Proposals for the reform of the United Nations cannot be made in general terms, or without reference to specific historical and political circumstances. They must be based on an evaluation of the Organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and of its actual performance record. The conceptualization of reform must begin with an examination of the historical background, involve an understanding of UN mechanisms and an assessment of the Organization's performance. None of this features in the official UN effort at reform. For nearly 15 years the discussion of reform has gone round and round a diplomatic maypole of national ambitions and animosities. A number of pages on this site deal with aspects of reform that governments have ignored. The paragraphs below distill our general approach. 

Political Context: International relations today are in a state of flux reminiscent of the periods that preceded the two world wars of the 20th century. Power relationships are changing within and among nations, creating a situation in which small fires could build rapidly into large conflagrations. The United States remains globally dominant, but the European Union, the Russian Federation, China, India, and other middle Powers are emerging. The world is awash with weapons of enormous destructive power, nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional.

Economic Context: A particular source of instability is the world economy, which continues to be deeply divided between rich and poor, the technologically advanced and the underdeveloped. World trade and monetary systems are dangerously out of balance, and disproportionately benefit a small minority. Giant corporations control the global flow of goods and services, and wield enormous influence over governments, but are themselves largely unaccountable, even to their own shareholders.

International Crime: A global criminal economy supports trade in narcotic drugs and arms, money laundering, terrorism, the trafficking of women and children, and a host of other criminal activities. The operations of this economy are hugely corrupting and have come to be an influential factor, entirely without historical precedent in international affairs.

Social Context: Some two billion people live in poverty, with life spans much shorter than that of more affluent sections of the world population. They live with endemic diseases that have been wiped out elsewhere, suffer high rates of illiteracy, unemployment and under-employment. They are subject to tyrannical and corrupt forms of government, enjoy few basic human rights, and are easily manipulated into social disorder and violence.

Environmental Change: Looming in the background is the spectre of catastrophic environmental change. The impact of industrial civilization on the natural environment has unbalanced global ecological balances. The natural environment, the basis of all life, is being destroyed at such a rate that it has accelerated the extinction rate of species to a rate not seen since the age of the dinosaurs.

Positive But Problematic: Within nations, the growth of literacy, the spread of education, and the revolutionary impact of the new information and communications technologies are increasing political awareness and mobilization. While they have had a broadly democratizing impact on power relationships, the new information and communications technologies have given small groups, including terrorist movements, the capacity to gain mass audiences and manipulate ethnic, religious and other differences.

The United Nations as it now functions is minimally effective in dealing with most of the problems noted above. The objective of reform must be to equip it to deal effectively with all of them. It must be able to guide the world towards a pattern of economic globalization that will eradicate poverty, sustain individual freedom and liberties, and maintain intact the critically important balances of Nature. Obviously, this cannot be achieved with piecemeal reform. The Organization must be fundamentally reconceptualized. The overall functioning of world order must be critically assessed and changed where necessary. The reforms now under way do not have these objectives in view and are thus entirely inadequate.

Can any set of reforms equip the United Nations for the very large tasks outlined above? Will governments have the vision and the capacity to make the necessary changes? The answer has to be yes. The human species has made many behavioral adaptations in its evolutionary march; this just happens to be the first one that must be globally coordinated and implemented. (See Changing the World for our proposal on how to bring that about.)

See UN History for the conceptual background to UN reform

To go to the page on reform at the UN web site click here