Before you get all depressed and start looking for a bridge to take the final plunge, I want you to know that I have faith. I truly believe that sometime in the future, current affairs will become a thing of the past, not only because enough time will go by and this year will become "A few years ago" or "Back in the day", but in that I have confidence in the resilience of mankind.
Whether it's the United Nations or a new international organization that will come to life at some point, I believe that there should be some kind of coalition council or "Global Authority" (if you will), one that is in charge of administering significant actions on a global scale.
The way I see it, if things remain as they are, where each individual government has its own policies regarding universal issues, there will never be any major improvements. In other words, history will keep repeating itself, and finding whatever solutions to solving important matters such as "The environment", "War & Peace", "Poverty" and other humanitarian injustices will never be feasible. It takes everybody, all nations, regardless of religious beliefs and race, to regulate these universal laws and make all countries come together and undertake the questions at hand.
Obviously, it's easier said then done, but in order to reach this harmony, in every sense of the word, there must be an establishment constructed of great minds from around the globe, one that supervises and sets guidelines that the rest of the world must follow. For the time being, the UN General Assembly resolutions are not enforceable as a legal or practical matter. Why? (you ask...) The General Assembly lacks enforcement powers, they cannot penalize a country for its disobedience.
To shed some light on the matter, the United Nations have the right idea basically. It is divided into several administrative bodies that are in charge of different matters, the most important are as follows:
- The General Assembly, which is the main deliberative organ.
- The Security Council, which is in charge of making resolutions regarding peace and security.
- The Economic & Social Council, which promotes international economic social cooperation and development.
- The Secretariat, which provides studies, information and facilities needed by the UN.
- The International Court of Justice or the ICJ, which is the primary judicial organ.
Beyond the first obstacle I presented, which would be granting the UN some more leverage in carrying out their resolutions. There are a few more things that need to be changed in order for this type of global organization to work efficiently.
The General Assembly, for instance, consists of members from 192 different countries. More than two thirds of them are from developing countries. Because of their numbers, the developing countries are often able to determine the agendas of the Assembly, leaning the discussion towards issues between industrialized nations and developing countries. This is of course a very important topic, but in the notion that there are many urgent matters to discuss, it seems to me that making this specific issue a collective one would save a lot of time. I'm not saying that certain nations shouldn't be represented or not have the ability to raise issues on their local fronts, but there should be a time distribution rule to some degree, if only to discuss the pressing matters that are important on a global scale.
The UN Security Council, which consists of 5 permanent members (The United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom) and ten temporary members, is often criticized for only addressing the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent 5, especially when it comes to humanitarian interventions. For example, the eagerness to protect oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991 compared to the unwillingness to protect resource-poor Rwandans in 1994. Just a few days ago, as a matter of fact, I heard Jan Eliasson, the UN Special envoy for Darfur, talk about how the UN is seeking helicopters for the peacekeeping forces in the region. Why doesn't the UN have enough resources at their disposal?
Anyway, enough of this negativity. This is not really the point that I'm trying to make here, I can dig up a lot of dirt but there are bigger fish to fry. If you would like to read some more about "Dirt", Give this a click.
To simplify the point that I'm trying to make, I will try to dissect things into smaller particles. Every town or city has a Mayor, then you have county (or regional) officials, the next level would be state governors, parliaments, prime ministers, presidents, etc. Every country has its own form of political hierarchy, somebody at the "Top of the Food Chain" or a head honcho. The way I see it, there has to be one more level that transcends all of the aforementioned, on this level should be what I call "The Global Authority".
Here's a quote from arguably the smartest man in the history of humanity: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein
In that notion, I don't want WW3 to happen and I'm pretty sure most of you will agree with me on that one. I also think that it's time for people to unite and cooperate, if only to make sure that the generations that follow ours will be able to coexist in this fragile planet we live on. In the beginning of this post I'd mentioned something about the world going up in flames -- and well -- the sad truth is that many peoples worlds have already been annihilated, in the most personal of ways. The unfortunate reality is that more and more peoples lives are being destroyed every day of every week. I think it's time we embrace the idea of a global community and perhaps more importantly that we are all responsible, at least in some minor way, for what happens on this globe.
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