This article takes seriously the proposition that ideas and concepts, both good and bad, have an impact on international public policy. It situates the emergence of governance, good governance and global governance, as well as the UN's role in the conceptual process. Although 'governance' is as old as human history, this essay concentrates on the intellectual debates of the 1980s and 1990s but explores such earlier UN-related ideas as decolonisation, localisation and human rights, against which more recent thinking has been played out. A central analytical perspective is the tension between many academics and international practitioners who employ 'governance' to connote a complex set of structures and processes, both public and private, while more popular writers tend to use it synonymously with 'government'.

Governance, good governance and global governance: conceptual and actual challenges

This longitudinal study examined behavioral, cognitive, and demographic factors associated with early school dropout. Follow-up assessments were completed on a sample of girls (n = 248) and boys (n = 227) who had first been seen when they were in the seventh grade. School status was determined for all living subjects; 99% of them were interviewed individually in the fifth annual test wave. Overall, 14% of the group had dropped out of school prior to completing grade 11. The clusters of males and females most vulnerable to early school dropout were characterized in grade 7 by high levels of aggressiveness and low levels of academic performance (82% early dropout in males; 47% early dropout in females). In seventh grade, subjects who subsequently dropped out tended to affiliate with persons who were also at risk for dropout. Socioeconomic status, race, and early parenthood were also associated with school dropout. The primary outcomes were supported by convergent variable-oriented and person-oriented analyses. Some developmental dynamics of the phenomena are discussed.

Early school dropout: configurations and determinants.

"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide

Though critically important for children's long-term well being, the beginning school transition generally has been neglected by sociologists interested in issues of schooling and social inequality. This chapter examines early school from an educational stratification perspective. Life-stage and developmental considerations heighten young children's sensitivity to school influences generally, while pressures associated with social role transitions (i.e. from “home child” to “school child”) challenge them. We review how out-of-school social structural influences associated with poverty, ethnicity, and family type complicate early school adjustment. Reviewed too are various structural arrangements in the social organization of early schooling (e.g. access to preschools, the restricted socioeconomic variability of elementary schools, and various kinds of educational “tracking”) that can either reinforce or offset out-of-school influences. We conclude with a call for more work on mechanisms of educational str...

Entry Into School: The Beginning School Transition and Educational Stratification in the United States

This paper considers the potential impact of the recent recommendations for raising standards in American schools on a population at risk, that is, those students likely to leave school prior to high school graduation. The paper proceeds by (1) presenting a systematic review of the empirical evidence on factors that predict dropping out, (2) synthesizing and explicating the recent recommendations for raising standards in American schools, (3) considering the likely positive and negative effects of higher standards on the population at risk in the absence of any other changes in the structure of schools, (4) identifying the school characteristics that can be altered to minimize the adverse effects of changes in academic standards on potential dropouts, and (5) proposing recommendations to raise academic standards and mitigate the dropout problem simultaneously.

A Population at Risk: Potential Consequences of Tougher School Standards for Student Dropouts

Section 1: Context 1. Grading the Great Experiment 2. The Founding Vision 3. Defining the Council through Charter and Practice Section 2: Tools 4. Peace Operations 5. Military Enforcement 6. Economic Sanctions, Arms Embargoes, and Diplomatic Instruments 7. Enlisting and Empowering Partners Section 3: Challenges 8. The Humanitarian Imperative 9. Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction 10. Reform, Adaptation, and Evolution 11. Conclusion: Reflection and Projection

UN Security Council: Practice and Promise

It is commonly asserted that the chief obstacle to advancing acceptance of the responsibility to protect (RtoP) is the reluctance of developing countries to compromise their sovereignty. This paper argues, instead, that both developing and some of the more powerful developed countries have concerns about the implications of RtoP for their sovereignty. The former are more likely to be concerned about territorial sovereignty and the latter about decision-making sovereignty. Both sets of concerns were openly expressed during the debates leading up to the consensus at the 2005 World Summit on RtoP. That consensus was facilitated by the fact that the wording of the relevant provisions of its Outcome Document took both types of reservations about sovereignty into account. The paper argues that the recognition that countries of the North and the South tend to be more united than divided by their determination to preserve their sovereignty should facilitate efforts to achieve consensus on how to operationalise and implement the responsibility to protect.

