WIND OF CHANGE

The 78th session of the UN General Assembly held in New York, NY in the last decade of September 2023 drew the attention of the world community. The key issue of discussions was the proposed reform of the largest international organisation, which has a central location in the modern world order.

"The world has changed. Our institutions have not"

The United Nations with its two major structures—the General Assembly (GA) and the Security Council (SC)—was established in the aftermath of the Second World War, primarily by the so-called victor powers. They also secured for themselves the defining role in the UN. The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China, which are also the largest nuclear powers in the world, are the incumbent permanent members of the UNSC. The other ten members are non-permanent, rotating every two years.

The UN has been the most important element of the post-war world throughout the Cold War between its main participants—the USSR and the US—the leaders of socialist and capitalist systems, respectively. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and world socialist system, the UN and its role in international affairs began to change substantially. At the turn of the 21st century, the unipolar world temporarily replaced the bipolar one. The US and its allies from among other developed Western countries took dominant, if not hegemonic, positions in the world.

Meanwhile, the new geopolitical reality has not suited everyone. On numerous occasions, there have been contradictions in the UN Security Council on all major issues of the world order between the US, UK and France on the one hand and Russia and China on the other. The other member states, or the absolute majority of the organisation, are getting increasingly dissatisfied with the privileged status of the UNSC permanent members in international relations. They do not agree that the balance of power within the UN is based on the realities of a bygone era and therefore does not meet modern reality and needs. Hence the calls for the reform of the UN, mainly due to the four-fold increase in the number of member states since the inception of the international body and its decreasing effectiveness. For example, many decisions and resolutions adopted at the UNSC and UNGA remain unimplemented.

The need for reforms within the UN is recognised by all actors of contemporary international relations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged this during the 78th session of the UNGA: "The world has changed. Our institutions have not. We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions do not reflect the world as it is. Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem." Drawing attention to the growing multipolarity in international processes, Guterres emphasised that it "alone cannot guarantee peace." Because "a multipolar world needs strong and effective multilateral institutions." These institutions, Guterres believes, should be based "on the economic and political realities of the 21st century, based on the principles of equality, solidarity and universality, on the principles of the UN Charter and international law".

However, is there any realistic prospect of achieving the goals indicated by the UN Secretary General in conditions of unprecedented aggravation of geopolitical confrontation between the major centres of power, growing contradictions and disagreements between North and South, East and West?

Different approaches

The key issue with the UN reform is associated with changing the principle of membership in the UN Security Council. It is the main reason of contradictions and disputes, including at the UNGA sessions.

The Western powers led by the US generally support the idea of changing or expanding the composition of the UNSC. But by doing so they want to prevent the weakening of their own positions at the global level. In particular, Washington proposes the UNSC permanent membership for Germany, Japan, India, South Africa and Brazil without giving them the right of veto. The idea came from the Joe Biden administration and was effectively supported by Britain and France. In his keynote address at the UNGA session, President Biden stated the need to make multilateral institutions, including the UNSC, "more responsive, effective and inclusive".

However, the main opponents of the US, Russia and China, support a broader approach to this issue. At the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng called for preserving the UN-backed system of international relations and moving towards a fairer multipolar world.

Russia's position was more specific. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the early reform of the UN "was long due". "There is an ever-increasing need to expand the composition the UN Security Council simply by eliminating the underrepresentation of countries from the world majority – in Asia, Africa, and Latin America," Lavrov said.

Moscow has thus reiterated its previous position, which in general boils down to the inexpediency of including in the UN Security Council countries representing the so-called collective West. Since "the West, led by the United States, decided that it will determine the fate of all humankind. With its sense of superiority, the West began to ignore the legacies of the founding fathers of the United Nations".

Russia wants that Moscow and the other five permanent members of the UN Security Council control such an important instrument of global influence as the right of veto. This is not surprising, since this right allows Russia, for example, to block the adoption of resolutions at the UN Security Council level condemning it for the war in Ukraine.

