Citizens for Global Solutions

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS | "A More Secure World" Analysis

101 STEPS TOWARDS A MORE SECURE WORLD
December 2, 2004

The United Nations report, “A more secure world: Our shared responsibility” has the potential to reshape the United Nations and redefine collective security. A core premise of the report is that “today’s threats recognize no national boundaries, are connected, and must be addressed at the global and regional as well as the national levels.” It is a “must read” to understand the security threats facing the world today.

The High Level Panel on the Threats, Challenges and Change was commissioned over a year ago by Secretary General Kofi Annan, after the divisive Security Council showdown over Iraq. In calling for this report, Annan said that “We have come to a fork in the road. This may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the United Nations was founded.” The crisis over Iraq became a catalyst for change. The Panel’s report details 101 recommendations on how the United Nations can best be modernized to respond effectively to the challenges of an interconnected 21st century world.

In making its case for these recommendations, the report dramatically broadens the definition of “collective security.” The United Nations was founded in 1945 to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” But sixty years later, the threats that we face -- from nuclear proliferation and international terrorism to collapsed states often plagued by hunger, poverty, AIDS and environmental disasters -- go far beyond those associated with wars of aggression. In developing its recommendations, the Panel defined six “clusters” of threats that the world must deal with:

Economic and social threats, including poverty, infectious diseases and environmental degradation
Inter-State conflict
Internal conflict, including civil war, genocide and other large-scale atrocities
Nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons
Terrorism
Transnational organized crime

The report asserts that individual nations are the still the “front-line actors” in dealing with threats both old and new, but in the 21st century no nation, no matter how powerful, can stand alone. It makes a compelling case that in today’s world a threat to one is a threat to all. Security, health or environmental threats are no longer contained by national boundaries. The report provides two very compelling examples:

Any one of 700 million international airline passengers every year can be an unwitting carrier of a deadly infectious disease. SARS spread to more than 8,000 people in 30 countries in 3 months.
Globalization means that a major terrorist attack anywhere in the industrial world can have devastating consequences for millions in the developing world. The World bank estimates that the 9-11 attacks increased the number of people living in poverty by 10 million and cost the world’s economy over $80 billion.

The Panel boldly calls for “nothing less than a new consensus between alliances that are frayed, between wealthy nations and poor, and among peoples mired in mistrust across an apparently widening cultural abyss. The essence of that consensus is simple: we all share responsibility for each other’s security. And the test of that consensus will be action.”

The strength of this report is that it is a collective response to security, with something in it for all nations. For example, developing countries are sure to welcome the report’s call for donor countries that currently fall short of the UN’s goal for development assistance (0.7% of their gross national product) to establish a timetable for reaching this level. Other recommendations seek to address the concerns of industrialized countries like the United States. The report calls for the International Atomic Energy Commission to act as a guarantor for the supply of fissile material to civilian nuclear users. Until this recommendation is enacted, the panel suggests a time-limited moratorium on the construction of any uranium enrichment and reprocessing facilities with a guarantee of a supply of fissile materials.

According to General Brent Scowcroft, a member of the panel and former national security advisor under presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, “The report puts forward a bold new vision of collective security to make the UN work better and the US more secure…It would place many of America’s security concerns at the center of a common world agenda including stopping proliferation of nuclear weapons, building public health defense against biological terrorism, and preventing nuclear terrorism. And, most importantly, all of the reports recommendations will rebound to the benefit of American security; none would unduly constrain American freedom to act.”

This report is the beginning, not the end, of the process for creating a more effective UN. Next year will be a crucial opportunity for member states to discuss and build on the recommendations of the report.

Secretary-General Annan will incorporate select recommendations from this and other reports into his March 2005 Report on the Millennium Review. The March report is expected to set the agenda for a summit of world leaders scheduled for September 2005, the UN’s 60th anniversary. National governments and civil society will surely try to influence the key points of this agenda. However, building a secure world will take more than just a report or a summit. It will require resources and commitment, as well as leadership from the member states commensurate with the challenges ahead. The stakes are high for the world and the UN as it determines which “fork in the road” it will take.

Some of the main recommendations of the report are:

Define terrorism as actions “intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, when the purpose…is to intimidate a population or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.”
Reform the membership in the Commission on Human Rights to be universal with prominent human rights figures as the heads of national delegations.
Establish a Peacebuilding Commission to identify and assist countries that risk sliding towards collapse and “marshal and sustain the efforts of the international community in post-conflict peacebuilding over whatever period may be necessary.”
Endorsement of the emerging norm of a Responsibility to Protect civilians from large-scale violence. When a state fails for protect its civilians, the international community then has a responsibility to act to protect civilians as necessary and use force as a last resort.
Sets out five basic criteria for the Security Council to consider to legitimize the authorization of the use of force: the seriousness of threat, the purpose for using force, if it is the last resort, proportional means, and what are the balance of consequences.
Create at the UN a small corps of senior police officers (50-100) to plan and organize the international civilian police operations.
Allow the UN to fund regional peacekeeping operations authorized by the Security Council with assessed contributions.
Re-engage on the problem of global worming and begin new negotiations on a new long-term strategy to reduce global warming beyond the period covered by the Kyoto Protocol.
UN Security Council should refer cases of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court.
UN Security Council slow the spread of weapons using an explicit pledge of “collective action” against any state or group that launches a nuclear attack or even threatens such an attack on a non-nuclear-weapon state.
All states should “pledge a commitment to non-proliferation and disarmament”, ratify the comprehensive test-ban treaty and support talks on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.
A State’s notice of withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons should prompt immediate verification of its compliance with the Treaty.
Reform the sanctions system to include routine monitoring mechanisms, develop improved guidelines and reporting procedures to assist states in sanctions implementation, and ensure an auditing mechanism is in place.
Two proposals to increase the size of the Security Council from 15 to 24 members and a review of the composition of the Security Council in 2020.
Amend the UN Charter by deleting all references in the Charter to the World War II era concept of “enemy States” and eliminate the UN’s outdated Trusteeship Council and the Military Staff committee.

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