Description
The United Nations (UN) plays a key role in creating global norms and regulatory frameworks, but often faces criticism for imposing “universal” standards that clash with local priorities and customs. Critics highlight the Eurocentric nature of its institutions, and Western biases, especially the Trusteeship Council and Peacebuilding Commission. Emerging research shows that great power politics were reflected in the Trusteeship system, while the UN’s liberal peace model institutionalised within UN operations since the 1990s is linked to failures in achieving sustainable peace. Although the UN is attempting to shift toward sustaining and more adaptive peace processes, it remains uncertain whether it can foster alternative governance approaches in the long term. This paper uses Structured Topic Modelling on a newly compiled UN dataset to analyze political contestation, erasure, and the institutionalization of governance norms, exploring how current efforts to promote alternatives are affected by this history.
