Development Without Destruction: The UN and Global Resource Management

Since 1945, the UN has been actively engaged in conceptualizing strategies for both economic development and a sustainable environment. From a broad historical perspective, Development without Destruction sketches the role played by organizations and individuals in the UN system in developing and consolidating principles of international law and international governance with respect to natural resource management. Nico Schrijver highlights the UN's efforts to generate and implement strategies to resolve tensions between economic development and environmental protection, conservation and exploitation, sovereignty and internationalism, and armed conflict and peaceful access to natural resources. Schrijver's thorough analysis is an indispensable guide to management of the critical environmental issues on today's global agenda.

"Schrijver's thorough account of the achievements of the UN across the field of natural resource management enables him both to assess that contribution and to make realistic, practical suggestions for improvement." --James Crawford, University of Cambridge Indiana University Press

"This timely study makes a seminal contribution to understanding the management of natural resources in the context of changing economic, environmental, and social realities.... Schrijver's work shows how research undertaken by the UN is contributing to the search for solutions to today's main challenge: safeguarding the global commons for tomorrow, while providing a decent quality of life for all." --Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development Indiana University Press

"'[T]his book is about the United Nations and global resources management, in particular the maintenance of the natural adaptability of ecosystems and the sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind.'" --Netherlands Intnl Law Review Indiana University Press

Nico Schrijver holds the Chair of International Law and is Academic Director of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. He is author of The Evolution of Sustainable Development in International Law: Inception, Meaning, and Status and Sovereignty over Natural Resources: Balancing Rights and Duties.

List of Figures and Tables

Series Editors' Foreword / Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss

Foreword / James Crawford

Foreword / Supachai Panitchpakdi

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Concepts and Principles

1. Historical Background: Formative Phases of International Organization during the PreUN Period

2. UN Involvement with Natural Resource Management at the National and Transboundary Levels

3. Management of the Global Commons

4. The International Architecture for Environmental Governance and Global Resource Management

5. Natural Resources and Armed Conflict

6. The Role of the International Court of Justice in the Settlement of Natural Resource Disputes

7. The UN's Conceptual Contribution: Conclusions and Challenges

Notes

Index

About the Author

About the United Nations Intellectual History Project