Stephen Browne

Stephen Browne spent more than 30 years working in the UN system and now lectures on the UN. This essay is adapted from his latest book, "Aid and Influence: Patronage, Power and Politics," published by Routledge in 2022.

WORLDVIEWS

The UN in Crisis: Big Powers and Bad Influence

Stephen Browne

• August 22, 2022

Individual member states have always exerted a heavy influence on the United Nations. The dominance of individual powers is the nature of multilateralism, but in the UN system it is particularly marked. The Security Council can only do its job if the five veto-wielding members (the P5: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United …

Development, Secretary-General, Security Council, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

Can UN Development Be Reformed? Not at This Rate

Stephen Browne

• January 6, 2020

GENEVA — Like his predecessors, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has been pushing a reform program to help the organization adjust to the demands of contemporary global governance. Over nearly 75 years, the UN has innovated and adapted. At first, humanitarian assistance was not envisaged to go beyond the needs of people displaced by …

Development, SDGs, WORLDVIEWS

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Financing the UN: Payers, Pipers and Tunes

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• December 7, 2017

GENEVA — Change is in the air again on First Avenue. Among numerous reform options being bandied about, none will be more consequential than those on financing the United Nations system. There are the sledgehammer arguments: drastic slashes in funding by Washington and other donors could precipitate dramatic change. As we have argued in …

UN Agencies

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An SDG Fund: Supporting the 2030 UN Development Agenda

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• May 14, 2017

There is an ongoing process of change in the United Nations development system, albeit a slow one given the size of the challenges. At the country level, more UN country teams (UNCTs) are endorsing the principles of Delivering as One, which have spread from the original eight pilot countries. There is evidence of more …

Development, SDGs

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WORLDVIEWS

Advice to António Guterres: A Leaner UN Could Be a Better UN

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• March 27, 2017

GENEVA — Whether or not he is a fan of Chinese characters, António Guterres will have to discover the double meaning of a crisis as opportunity. United Nations corridors on First Avenue in New York are buzzing with anxiety about the possibility of impending cuts in funding from the United States, with hints from …

Secretary-General, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS

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The UN’s Ninth Secretary-General Takes Office Amid Loud Calls for Change

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• January 19, 2017

António Guterres, the new United Nations secretary-general, was chosen on merit and takes over the UN during an especially turbulent period and after a decade of low-key leadership and low staff morale. The “first” UN of governments includes the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council (P-5) that are stoking conflict, flouting international humanitarian …

Secretary-General

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The Next UN Secretary-General: Views From UN Watchers

Fiona Curtin, Thomas G. Weiss and Stephen Browne

• April 3, 2016

The results of the latest FUNDS survey of global experts, conducted during the winter of 2015-16, contains clear messages about the next United Nations secretary-general: s/he should be a world leader with integrity and political courage who will prioritize UN reform; and the election process should be open and transparent. There is more room …

General Assembly, Secretary-General, Security Council

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WORLDVIEWS

Next Best in 2016? The UN Secretary-General Must Be a Reformer

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• December 9, 2014

GENEVA — For only the second time — the first was in 1996 — the electoral campaigns for the American president and the United Nations secretary-general are running in parallel. Both promise to be long and protracted. Each already has a growing slate of presumptive candidates pounding flesh and employing lobbyists. But the next …

SDGs, WORLDVIEWS

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How Is the UN’s Development Machinery Perceived? Does Anyone Care?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• August 22, 2014

One year ago, the report of a high-level panel of world leaders and renowned development specialists proposed 12 goals and 50 indicators for the United Nation’s post-2015 agenda. These were already unwieldy numbers, but after a year and a half of juggling and negotiations, member states in New York on the Open Working Group …

Development

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Development Program: A New Crisis or a New Opportunity?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• June 10, 2014

GENEVA — For those with longer memories, the latest dip in resources for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the staff cutbacks and restructuring announced by its administrator, Helen Clark, in May are merely the onset of another cycle, just in time for the agency’s 50th anniversary but part of its history since …

WORLDVIEWS

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New Development Goals, Plus Ça Change?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• September 2, 2013

“If we want things to change, some things will have to stay as they are.” This inversion of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s aphorism summarizes a key finding of a recent global survey on the future development goals. A select group of development commentators favors maintaining most of the familiar Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after …

Development

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The UN Development Program Should Revive What It Does Best

Stephen Browne and Craig N. Murphy

• August 22, 2013

Constant reform has characterized the United Nations Development Program throughout its existence, say the authors of two recent books on the agency. Change bespeaks an organization ready to adapt but also fundamentally uncertain about its proper role. It teeters between two sets of tensions. The first tension is between being both coordinator and competitor …

Development, UN Agencies

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Unido: What Does Its Future Hold?

Stephen Browne

• August 7, 2013

At the end of 2012, Britain withdrew its membership from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, or Unido, the most recent of several major donor countries (including the United States and Canada) to do so. Although it has had strong support from many developing countries, Unido has for many years been regarded with skepticism …

Development, UN Agencies

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Can the UN Regional Commissions Survive?

Stephen Browne and Thomas G. Weiss

• April 8, 2013

Are the numerous United Nations regional commissions worthwhile? The first such commission sprang up in Europe, amid the aftermath of World War II, when a Polish-inspired resolution, passed by the General Assembly in 1947 to organize the recovery of the continent, led to the creation of the Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva. Soon, …