«UN Family»: Members Old and New

The article provides an analytical review of academic monographs on the United Nations published in 2013–2015. The author of the article defines the general trend of the research of the UN as “a change of the UN discourse”, transitioning from the handling of the UN as an intergovernmental organization to its understanding as an institution of global governance. The purpose of the article consists in characterizing an up-to-date UN discourse, identifying its recent components, and exploring the mechanisms and ways of its formation.

Modern UN discourse is characterized, firstly, by new research subjects and the formulation of new research questions. Contemporary authors supplement previously developed themes of security, human rights, and development by new issues; in particular, they pay considerable attention to the financial aspects, peace-building, and participation of non-state actors in UN activities. Secondly, a new interpretation has been given to traditional subjects of the study of Organization; for example, human security is treated as an integral part of the basis and substantive purposes of collective security.

Special attention in modern publications is devoted to the issues of so-called new actors participating in the UN system and the increasing of their activities. New actors are mostly non-state actors, including non-governmental organizations, pressure groups, expert communities, etc. New non-state actors are viewed as elements of the internal institutional design of international organization, and not as sources of external impact on it. Unlike the “old” actors, including states and their associations or blocs, they create closer links with the UN Secretariat than as states do as a result of the convergence of interests between the  the Secretariat and non-state actors.

Generalization of accumulated knowledge on the UN and latest trends in the development of the organization provides the basis for a more detailed understanding of the UN. The United Nations is not only the organizational structure of the union of states, it is a much more complex institution that includes a variety of state and non-state elements as components.

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