. the United Nations Environmental Program – UNEP) in dealing with the threats to peace and security of the XXI Century. The course aims to provide basic tools and concepts to understand the concept of Global Governance and its relevance for peace, security, development and international cooperation.

Specific issues tackled by this course are:

Track 1: Key Actors of Global Governance in the XXI Century

The world has changed enormously since the creation of the United Nations. There are four times as many state actors, a correspondingly greater number and proportion of non-state actors, and a tremendous diversity in the types of state and non-state actors compared to 1945.There has been a matching proliferation in the number, nature and types of threats to national security and world peace alike. Consequently, the growing number and types of actors in world affairs have to grapple with an increasing number, range and complexity of issues in an increasingly networked, deeply intertwined but also more fragmented world. This track analyzes the role of the United Nations in Global Governance in the XXI Century. To this aim, we will describe (a) the functioning of the United Nations and its main bodies; (b) the role of developing countries within the General Assembly; (c) the role of the Permanent Members (‘P5’) within the Security Council; (d) Proposals of reform of the Security Council; (e) working methods, mandate and strategies of selected UN Specialized Agencies: World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organizations; (f) working methods, mandate and strategies of selected regional organizations (Council of Europe, OSCE, European Union, African Union, Organization of American States, experiences of cooperation in the Asian region, such as ASEAN and APEC).

Track 2: New Threats to Peace and Security and the Role of the UN Security Council

The general objective of this track is to promote the students’ understanding of the contemporary threats to peace and security emerging from the practice of the UN Security Council. In particular, we will explore the corridors of reasoning of the SC in its determination of new threats to peace after the end of the Cold War and to identify the potential impact of the Council’s new approach on several branches of international law. In track 1, we will analyze the role the UN Security Council played in addressing these threats: (a) The Ebola Outbreak; (b) Climate Change; (c) International Terrorism; (d) Human Organs’ Trafficking; (e) Illegal Poaching; (f) Piracy in the Gulf of Aden. A section of Track 1 will also be devoted to cases of ‘failure’ of SC’c global governance: the theory of humanitarian intervention and the Kosovo crisis of 1999; exporting democracy and fight against terrorism after 11/09: the cases of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; the shift from the concept of humanitarian intervention to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P); the Libyan crisis and the implementation of R2P; the military intervention in Mali; the Syrian crisis and the failure of R2P; the secession of Crimea and the deadlock of the Security Council.

Track 3: Global Health Governance: the role of the World Health Organizations

the threshold of a new era. Few times in history has the world faced challenges as complex as those now posed by global health challenges such as the Ebola outbreak or infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The common denominator of these pandemics is that they are poverty-related diseases originated from developing countries. WHO adopted a set of rules – the International Health Regulations, IHR – to deal with these challenges. In track 3, we will discuss the content of IHR and the validity of the ‘all-hazard approach’, adopted to address appropriately the Ebola Outbreak; the conformity with human rights’ standards of safety measures adopted at domestic level, i.e. travel bans and forced quarantines (selected national legislations in Europe and in Africa will be analyzed). In fact, in addition to medical issues the Ebola outbreak raises questions of public health related to human rights’ protection; the next step will be therefore to analyze: nature and scope of States’ duties in relation to the human right to health as enshrined in the WHO’s Statute and in Article 12 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Track 4: Global Environmental Governance: the role of the United Nations Programme for the Environment (UNEP)

This track analyzes the role of the United Nations Programme for the Environment (UNEP) in global matters related to environmental protection, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, and sustainable development. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the current global environmental policy and its architecture.
This article argues that, to address the multi-faceted climate challenge, governance efforts must evolve beyond the current global regime-building model and that environmental and development policies must become integrated much better.
The key arguments to be dealt in track 3 are: (a) UNEP and its functioning; (b) proposal to strengthen the role of UNEP in environmental governance; (c) UNEP’s key programs: climate change; disasters & conflict; ecosystem management; chemicals and waste; resource efficiency; (d) sustainable development and the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Learning outcomes of the course

This course will give students a background in legal theory as applied to the global governance and provide students with an opportunity to acquire significant knowledge on some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Students will be competent in international organizations and their respective roles in different policy fields (peace and security, health, environment, globalization, human rights).
After the course attendance students are expected to have competence in:
-The theoretical foundations of Global Governance;
- Processes, components, actors and stakeholders of Global Governance;
-The challenges to Global Governance;
- The role of the United Nations in three principal areas: peace and security, human rights, health, environment and sustainable development
- The role of regional organizations in peace and security
-The changing nature of international relations.
The course aims also to increase students’ awareness of legal and ethical skills:
- through rigorous engagement with legal and philosophical debates, arguments and themes concerning global governance.
- through sustained encouragement to articulate sound ideas and arguments in class and through  a written essay,  the elaboration of a report within a working group and a moot court competition.

Required preliminary knowledge

There are no prerequisites for this course. That said, an interest in ethical and legal aspects of globalization will help students understand the main arguments more quickly. Relatedly, reading and writing comfortably in English at the undergraduate college level will enable students to engage more actively in course discussion forums and peer assessment exercises.