Sovereignty, Choice, and the Responsibility to Protect

T he ever-expanding literature on the responsibility to protect (RtoP) could now fill a small library. The number of graduate theses alone devoted to the topic has been nothing less than staggering. RtoP’s contribution to both conceptual thought and policy planning concerning how to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities, therefore, is beyond question. But RtoP was not envisioned as an academic or planning exercise. Nine years after the principle was first articulated by the independent International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) and five years after it was refined and adopted by the 2005 World Summit,1 some are beginning to ask whether, where, and how the concept has made a difference in terms of international and state policy and, more important, in terms of preventing such horrific crimes in the first place. Understandably, many of these early assessments are skeptical. As the official charged with developing the conceptual, political, and institutional elements of RtoP for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I have followed this growing assessment literature with keen attention. One of the more thoughtful and constructive contributions to this genre appeared in a recent volume of this journal.2 In ‘‘The Responsibility to Protect—Five Years On,’’ Alex J. Bellamy provides a balanced, cogent, and—as the following suggests—provocative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of RtoP as a policy tool. Professor Bellamy, the author of one of the better books on RtoP,3 comments on a series of humanitarian crises since 2005 in which he believes RtoP was either used too little (Somalia), used ineffectively (Darfur), or employed effectively (Kenya). He draws useful lessons from each. Such comparative studies remind us that the ability of RtoP to deliver has been (and will continue to be) mixed. There is no dispute about that. They also demonstrate, however, that it is a bit early in RtoP’s young life to judge what it will be when it grows up as a mature policy tool. There

/pdf/the-responsibility-to-protect-growing-pains-or-early-promise-2mway80rcn.pdf

The Responsibility to Protect: Growing Pains or Early Promise?

At the turn of the century, the United States is on the verge of losing its vote in the General Assembly for non-payment of its arrears. There are eerie parallels between the domestic debate over the United Nations in 1999 and the struggles over the League of Nations in 1919. Why, many ask, are Americans the first to create international organizations and the first to abandon them? What is it about the American political culture that breeds both the most ardent supporters and the most vocal detractors of international organization? And why can't they find any common ground? In seeking to uncover the roots of American ambivalence toward international organization, this political history presents the first major analysis of U.S. attitudes toward both the United Nations and the League of Nations. It traces eight themes that have resurfaced again and again in congressional and public debates over the course of this century: exceptionalism, sovereignty, nativism and racism, unilateralism, security, commitments, reform, and burden-sharing. It assesses recent domestic political trends and calls for the development of two interactive political compacts--one domestic and one international--to place U.S.-UN relations on a new footing. A Century Foundation Book

Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization 1919-1999

It is early for definitive assessments of RtoP's future as a policy instrument Like a maturing child, we know more about its talents and aptitudes than about how they will be nurtured or stunted in the years ahead The generally positive dialogue in the General Assembly in July 2011 suggests that the Member States understand the difference between a principle and the tactics to implement it Building on conceptual and political progress, the United Nations is applying RtoP perspectives to a growing number of situations In five of these, it appears to have helped save lives Big challenges and uncertainties lie ahead, however Perceptions of RtoP's political clout are proving to be a mixed blessing, while questions of selectivity, sovereignty, and possible misuse remain Five near-term priorities are identified

Edward C. Luck

Papers

UN Security Council: Practice and Promise

Sovereignty, Choice, and the Responsibility to Protect

The Responsibility to Protect: Growing Pains or Early Promise?

Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization 1919-1999

The Responsibility to Protect: The First Decade