The United Nations and Globalization: Patterns and Limits of Institutional Adaptation‪.‬

The United Nations has struggled with the challenges of globalization for several years, especially since the Asian financial crisis. It has paid particular attention to the needs of developing countries, deemed least well equipped to cope. All relevant parts of the UN system have been engaged, as well as the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization. In the process, the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) has gained new life--and, as of 2000, a new name: the Chief Executives Board (CEB). Since 1998, it has become the venue for a series of discussions, including at informal retreats initiated by Secretary-General Annan, in which the executive heads have explored the different dimensions of globalization and debated appropriate policy approaches by which the UN system as a whole can help better manage its risks and secure its benefits. One paramount concern has emerged from these reflections: the need to achieve a greater degree of policy coherence at national and international levels alike in response to the integrated challenges that globalization poses) Globalization does not come in tidy sectoral or geographically demarcated packages. It is all about interconnections--among people; across states; in production networks and financial markets; between greed and grievance; among failing states, terrorism, and criminal networks; between nature and society. The complex interrelatedness of issues and their cumulative, often unforeseen, consequences demand far greater policy coherence than the existing system of national and international institutions has been able to muster.