Pathways of Change and the Current UN Status

The article observes the current state and directions of development of the United Nations from a sociological perspective. Despite its uniqueness, the UN bears some features in common with other international organizations: its members, internal structure, goal attainment, interactions with the external environment. The UN is an international intergovernmental organization, but one can identify three relatively independent levels of interraction: political and legal (member-states), institutional (agencies and independent or autonomous organizations), social (groups of people involved into activities of the organization). The changes in the balance of power in the UN are determined by the particular features of a globalizing world. Integration associations attempt to displace states in the Westphalian model. The development of main agencies is characterized by large and small periods. The large periods reflect the changes in the organization as in a union of members. The small periods reflect the organizational processes. One can clearly identify two tendencies in the interaction of the UN with the external environment: intensification of interactions with non-state actors and improvement of level of pressure on particular states. The study of the UN as an organization provides an argument for developing and even revising certain provisions of the theory of organizational sociology. Inconsistent attempts to provide the UN with the function of central institution to control the international order are realized in an inconsiderable manner. Created as a stabilizing element of the international system, the UN has only partly fulfilled its obligations, but it has become an instrument of change. Being in its original design an institution for intergovernmental cooperation it is involved in the processes connected with globalization. The UN played its role in global social and political processes.

1. (2015). Annual Review of United Nations Affairs. 2013/2014. Vol. IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 744 p.

2. Barnett M., Finnemore M. (2004). Rules for the World. International Organizations in Global Politics. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press. 226 p.

3. Dedring J. (2000). The Security Council. In The United Nations at the Millennium. The Principal Organs. London; New York: Continuum. P. 61-99.

4. Deplano R. (2015). The strategic use of international law by the United Nations Security Council: an empirical study. Cham; New York: Springer. 76 p.

5. Fox G. (2008). Humanitarian Occupation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 320 p.

6. Gammeltoft-Hansen T., Adler-Nissen R. (2008). An introduction to Sovereignty Games. In Sovereignty Games. Instrumentalizing State Sovereignty in Europe and Beyond. New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 1-17.

7. Haigh S. P. (2013). Future States. From International to Global Political Order. Surray; Burlington: Ashgate. 262 p.

8. Hannay D. (2008). New World Disorder. The UN after the Cold War: an Insider's view. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. 322 p.

9. Klein A., Laporte C., Saaiges M. (eds.) (2015). Les bonnes pratiques des organisations internationales. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 241 p.

10. Krause K., Knight W.A. (eds.). (1995). State, society, and the UN system: Changing perspectives on multilateralism. Tokio etc.: United Nations University Press. 267 p.

11. Kuteynikov A. (2015). Democracy beyond state? Activities of multilateral international structures aimed at shaping the contemporary model of democracy. Aktualnye problem Evropy. No. 3. P. 15-44.

12. Maya I., Oliveira R. (eds.). (2011). The New Protectorates: International Tutelage and the Making of Liberal States. London: C.Hurst & Co. 375 p.

13. Mouton J.-D. (2013). La mondialisation et la notion d’Etat. In L’Etat dans la mondialisation. Paris: Pedone. P. 11-36.

14. Natsios A. (1988). NGOs and the UN System in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Conflict or Cooperation. In The Politics of Global Governance. IOs in an Interdependent World. Boulder; London: Lynne Rienner, 2005. P. 393-381.

15. Ness G., Brechen S. (1988). Bridging the Gap: International Organizations as Organizations. In International Organization. Vol. 42. N 2. Р. 245-273. DOI: 10.1017/s0020818300032811.

16. Paul T.V., Larson D.W., Wohlforth W. (eds.). (2014). Status in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 306 p.

17. Rach M. (2008). The European Union at the United Nations. The Functioning and Coherence of EU External Representation in a State-centric Environment. Leiden; Boston: Martinus Nijhoff. 360 p.

18. Ruhlman M.A. (2015). Who Participates in Global Governance? States, bureaucracies and NGOs in the United Nations. London; New York: Routledge. 175 p.

19. Schechter M.G. (2005). United Nations Global Conferences. London; New York: Routledge. 270 p.

20. Smith C. (2006). Politics and Process at the United Nations. The Global Dance. Boulder; London: Lynne Rienner. 329 p.

21. Staur C. (2013). Shared Responsibility. The United Nations in the Age of Globalization. Montreal etc. McGillQueen's University Press. 315 p.

22. Swart L. (2015). Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly. In The United Nations. Vol. II. Prinsipal Organs. Los Angeles etc.: Sage. P. 21-36.

23. Taylor P., Groom A.J.R. (eds.). (2000). The United Nations at the Millenium. The Principal Organs. London; New York: Continuum. 367 p.

24. Ventura D. (2014). La repr sentatation de l’Union Europ enne devant le Conseil de Securit des Nations Unies: entre solidarit politique mutuelle des tats membres et unicit de representation de l’Union. In Actualit des relations entre l'Union europ enne et l'Organisation des Nations Unies: coop ration, tensions, subsidiarit ? Paris: Pedone.

25. Walker N. (2008). The Variety of Sovereignty. In Sovereignty Games. Instrumentalizing State Sovereignty in Europe and Beyond. New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. P. 21-32.

26. White F. (1946). United Nations. The First Assembly. London.

27. Wouters J. Odermatt J. Ramopulos T. (2014). The Status of the European Union at the United Nations General Assembley. In The European Union in the World. Essay in Honour of Marc Maresceau. Leiden; Boston: Martinus Nijhoff. P. 211-224.