Dr. Margaret P. Karns: Global Governance and the UN

Dr. Margaret P. (Peggy) Karns is a Senior Fellow in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of Dayton.  She is coauthor of “International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance (4th ed., 2024)” and “The United Nations in the 21st Century (6th ed., 2022).”  She lived and taught in both China and Vietnam in the 1990s. Global Governance is not a one-world government, but it is a way to bring together the norms and institutions to recognize, understand and deal with the major challenges confronting them. The UN is the epicenter, while the states, other intergovernmental organizations, non-state actors/NGOS, are critically involved. The UN is a complex system that works to confront problems, such as climate crisis, wars, humanitarian relief, diseases, as well as helping move ships, aircraft, mail and weather information safely worldwide.