Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : Armen Oganesyan
Editor-in-Chief of International Affairs
AMID THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL GOVER-
NANCE the UN invites new approaches to its role
and potential. In fact, collapse of the bipolar system,
the obvious inadequacy of the unipolar world and the
financial and economic crisis heated up the hopes and
expectations pinned on the UN reform. It has been
generally agreed that the UN should be reformed yet
there is no agreement on how to proceed.
The range of opinions is impressive: from skeptical
to obviously enthusiastic. What else if not the UN? So far, however, its future mission remains
vague.
The majority is convinced that the UN should pass decisions related to global challenges such
as hunger, climate change, WMD, human rights violations, etc and act upon them.
The UN as a vehicle of interests of the sovereign states should pass two survivability tests, each
of them consisting of the conceptual and instrumental parts.
The economic and consumer boom in the developing world which inevitably parodies the "fat
old tiger" is not a potential challenge but an actual challenge to the Old and New Worlds and a
threat to Earth's continued existence as a human environment.
The economic and consumer boom in the developing world is not a potential challenge but an
actual challenge to the Old and New Worlds and a threat to Earth's continued existence as a
human environment.
It seems that Europe in the broad sense needs these measures in the first place. Our continent
cannot and will not avoid its share of turbulence even though those living outside of European
ecumene look at it as an island of stability in the tempestuous sea. Those who hope to find
refuge behind the palisade of euro isolationism are absolutely wrong. Its protection is an illusion:
no stronghold of this sort will ever guarantee stability; it will rather provoke instability on our
continent. Larger Europe can and should be actively involved in reforming the UN to adjust it
to the challenges and threats of our day.
In this connection, I would like to quote late Patriarch Alexy II who speaking at a PACE session
in Strasbourg said: "The very concept of human rights, Europe's main political idea, has devel-
oped not without some influence of Christian teaching of dignity, freedom, and moral character
of human being. From the very beginning human rights developed in the context of Christian
morality forming with it a kind of tandem" brimming with inexhaustible creative potential in
personal and social life.
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Reforming the UN: the European Vector