Remarkably, at the same UNGA session the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called to strip Russia of its veto right in the UN Security Council. He advocates giving the UNGA a real power to overcome the veto right of the UNSC permanent members thanks to a will of "a global qualified majority [which will make] the UNGA resolutions legally binding for all member states".

Meanwhile, the global qualified majority of states is increasingly vocal about the need to take into account its growing role in world affairs. For example, the foreign ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa released a joint statement following their meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly. For them, "comprehensive reform of the United Nations system remains a critical international endeavour, while advancing the UNSC reform must remain an urgent and top priority". The three expressed disappointment at the suspension of intergovernmental discussions on the UNSC reform. The joint statement reaffirmed their "commitment to work towards expanding the membership of the UN Security Council to include permanent and non-permanent representatives from developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America". In particular, they support "legitimate aspirations of African countries to have a permanent presence on the UNSC and the aspirations of Brazil and India for permanent seats on the Security Council".

The Turkic voice

Apparently, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the author of one of the most elaborate initiatives to reform the UN. His project is based on the idea of global representation instead of an oligarchy of world powers. Erdogan has repeatedly stated that the world was bigger than five, referring to the need to change the current situation when the world order depends on the will of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. "The fate of humanity cannot be left at the mercy of a handful of countries that won the Second World War," Erdogan once said.

Türkiye particularly underlines that the UN insufficiently considers the interests of the Islamic, African, Latin American and South Asian states. It therefore advocates a new international security architecture based on global justice and effective multilateralism.

Erdogan's initiative includes reducing the powers of the UNSC and expanding the powers of the UNGA, making the Security Council accountable to the General Assembly, abolishing the institution of five permanent members of the UNSC and forming this body by the UNGA selecting 20 member states that would represent key regions and communities of the world, including the Islamic world. Therefore, at the recent 78th session of the UNGA, the Turkish president once again called on the UN to expand the membership of the Security Council and stated that in its current form, the UNSC could no longer guarantee world security and has become a battleground for the political strategies of five countries.

Azerbaijan also supports serious reforms in the UN, as it has suffered from the inefficiency of this global structure for almost three decades. The United Nations has failed to implement four resolutions of its Security Council that demanded unconditional end to the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories. This was done by Azerbaijan during the 44-day liberation war in 2020 that restored its territorial integrity. During the long years of occupation, the UN Security Council has also failed to impose sanctions against Armenia, the invader.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly emphasised that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was not only a regional, but also a global issue, as it was triggered by the complete violation of basic international principles, as well as the violation and failure to implement the UNSC resolutions. This raises the question about reforms in the UN and the UN Security Council, as there is no point in these bodies, if their resolutions are not implemented.

Azerbaijan also supports the idea of reforming the UN Security Council and insists on revising its membership. Among the measures proposed by Baku is the election of a Muslim country as a new permanent member of the UN Security Council, which can be determined on a rotational basis by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. In addition, as a member state and the incumbent chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Azerbaijan also proposes the organisation's permanent membership in the UN Security Council.

Baku's commitment to the UN reform was also confirmed at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly attended by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. He said Azerbaijan supported strict compliance with the norms and principles of international law, activation of the multilateral system, the founding principle of the UN, based on non-discrimination, as well as the implementation of reforms. "In this context, we hope that there will be an opportunity to intensify activities ahead of the global summit and fulfil collective commitments within the framework of the UN Charter and multilateralism," Bayramov stated.

All these initiatives confirm the desire and readiness of many states to reform the largest international organisation at the heart of the modern world order. We can safely assume that all the member states, including the leading UN member states, recognise and support the need for structural changes in the organisation. The only problem is that different centres of power see the form and content of the proposed reforms differently, turning the issue into yet another subject of inter-power contradictions.

The world has changed significantly since the creation of the UN and requires changes also in the largely exhausted functionality of this global structure. However, the experience of the UN is valuable in principle in the first place. One thing is clear: global peace is simply impossible without the principles of justice and equity promoted by the United Nations.