Perspectives on International Organizations and UN Reforms

Introduction The United Nations appears to be the most refined and efficacious incarnation of the idea of international organizations. Contextualized in the theoretical formulations provided by classical liberal and realist perspectives of IR, The United Nations has emerged out to be the optimum common ground for the two mutually competing theories. For the liberals, the materialization of the phenomenon of international organization seems to be the bare minimum requirement in paving the way for a peaceful world order, underpinned by the prospects for the elimination of war with a preference for democracy over aristocracy, free trade over autarky, and collective security over the balance of power system.

Realist Perspective of International Organizations In contrast to the liberals, for the realists, international organizations mark the maximum leverage in bringing about an order in the essentially anarchical international system characterized by the unavoidable ingredients of power politics like inviolable state sovereignty, balance of power and limited war. A significant aspect of the structure and functioning of the UN in the last more than seven decades has been the feeling amongst the member states that several, if not all, of the UN organs and processes have turned out to be archaic, dysfunctional and, therefore, no more in sync with the changing imperatives of the times and the dynamics of international politics.

Two Perspectives on the Nature, Type and Depth of Reforms in the UN Firstly, the member states do not agree on the nature and types of reforms in the organs like the Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Secretariat. i. While for countries like the United States, the overriding need for reforms is most in the organs like the ECOSOC and the Secretariat, mainly in terms of scaling down the scope and reach of the UN on the one hand, and minimizing the administrative and operational cost of the world body. ii. On the other, the most pressing demand of the developing countries has been the democratization of the UN on the one hand, and expansion in the scope and depth of the socio-economic developmental activities of the UN on the other.

Two Perspectives(contd.) Secondly, the protagonists of reforms in the UN focus themselves on the ideas of the scope and dimensions of the reforms: While certain countries like the developed ones stand for piece-meal reforms in the UN, the developing countries would like the reforms to encompass all the organs of the UN so as to recast the international body according to the needs of the twenty first century. The entire reforms process in the UN can be discussed under two heads: reforms of a political nature and the reforms in the socio-economic realm. The reforms under the first category encompass the reforms initiated, primarily in the structures and the workings of the Security Council. The General Assembly has also been brought within the ambit of the reform process of the UN.

Reforms of a Political Nature The process of the reforms began with the 1992 path-breaking report of the secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali entitled An Agenda for Peace , in which he had mainly dealt with the peace keeping operations of the UN, to the underplaying, if not total neglect, of the reforms in the structures of the Security Council, ostensibly under the US pressure. In the wake of the latest round of parleys on the modalities for the expansion and streamlining of the functioning of the Security Council in 2007, numerous rounds of discussions have been undertaken. A slew of reform packages in the form of the proposals like G-4, etc., have also been evolved to democratize the structure of the Security Council and fine-tune its functioning by reforming the veto provisions so as to make it a true forum for the maintenance of international peace and security in the twenty-first century.

Reforms in the Socio-economic Realm The second category of reforms involve the organs and activities whose purpose is to bring about transformations in the socio-economic profile of the world by the extension of the basic needs of life to people across the world without any discrimination. Under the pressure of the US and other developed countries, who aim at cost cutting and sometimes undermining of the autonomous functioning of the UN, the reforms under this category have only been confined to organs like the ECOSOC and the Secretariat.

Structure of the UN Six Principal Organs- the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Secretariat. The two organs that form the nucleus of the UN are the General Assembly and the Security Council. The two may be compared to the legislative and the executive wings of a national government. Though the Security Council has markedly been accorded a superior position in terms of taking binding decisions, the dynamics of the Cold War for a fairly long period of time had rendered it very ineffective. Even in present times, the Security Council has not been able to act as a formidable apparatus for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Uniting for Peace Resolution, 1950 Thus, in the face of such ineffectiveness of the Security Council, sometimes the onus of responsibility to pronounce the opinion of the global humanity and persuade the parties to the dispute to maintain peace, falls on the General Assembly. The Uniting for Peace Resolution, 1950, passed to tide over the difficulties that arose due to the Big Power veto in the Security Council, is one such example, which enabled the General Assembly to deal with a situation which could not be resolved by the Security Council owing to the parochial-interest driven misuse of the veto power.

General Assembly: the Plenary Organ The idea of the General Assembly is to act as the plenary organ of the UN where all member states, irrespective of their size, population, socio-economic development, and military and financial prowess, are represented on an equal footing with the entitlement for one vote. The extent of its powers and functions, as described in Article 10 of the Charter, includes discussing, any question or any matter, within the scope of the present Charter (UN Charter Article 10). In addition to acting as a platform where all the issues can be debated, with participation from all the member-states of the UN, the General Assembly also happens to be the mother-organ for some major organs.

General Assembly:(contd.) The General Assembly is the mother-organ for other major organs like the ECOSOC and the Trusteeship Council in total, and the Security Council and the Secretariat in part, by electing the members of these bodies, along with the Secretary General. This position is further reinforced with the General Assembly receiving and considering the annual and special reports from these organs. Significantly, in the wake of the reforms initiated in the UN, the position of the General Assembly is proposed to be converted into that of General Assembly Parliamentary Forum, according to the proposals mooted in 2005.