The UN and Regional Organizations in Global Security: Competing or Complementary Logics?

Global Governance 12 (2006), 227–232.What is the optimal relationship between global bodies and regional agencies in international security? This question has been intensively discussed at various junctures during the last century, including at the establishment of the United Nations in the 1940s. Indeed, the regional approach was the loser at this juncture, when the Charter made provision for a dimly conceived and vaguely apprehended regionalism.1 Today the debate between the UN and regional organizations has resurfaced—among policymakers as well as the research community— as one of the most important issues in the global security architecture,including reform of the UN Security Council.