Is One Jelly Bean Ever Enough?

"You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans."  - Ronald Reagan

As the intent of an international organization aims to serve the good of its purpose, so many often fall by the wayside.  Rather it be politics, economic factors, leadership ability, or an abstract of reasoning only few have remained true to their cause.  

One of the main problems found in international organizations is their ability to grow, adapt, and diversify.  Often, diversification will find them outside of the realm of their purpose and redefine their goals.  Complexity of the organization becomes intense and before long their scope is tremendous.  Without focus or direction, their intent becomes misconstrued limiting or allowing for their overall success or failure.

The United Nations is an example of an IGO that has become so tremendously vast in its entirety that it is very difficult to understand its general intent.   It is obvious that global governance is its core issue and it makes a good attempt to cover a broad range of international governance issues through its many programs, goals, and agenda.  The areas of concentration of the UN are based on Peace & Security, Economic and Social Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs, and International Law.   One look at the UN Organizational chart and it’s easy to get lost in translation.   

Surely, all of these are components necessary to global governance but are they really effective when so much is covered?

The United Nations has become a world in itself with its overloads of conferences, civil societies, and NGO’s that participate.  The formality is overwhelming.  Not only is it comprised of various commissions, but commissions within those commissions.  A benefit is that it has achieved a status as a tremendous resource base and central hub for all nations combined.  It can effectively unify and penalize nation-states that defy any of its members, as well as provide support for those in need.  These capabilities solidify its legitimacy and the ongoing efforts of serving for global governance, but it is this same formality and complex structure that hinders it.

How can the UN be effective when the response time is so limited through its bureaucratic structure?  How can the UN be effective when it is focusing on issues outside of global governance?   How functional is a blanket organization in this regard?

With an agenda inclusive of their deep involvement into habitats and things like climate changes, are they truly about global governance exclusively or have they ventured off into an all-inclusive world organization?

As a result, Nations have recognized that non-state actors, such as MNC’s and NGO’s, are instrumental in the pursuit of an array of globalization efforts by providing expert advice, training activities, national and international partnerships, and various other support systems.  IGO’s, such as the UN have in turn learned to maximize their impact and make “efficient use of its financial and human resources.”  Conversely, non-state actors have been able to take a more civilian approach to critical issues where IGO’s have failed to do so, thereby filling a void through precision and diversification.

Globalization also has a cultural dimension, making it more dynamic and therefore demanding strategic precision and diversity. Kushal Deb in an IRCC article conceptualizes globalization “in terms of cultural flows that both reflect and reproduce global metropolitanism.” He cites Arjun Appadurai, (Senior Advisor for Global Initiatives at The New School in New York City  and former professor of International Studies and Director of the Initiative on Cities and Globalization at Yale University) suggesting that there are five dimensions to these flows:

1.      ethnoscape: produced by flows of business personnel, guest-workers, tourists, immigrants and refugees

2.      technoscape: by flows of machinery, technology and software produced by trans-national corporations and government agencies

3.      finanscape: by flows of capital, currencies, and securities

4.      mediascape: by flows of images and information through print media, television and films

5.      ideoscape: by flows of ideological western worldviews like democracy, sovereignty and welfare rights

Thus, globalization is multi-faceted and requires a multi-faceted approach.  While most of us generalize dependency theory as relating to capitalism, often viewing it as threatening compromising the welfare and interests of a state, these same economic principles can be translated into the organizational dependency that states have developed on IGO’s. Just as economic diversification is critical for economic sustainability, so too is organizational diversification important for political and ideological means of development.