Richard A. Falk is Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, Chair of Global Law at Queen Mary University London, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 from 2008 to 2014. He is the author of several books including This Endangered Planet (2021) and Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim (2021).Hans von Sponeck is a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and served as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq from 1998 to 2000. Training Consultant at the UN System Staff College in Torino (Italy) (2006 to 2015) and Senior Lecturer at the Conflict Research Centre of the University of Marburg (Germany) (2007 to 2019). He is the author of A Different Kind of War (2006).

Geopolitical World Map

UN Organigram

The UN Global Governance System in 2023

Preface: Overcoming UN Marginalization-an Urgent Imperative

Foreword by Dr. Walden Bello

Part One: An Evolving Narrative

1. Profiling the UN

2. From the League of Nations to the United Nations

3. Multilateralism during the Cold War and Beyond

4. The UN Global Policy Agenda for the Twenty-First Century

Part Two: How the UN Copes with Challenges to the Charter, Institutional Integrity, Geopolitical Manipulation

5. Palestine Occupied: The UN Frustrated

6. Iraq: Oil for Food-the Dilemma of Geopolitical Humanitarianism

7. Syria: The Douma Deception-Institutional Integrity versus the Primacy of Geopolitics

Part Three: Institutional Obstacles to Mitigate

8. Responsibility to Protect (R2P), National Sovereignty, and Geopolitical Ambition

9. Civil Society Participation in the UN: Opportunities, Obstacles, and Pitfalls

Part Four: Toward the Future

10. The Unmet Challenge of UN Reform: Institutional and Operational Perspectives

11. Institutional Reforms: Amending the Charter, Prospects and Options

12. The UN of the Future: The Grand Challenge-Realism with Hope

Reflections: Nine Young Leaders and Their Visions about the UN of Tomorrow

Afterword by Ahmet Davutölu

Note of Acknowledgment

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index