Intergovernmental Organ izations 227economic stabilization, building government capacity, and coordinating economic-
development activities by meeting with the heads of UN programs and agencies, including
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Or ga ni za tion.
Security Council reform remains the per sis tent reform issue critical to the legiti-
macy of the Security Council’s role in enforcement. The five permanent members of
the council, the victors of World War II who possess veto power over substantive issues,
are an anachronism. Eu rope is overrepresented; China is the only emerging economy
and the only Asian member; both Germany and Japan contribute more financially to the
organ ization than the four permanent members other than the United States do. Vir-
tually all agree that membership should be increased. But agreement ends there. What
other countries should be admitted? Germany, Japan, and/or Italy? India, Pakistan,
South Africa, and/or Nigeria from the developing world? Argentina or Brazil? Should
the new members have the veto? Should the differentiation between permanent and
nonpermanent membership be maintained? Contending proposals continue to be dis-
cussed and debated, but no agreement has been reached. As President Barack Obama
has stated, the UN is both “flawed and indispensible.”^9
A C Omplex NetwOrk Of IGOs
The UN’s perception as indispensable likely is attributable to the work of the 19 spe-
cialized agencies formally affiliated with the United Nations. Each organ ization reflects
functionalist thinking, dedicated to specialized areas of activity that individual states
cannot manage alone. Public health and disease do not re spect national borders;
neither do weather systems. Such phenomena require the monitoring of specialized
expertise across states. Mail and telecommunications move across national borders;
marine transport and airplanes fly between states; these areas need technical rules to
govern them. Given the importance of these functional activities, it is not surprising
that many of the specialized UN agencies actually predate the United Nations itself.
The International Telecommunications Union dates from 1865, the Universal Postal
Ser vice from 1874, and international sanitary conferences from the middle of the nine-
teenth century. Others, such as the International Civil Aviation Or ga ni za tion and the
International Maritime Or ga ni za tion, date from immediately after World War II.
Other specialized UN agencies and UN programs perform operational activities
dedicated to limited tasks, although those tasks may be much more controversial:
delivering food to those in need (World Food Programme), settling refugees and
internally displaced people (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), or establishing
labor standards (International Labour Or ga ni za tion). Many tasks these programs and
agencies perform began under the auspices of the League of Nations. These organ-
izations have separate charters, memberships, bud gets, and secretariats. Although
each reports directly or indirectly to the UN’s Economic and Social Council, none can