Whose world is it anyway? Civil society, the United Nations and the Multilateral force.

Whose World is it Anyway? Civil Society, the United Nations and the Multilateral Future, edited by John W. Foster with Anita Anand, 1999, Ottawa: The United Nations Association, Canada, 575 pp., $24.95.

Whose World is it Anyway? is a timely resource book on multilateral politics and the role of citizens' organizations in the United Nations system and in global financial institutions. It contains a wealth of information for those working in or analyzing contemporary global politics. Contributions by experienced advocates and scholars provide historical analyses of the ways civil society has sought to influence the United Nations system, guides to help NGOs navigate multilateral institutions like the UN, and analyses of contemporary debates about how the global political economy might better meet the needs of the world's people. Several chapters also engage questions about organizing strategies for contemporary global action.

A consistent theme in the book is that greater attempts must be made to better integrate the various institutions of global governance so that the overarching goal of environmentally sustainable and equitable human development might be achieved. The separate operating structures of the Bretton Woods institutions (e.g., the World Bank, IMF, and World Trade Organization) have prevented the emergence of a coherent multilateral system, and the contributors to this volume offer ways to overcome these institutional differences. Their suggestions bring together many different proposals, like the Tobin tax, that have grown out of UN commissions such as the Commission on Sustainable Development or on Global Governance, as well as a few less familiar proposals for concrete institutional reforms. Many of these proposals provide both the tools and hope for future efforts to strengthen multilateralism.

The editors provide a clear, historically informed road map to multilateral institutions that can aid practitioners as they seek effective means to promote humanitarian values within global institutions for security, trade, and development. They also outline some of the major challenges to promoting greater equity and representation in the global political economy and to effective international cooperation for a more humane and just international system. The book will be of interest to activists and practitioners especially, and also for students and scholars of contemporary multilateral politics.