The essence of UN reform

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

With constant consolidation and rapprochement, humanity has sought to create supranational organizations. For a long time, these were only regional blocs, but in the twentieth century, global military and peaceful organizations appeared. First it was the League of Nations, and then the United Nations, which, at the very least, has been regulating world processes for several decades now. However, the events of recent years show that UN reforms are clearly required. It is about them that we will talk today in the framework of our article.

UN Issues

All modern problems on which the UN "slips" can be divided into two groups:

unstable and uncertain position of the organization in the world;
administrative structure of the UN itself.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the organization was created in the conditions of an ongoing war, when a bipolar world with two superpowers was being formed, and most of the world was in the position of colonies.

Since then, more than seven decades have passed, and the UN has never been seriously reformed. Currently, you can count, without hesitation, a dozen problems that make this organization completely ineffective. Given the position and power of the UN in the world, this is simply unacceptable. Problems accumulated over decades, but cautious politicians still did not dare to carry out serious changes, limiting themselves to small reforms, fearing to bring down the existing situation. So it was until the eccentric American President D. Trump appeared, who was not afraid to speak about the need for change. What is the essence of the UN reform of the American leader, who decided to make radical changes in this organization?

Adjustments to the structure and provisions of the UN

The first decades of the existence of the UN were associated with the events of the Cold War and the rivalry of the superpowers for their own spheres of influence. At that time, in fact, it was not at all up to the UN reforms. Both sides wanted to use their influence in the organization solely for their own interests and to support the military allies.

Of course, under such conditions there could be no room for serious transformation. Among the rare reforms, it is necessary to single out the expansion of the number of members of the Security Council from 11 to 15. This move was caused by an increase in the number of UN member countries from 51 in 1945 to 113 in 1963 and the need to give developing states the right to participate in the activities of the Security Council.

At the end of the confrontation, in the nineties of the last century, increasedthe number of resolutions being implemented, the presence of the UN in the world has been strengthened. The Security Council is gradually acquiring separate functions of a supranational government (the creation of non-permanent administrations, the imposition of sanctions, etc.). This was how events unfolded until the fall of 2017. When the UN reform began, the United States began to radically change the external and internal position of this organization.

Trump speech

The American President addressed the world on this issue for the first time from the podium of the UN in the fall of 2017, noting the importance of transforming this organization.

Trump lamented that the UN cannot work effectively because of mismanagement and the omnipotence of the bureaucracy. He noted that UN funding has more than doubled since the turn of the century, but the organization's performance remains low. The President of the United States proposed to reform the UN by supporting the ten-point declaration at the next Assembly. No one knew the contents of the document yet.

From that time on, many events began to revolve around Trump's UN reform. The points of his transformation concerned too many people. It should be noted that Trump has repeatedly stated about the shortcomings of the UN, indicating that the United States contributes the largest amount to its budget. As he considered, it is wrong that America spends about ten billion dollars every year on the activities of the UN - money exceeding the investments of other members of the organization.

Trump Declaration

Distributed declaration includes 10 points of UN reform. In herThe United States proposes to introduce reforms in the UN system to improve performance in all areas. This can be done, according to Trump, by reducing the number of employees of the organization.

The U. S. delegation wrote and circulated this document to staff of all missions of UN Member States prior to the first meetings in September 2017. All were familiarized with the points in advance.

Finance

It should be borne in mind that the Trump project is aimed mainly at the financial sector of the world organization. The main part of the points of the proposed declaration on the transformation of the UN is to a certain extent connected with the monetary sector. For example, the document contains arguments about the importance of strengthening control over the division of money coming into the disposal of the UN, increasing the transparency of financial spending, and reducing duplication or excess mandates of leading UN structures. Trump's UN reform declaration also contains a clause stating that all countries in the organization are fully responsible for their own economic situation.

US Politics

Trump's active policy has led to the division of the world into opponents and supporters of his transformations. According to the US President, the 10 points of the UN reform fluctuate and are influenced by serious factors. First, the United States, as a permanent member of the Security Council, does not want to lose its privileged position and decisive vote. Secondly, the existing power of the United States in all spheres is so great that even without official privileges, they can keep undercontrol of the leaders of a significant part of the second-tier states and in this way establish the necessary advantage in their interests.

