Paul Heinbecker - Böcker

Suffering from a divided membership, the United Nations is at a crossroads, unable to assure human or national security. The UN has been criticized as irrelevant by its most - and least - powerful members alike because it can't reach consensus on how to respond to twenty-first-century challenges of global terrorism, endemic poverty, and crimes against humanity.Secretary General Kofi Annan has proposed a package of sweeping reforms that would safeguard the rule of law, outlaw terrorism, protect the innocent from abusive governments, reduce poverty by half, safeguard human rights, and enlarge the Security Council. Intended to reinvigorate the institution and galvanize its members into action, his proposals are extensive and innovative, courageous and controversial.This volume assembles the perspectives of current practitioners, leading academics, civil society representatives, and UN officials on transforming the secretary general's proposed reforms into action. Their assessments are frank and their views varied, but they do agree on one thing - the United Nations must be made more effective precisely because it is indispensable to the promotion of economic development and collective security in the twenty-first century.Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

Paul Heinbecker has a compelling vision for the future of Canadian foreign policy and argues that Canada still has a role to play in the rehabilitation of global governance. Has Canada lost its place in the world? Are we destined for a future as a middle power, denied a seat at the "grown-ups table"? Some would argue yes, that decades of neglect and inattention have rendered Canadian foreign policy ineffective at best and non-existent at worst. Paul Heinbecker disagrees. The golden days of Lester B. Pearson may be long gone, he contends (and perhaps they weren’t quite as "golden" as we’d all like to remember), but Canada still has a part to play. In Getting Back in the Game, Heinbecker presents his compelling vision for the future of Canadian foreign policy, a future in which Canada can work both with the United Nations and apart from it; in which our government can take a stand and effect change on issues of the day from climate change to the Middle East; in which this country has a key role to play in the rehabilitation of global governance.