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The UN's Duty? The United Nations has longed helped ease poverty and suffering around the world. But this is now an area of stiff competition among various international organizations. (Click image for full size. 10K)

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Global Governance: Defining the United Nation's Leadership Role
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Report says stronger, more focused United Nations needed

The United Nations needs a renewed mandate from the world's governments and other powerful organizations if it is to play a leadership role in the next century. This is the central conclusion of a new report, "Global Governance: Defining the United Nations' Leadership Role," issued following a conference of scholars and diplomats this summer in Adare, Ireland.

The event, the Stanley Foundation's thirty-fourth United Nations of the Next Decade Conference, brought together a number of participants to look at the emerging climate for global governance, the tasks of global governance, the role of the United Nations in those tasks, and the steps needed to help the United Nations fulfill its leadership role. "Global governance—humanity's struggle to bring some sort of order to an evermore interdependent, but still very chaotic world—seems impossible without an active role by the world's premier international organization. Yet the nature of such a UN role and the degree to which it will comprise elements of leadership—vision wedded to the ability to coordinate a coalition of interests—are by no means clear," according to the report.

Changed Scene
The new climate is marked by globalization and a dramatic proliferation of political actors which requires new ways of exercising political leadership and coalition-building. It is also marked by new challenges to multilateralism as governments and other actors display a "...preference for unilateralism and coalitions-of-the willing," said the report. "The Kosovo crisis," according to the report, "provided a timely example of how difficult it is for international institutions to reconcile effectiveness and legitimacy. While some [conference participants] were critical of NATO for not formally seeking UN Security Council approval of Operation Allied Force, others argued that a veto from Russia or China would have harmed the organization more."

In the area of peace and security, the conference underlined the United Nations', "...unique role in post-conflict rebuilding (including peacekeeping and democratization) and emphasized that the United Nations should provide both the collective use of force (by organizations like NATO) with legitimacy and coordinate humanitarian assistance, including refugee relief."

Participants "...urged the United Nations to concentrate on democratization as a necessary part of economic development, while setting norms and standards for reducing global poverty." Managing the global economy, however, should remain in the hands of the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods institutions.

Core Functions
The report said, "Many in the group supported the notion that the United Nations should focus its efforts on four core functions: international peace and security, human rights, democratization, and humanitarian assistance." But participants warned that without a renewed international mandate, it would not be possible for the organization to play a strong role in these areas. "Unless the world community is clear about what it wants the United Nations to do, the United Nations will be able to do very little."

Establishing that mandate will require dynamic internal leadership from the United Nations and adequate funding from the member states. Solving the funding problem is largely a function of healing the relationship between the United Nations and the United States to the point where the United States can make full payment of its UN dues.

Any discussion on a renewed mandate should, according to the conference participants, be guided by these elements:

• A recommitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter

• A greater role for the mid-size powers and the European Union

• A sharper definition of the linkage between these core issues and other international challenges, and between the United Nations and other international actors on these matters

• Better coordination with other organizations on making the globalization of the world economy politically, socially, and environmentally sustainable

• Some sort of UN crisis response force, whether drawn from national militaries or constituted as a standing UN force

• An effort to balance the one-nation, one-vote system with a decision-making procedure that reflects the relationship between power, influence, and responsibility

• A discussion on limiting the veto to Article VII (peace enforcement) matters; even if rejected, it will put the problem of the veto under a spotlight

• A realignment of Security Council membership to reflect current geopolitical realities

• A revision of the United Nations' system of finance with the aim of avoiding overdependence on any one country—one possibility would be equal contributions by all veto-wielding members

• A sharpening of the United Nations as an instrument in the service of its members, but without entirely undercutting its responsibility for the planet as a whole

• A redefinition of the US-UN relationship in a way that allows US power to be harnessed to the global agenda without unnecessarily undermining US freedom of action

While the mix and nature of these actors may change, conference participants agreed that the purpose of global governance—stewardship for humanity and for a planet that sustains it—will not. The report concludes "The United Nations and its Charter stand in support of these principles, and the conference was in agreement that they remain valid and widely supported by the world's public. The challenge is to translate this support into a renewed mandate from the world's governments and the planet's other increasingly powerful global actors."