This text addresses key issues facing the United Nations and suggests how it should adapt itself for the 21st century. The book provides case studies, from Somalia, Kosovo and other places, from which there are lessons to be learned and implemented.

This volume addresses the central theme of adjusting the United Nations system in light of, firstly, the broadening definition of security, secondly, a perceived shift from modernity to post-modernity and finally, the contemporary debate about reform, adaptation and institutional learning in multilateral institutions during transnational periods. The UN has not been successful in learning appropriate lessons that could facilitate requisite changes to its structure and operations. Thus the author in this study focuses on the lessons learned from the organizations' recent performance in collective security, preventative diplomacy, preventative deployment, peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace maintenance, and international legal, environmental and trade regulation.

List of Acronyms - Acknowledgements - Preface - Foreword
J.Krasno - PART I: CONCEPTUALIZING CHANGE IN THE UN - Introduction: Adapting the United Nations
W.A. Knight - Requirements of Multilateral Governance for Promoting Human Security in a Postmodern Era
R.A.Coate, W.A.Knight &
A.I.Maximenko - Learning in the UN: W.A.Knight - PART II: ADAPTATIONS OF UN PRIMARY CONCEPTS AND INSTRUMENTS - Collective Security: Changing Conceptions and Institutional Adaptation
E.M.Smith - Possibilities for Preventative Diplomacy, Early Warning and Global Monitoring in the Post Cold War Era, or the Limits to Global Structural Change
M.G.Schechter - The UN and Preventative Deployment in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
A.Williams - Intervention and Peace-building in Somalia: Constraints and Possibilities
W.A.Knight &
K.Gebemariam - International Criminal Law Enforcement
J.Chopra - PART III: CASES - UN Fact-finding in a Postmodern World: Potential for Arms Limitations and Confidence Building
A.A.Latham - The Future Role of the United Nations in Disarmament: Learning from the Iraq Experience
D.G.Dallmeyer - The Civilian Police Element in UN Peacekeeping: The Case of Haiti
J.Harston - The Neutralization of Protracted Conflicts: The Case of UNTAC
S.Peou - Pivots of Peace: UN Transnational Operations
D.R.Black - The UN and NATO's War: the Fallout from Kosovo
T.Keating - Improving the Capacity of the UN Human Rights System
D.L.Donoho - Environmental Security: Finding the Balance
C.Tinker - Changing the Global Trade Structure: from 'Harmonization' to a new 'Interface Principle'
G.R.Martin - Rethinking Instead of Tinkering: an Ethical Consensus and General Lessons
W.A.Knight &
J.Masciulli - Index