Publisher's Synopsis
The UN was initally conceived as an organization primarily for peace and security purposes, and thus no attempt has been made in the half-century of its existence to provide it with a clear set of economic objectives. The resultant lack of focus, and the dispersion of effort and proliferation of institutions, underlie the long-term erosion of the organization's effectiveness and credibility in the economic sphere.;This paper outlines four particularly damaging organizational and systemic flaws in the UN, which over the years have compounded the underlying weaknesses arising out of the absence of a clear economic mandate. It proposes two fundamental organizational changes that might yield important benefits in terms of increased effectiveness in the economic field.