Third, in recent years there has been a tendency for the United States to lose its dominant position in the world. Their economic, financial and political control over allies and satellites has been waning and waning over the years. China is increasingly taking the lead. It is followed by a number of next large economies (including the BRICS member states). In the future, there is an obvious possibility that the weakening superpower will be pushed aside. These and other factors, very contradictory and different levels, make the US position ambiguous and vacillating, fundamentally changing the essence of the UN reform. In general, there is no clarity on this issue yet.

Proponents of change

Countries that signed the declaration on UN reform immediately turned out to be about 130.

A week later, 142 states out of more than 190 agreed to approve this American document on the transformation of the organization during the work of the UN. They even issued a statement to the UN Secretary General António Guterres demanding that the content of the Trump declaration be urgently implemented. Such powerful, one might even say, even demonstrative support for the US position says the least about the fact that they see themselves as satellites of this superpower. There are simply too many states that are dissatisfied with their position in the UN.

Which countries have signed a declaration on UN reform? Roughly speaking, several groups can now be distinguishedstates requiring a change in their position:

economically and politically strong countries that play a large role in the regional and global space, but have a disproportionately modest role in the UN (primarily Germany and Japan);
countries that were colonies or semi-colonies in 1944, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century already playing an excessively high role in the world (India, a number of Latin American countries, etc.);
finally, the overall economic growth allowed the rest of the countries to get closer to others and, if not to demand a special place for themselves personally, then at least for their representative.

The US went along with the demands of these countries in order to increase the number of its supporters and at the same time reduce its financial burden.

Opponents

There were significantly fewer states that opposed the essence of the UN reform or took a neutral position. First of all, these are global political opponents who feared the loss of their influence (the Russian Federation, China), “rogue states” like the DPRK, Venezuela, etc., ordinary opponents of the foundations of the next reforms. Since there were less than a third of them, this determines the weakness of the position in advance. On the other hand, there are three permanent members of the Security Council (60%) among the opponents of the reforms, and indeed, the fact that almost one in three is against Trump's reforms speaks of the need to make concessions while maintaining the basic position.

Although a number of sources reported on the "possible intrigue" of the transformations. Will our country continue toa permanent member of such an important body as the UN Security Council, the owner of the right of veto in it? Previously, many prominent politicians proposed to deprive her of her position, representatives from Ukraine were especially active. After all, no vote was taken to retain Russia's membership in the Security Council. But, most likely, all this will be used for subsequent reforms.

Progress of reform discussions

Of course, the countries that signed the UN reform and its opponents behaved differently. Nevertheless, it became more and more obvious that reforms were needed, and the United Nations (UN), in fact, lies on foundations that are alien to the ideal, and it is time to change its principles. In the meantime, the parties enjoying authority, including the United States, are making all sorts of proposals. During the meetings and discussions, there are active discussions on this issue.

Obviously, in the process of discussion, not only positions crystallize, but also converge. Now Russia has already agreed with the reforms, dwelling only on the principles of reforms and their details. In turn, the US is softening its position. After all, it is clear to all prudent politicians (McCain and Klimkin are clearly not among them) that transformations in organizations are possible only on the basis of a compromise.

Therefore, today, key players in world politics, examining the situation, are thinking about which position is most beneficial to them in the short term (today) and long term (for the future) and how deep the UN reforms need to be.

Prospects

Experts believe that during thesereforms revealing the UN Reform Declaration and subsequent events, the following principles of the organization will be implemented:

Liquidation of the privileged circle of victorious states as a result of World War II.
Complete elimination of the veto (not a positive step, but still).
Equal rights for all member states (based on the concept of "one state - one vote" or at least the distribution of rights in proportion to the population or with some other specific coefficient showing the group of citizens actually behind the representation).
Approval of major decisions only by the UN General Assembly.
Part of the most important decisions (on the use of armed force, economic and foreign policy sanctions, etc.) must be adopted jointly (the vote of only one country "against" can be decisive).
Measures on the above important issues (use of force, sanctions, etc.) outside the decisions of the organization must be banned, they must be analyzed as a gross distortion of the charter and international law, and their active violators must themselves unfailingly be subjected to sanctions.

Results

Trump's reform initiative was predictable. The organization has clearly become an anachronism in our dynamic time. Therefore, the objective base lined up very solid. The questions were different: who will be the author and what direction will he choose? The extravagant Trump made up his mind, highlighting the pace, ways and significance of the transformations. Now all that's left is to waithappen and how promising innovations will be.