After remodelling, there has to be a paradigm shift in giving the UN a new mandate on the way to turning it into a democratic world government
Events and developments of the last few years have made the world fractured and disunited. This has accentuated threats to security in some countries and regions. In the normal course, civilisations have risen and fallen with few surviving exceptions like India and China. But now in the age of climate change and nuclear (N) weapons, mankind is faced with myriad challenges which threaten its existence. The immediate threat the world has been facing is that of the pandemic. The United Nations (UN) was supposed to play an important role in mitigating this but there has been hardly any joint effort or effective response by it to fight the pandemic.
The world has already been facing some abhorrent challenges for decades now which include the pernicious effects of climate change, accidental or intended holocausts that could be caused by enormous stockpiles of N-weapons and geopolitical struggles now mostly in the context of terrorism or aggressive and wrongful assertion of power by China.
Regarding climate change, it is a happy augury that the Joe Biden Government in the US has decided to undo the action of the previous regime and return to the Paris Agreement. But N-weapons in the absence of any worldwide disarmament agreement now pose a far more devastating threat to mankind.
Regarding the danger posed by terror, the US has announced that it will determine whether the Taliban has reduced attacks in Afghanistan in keeping with peace deals by it with the previous US Administration. However, there is no surety that the peace deals will work.
The danger posed by China emanates from the manner in which it wants to assert itself aggressively without any regard for international laws. This has already endangered security in the Indo-Pacific region. Immediate to India, the impasse between Indian and Chinese troops on the Line of Actual Control has strained ties between the two powers.
All these and other dangers facing mankind, again focus attention on the mandate of the UN to maintain global peace after its establishment in 1945 at the end of World War-II. The UN has helped the world in many ways, but its efforts have not been adequate to prevent wars, terror attacks and bloodshed. Its structure and lack of reforms has been the main cause responsible for this.
Addressing a virtual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed out that the UN has been facing a crisis of confidence and reiterated India’s call for its reform to reflect present realities. He asked, how long would India, the world’s largest democracy with more than 18 per cent of the global population, be kept out of the UN’s decision-making structure? Citing historical and contemporary reasons for a bigger role for India, Modi pointed out its growing economic and strategic clout, its role in peace keeping missions, its philosophy of working for the interests of mankind, its history as a non-colonising nation, its green initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, its actions for security and development in regions like the Indo-Pacific and its role in helping other countries during the current pandemic. Also its partnerships are not directed against someone else and its development programmes are not bound by any malafide intent.
Obviously, permanent membership for India at the UNSC is an important element of reform of the world body. Consequently, during its current two-year non-permanent membership of the UNSC, reformation of the world body should be the first priority of India’s diplomatic efforts. After the world body is completely reformed, there has to be a paradigm shift in giving it a new shape on the way to ultimately turning it into a democratic world government. Among other issues, the first step should be to turn the “larger mandate of the reformed world body to prevent wars and security threats” to “Authority to prevent wars and security threats.” But for this nation States as members of the reformed world body would have to share shades of their sovereignty with the new world body. This is a necessity and may no longer be an utopia given the fact that the first-ever treaty on the prohibition of N- weapons has come into force. The result of a sustained campaign for decades, the treaty is not supported by all countries but it is a step forward. A long, sustained campaign could also turn the utopia of a world democratic government into a possibility.
The writer is a journalist, former IIS officer and producer. The views expressed are personal.