The chapters in this volume identify and assess the political process and bases of support for multilateralism in terms of the shifting power relations in world politics, institutional innovations in the United Nations and non-UN multilateralisms. They seek to answer the question: What can and should be done to confront salient issues of the global problematic ? More specifically, the essayists ask whether currently existing multilateral mechanisms are up to the challenge.

Preface Notes on the Contributors List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Editor's Introduction; M.G.Schechter PART I: THE EVOLVING GLOBAL STRUCTURE AND THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM International Institutions: Obstacles, Agents or Conduits of Global Structural Change?; M. G.Schechter United Nations Reform: A Strategy of Avoidance; M-C. Smouts The United Nations and the Crossroads of Reform; A. Morales Northern Perspectives for Peace and Security Functions of the United Nations; T.Uchida PART II: EVOLVING GLOBAL STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION Structural Changes in Multilateralism: The G-7 Nexus and the Global Crisis; S. Gill Implications of the Evolving Global Structure for the UN System: a View from the South; J. Zoninsein PART III: POST-HEGEMONIC MULTILATERALISM AND BEYOND Expanding the Limits of Imagination: Human Rights from a Participatory Approach to New Multilateralism; A.A. An-Na'im Indigenous People and Developments in International Law: Toward Change through Multilateralism and the Modern Human Rights Frame AIDS and Multilateral Governance; P. Soderh¿lm Gender, Social Movements, and Multilateralism: A Case Study of Women's Organizing in Russia; E. Ershova, L. Racioppi and K. O'Sullivan See Index