Abstract
If the United Nations system is to remain relevant, or even survive, the thinking to re‐imagine and redesign contemporary global governance will come from the Third UN. This article focuses on the ecology of supportive non‐state actors – intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, NGOs, the for‐profit private sector, and the media – that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN and international civil servants of the Second UN to formulate and refine ideas and decision‐making in policy processes. Despite the growth in analyses of non‐state actors in global governance, the ‘other’ or ‘Third’ UN is poorly understood, often ignored, and normally discounted. Some advocate for particular ideas, others help analyze or operationalize their testing and implementation; in any case, many help the UN ‘think’ and have an impact on how we think about the United Nations.
Highlights
If the United Nations system is to remain relevant, or even survive, the thinking to re-imagine and redesign contemporary global governance will come from the Third UN
If the world organization and the UN system are to become more effective, or even survive, the thinking to reimagine and redesign contemporary global governance will come from what we described a decade ago as ‘the Third UN’. (Carayannis and Weiss, 2021; Weiss et al, 2009) If past is prelude, new thinking will come neither from the polarized First UN of member states nor the Second UN of secretariats – lenses Inis Claude (1956) first used in his classic text 65 years ago
The Third UN is the ecology of supportive non-state actors – intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the for-profit private sector, and the media – that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN and international civil servants of the Second UN to formulate and refine ideas and decision-making in policy processes
Summary
Knowledge brokers, epistemic communities, public-private partnerships, and expert networks (Andonova, 2010; Haas, 1992; Meyer, 2010; McGann and Sabatini, 2011; Abbott et al, 2016) are phenomena found in both the academic and policy lexicons, but their intellectual role remains marginal to analyses of the workings of such IGOs as the United Nations. The Third UN is the ecology of supportive non-state actors – intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, NGOs, the for-profit private sector, and the media – that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN and international civil servants of the Second UN to formulate and refine ideas and decision-making in policy processes. Recent years have witnessed an expansion of networked forms of public authority that may not include IGOs or states at all They provide opportunities to apply new knowledge and ideas to solve intractable problems and shape political orders; they can help decentralize the UN system by providing entry points for private actors to participate in global governance; they can at times overcome the political gridlock paralyzing states and UN secretariats. The Third UN’s non-state-led governance in its various forms has much to offer the UN in terms of ideas, technology, and practical solutions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
