The Importance of a Multilateral Future
By Jason Sibert
While outbreaks of nationalism are bringing us a more fractured world and Covid-19 is heating up geopolitical tensions, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Last month, the United Nations observed the International Day of Multilateralism for Diplomacy and Peace. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “networked multilateralism, strengthened coordination among all global multilateral organizations” with regional multilateral organizations making vital contributions. The 1945 Charter of the United Nations gave legal representation to the commitment of states to the maintenance of international peace and the promotion of the economic advancement of all peoples. The term multilateralism refers to agreements reached through negotiations involving many nations in the fulfilment of a commitment. The obligations of such agreements are not enforced by an extra-national organization, as these obligations are shared by all members of the sovereign international community.
The U.N. has involved into a complex, or at least complex by the standards of what it was in the beginning, organization. Much confronts the international community in the future: climate change, food security, pandemics, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and refugee flows. An overwhelming number of states feel the existence of weapons of mass destruction propose an existential threat to mankind.
Several multilateral institutions developed in the past to secure a future with no weapons of mass destruction – the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, and the 1968 Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. While these treaties are not totally universal, they are the most, they set the mark on treaties that are in force in many parts of the world.
Although it is hard to argue that multilateralism has not had its share of success (at least in terms of limiting arms races), we have seen nationalist movements arise across the world that are hostile to the idea of multilateralism – President Donald Trump’s leaving of numerous treaties is an example. Although President George W. Bush’s Administration leaving of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and his leaving negotiations on the small arms treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming provided an opening act to Trump’s policies.
Future challenges creep across national borders – Covid-19, nuclear war, and climate change know nothing of national borders. Putting too much emphasis on nationalism and making light of international agreements is something the U.S., and the world in general, cannot afford. The world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the NPT this year. However, the Covid-19 pandemic postponed the meeting of the Review Conference. Considering the fissures in the international system; it is essential that all countries in the NPT lead the way in the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons. Containment is good, and partially successful, but eradication is the only acceptable goal for both nuclear weapons and Covid-19!
Jason Sibert is the Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis.
