CHINA DAILY

APLN member Kim Won-soo suggested that to remain relevant and effective, the UN must be renewed by recovering global consensus, redefining its purpose and revamping its institutional structures.

The UN stands at crossroads, as the world is undergoing rapid transformations in all aspects of human life — social, economic, political and environmental. A single misstep may create irreversible consequences. A perfect storm of existential threats against humanity is gathering force from three different directions: the specter of a nuclear winter; the intensifying climate and ecological crisis; and the unknown risks of uncontrolled emerging technologies. Without the help of others, these threats cannot be dealt with by individual countries, no matter how powerful they are. Multilateral approaches among nations are the only viable solution as these threats do not respect national borders. Unfortunately, multilateralism is being replaced by unilateralism and bilateralism as the main means of managing relations among nations. As a result, international action continues to fall far short of what is needed to address existential threats, which are expanding in both scope and severity. In recent times, this gap has been widening at an accelerating pace.

The way forward is clear. Multilateralism should be renewed.Despite mounting criticism and disappointment, the UN, at the core of multilateralism, must go on. But humanity needs a better UN. The UN must be reformed to do more and better with less. We must reimagine the UN from the inside out.The structural causes behind its malfunctions must be addressed through the following three Rs: recover, redefine and revamp.

Our foremost priority is to recover fading global consensus. In order to achieve this goal, it is essential to bridge the existing division between nations — the Global West versus the Global East as well as the Global South versus the Global North. Middle powers can play a facilitating role to help find common ground between major powers, including the permanent five members of the UN Security Council, on pressing global challenges, such as climate change and ecological crisis. The Global South should step up to the plate as the voice of the global majority, commensurate with its rising share in the aggregate global wealth and power.

The second is to redefine the purpose of the UN. The ideals and principles enshrined in the UN Charter need to be reaffirmed, but this will not be sufficient. We should go one step further. Concepts of peace must be enlarged to cover not only peace in the human world but also peace with the natural world. Planetary peace must be pursued to ensure the sustainable coexistence of all living things on Planet Earth.In a similar vein, concepts of security must also be enlarged to cover not only national security but also human and natural security.Enlarged peace and security must be sought in a collaborative and inclusive manner, as the tasks go beyond national borders.

Last but not least is to revamp the hardware of the UN. Institutional reform is overdue in some of the key intergovernmental organs.Moreover, to enable planetary governance, multilateralism should be updated with multilayers of spokes with the UN as the hub, connecting a diverse ecosystem of institutions, networks and processes at different levels and domains. To support multilayered multilateralism, change management of the UN Secretariat must continue to make it fit for purpose and agile in meeting demands.

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