Online published on 29 January, 2013.
Global politics has entered a new era in which international relations are no longer the monopoly of governments and the private sector but are being developed between societies and peoples. Simultaneously, increasing interconnectedness fuelled by technology has diluted the authority of states, while the United Nations (UN) has also become weaker. Attempts to conceptualise UN/NGO (nongovernmental organisations) relations within the framework of the UN Charter militate against the principles of the UN based on the Westphalian political order. The response of the international community to “world crises” has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary as manifest in the incremental and gradual expansion of NGO relations with the UN. This paper argues that NGOs will have to invest resources to strengthen the UN and engage with it as a partner in development. Both formal processes and informal practices will have to be considered including a theoretical framework encompassing actors above, below and beyond states.
