UN's New Agenda For Peace - Newspaper

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TODAY'S PAPER | AUGUST 03, 2023
UN’s new agenda for peace

Maleeha Lodhi | Published July 31, 2023

https://www.dawn.com/news/1767593/uns-new-agenda-for-peace 1/14
8/3/23, 12:23 PM UN’s new agenda for peace - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.
0:00 / 7:22 1x 1.2x 1.5x

THE world is at an inflection point with mounting
geopolitical tensions and global economic
volatility contributing to a fraught and unstable
situation. Multilateralism is facing growing

challenges in an increasingly fragmented
international system. The resurgence of East-West
tensions, Ukraine war and intensifying US-China
confrontation have further shrunk the space for
multilateral cooperation. Multilateralism though
has been in retreat for well over a decade now.
Strong headwinds unleashed by competing crises are

making the future outlook a troubled one.
Climate change has emerged as among the present era’s

greatest risks. Yet a deeply divided world is increasingly
falling short of addressing multiple, interconnected
challenges that are consequential for all countries.
It is clearly time for the international community to take

stock and consider how to forge agreement on a global
framework to address common challenges. A major
initiative to do that is planned at the UN Summit of the
Future called by Secretary General (SG) António Guterres
and endorsed by all member states of the world body.
Can agreement be forged on a

global framework to address
common challenges?
This summit, scheduled for September 2024, will seek to

evolve a consensus on what a shared future should be and
identify the means to achieve it. Guterres has described the
summit as a “once in a generation opportunity” to
strengthen multilateralism, renew the commitment to core
principles and adopt an action-oriented ‘Pact for the
Future’, which will set out concrete responses to global
challenges. This is expected to emerge from
intergovernmental negotiations ahead of the summit.
As part of the preparatory process for these deliberations,

Guterres has issued nine policy briefs on key issues which
will be discussed by UN member states. A New Agenda for
Peace, the policy paper unveiled earlier this month, focuses
on issues of peace and security. This offers twelve specific
proposals in five priority areas. In his introduction to the
report and op-eds he recently authored, the SG states that
with the post-Cold War period over, the world is moving
towards a new global order with multipolarity as a defining
feature. Never before have countries had to confront so

many cross-boundary sources of instability and insecurity.
Peace remains elusive as conflicts continue across the
world while geostrategic competition is engendering
geoeconomic fragmentation.
According to Guterres, all of this makes international

cooperation an imperative in order to avoid more human
suffering. This is especially so when disquiet is growing
among people across the world that governments and
international organisations are failing to deliver for them.
He calls for a “new multilateralism” which goes beyond the
narrow security concerns of countries, and is based on the
principles of trust, universality and solidarity. It should
also promote sustainable development and respect for
human rights.
This ambitious policy brief prioritises five key areas. The

first is to encourage “prevention” at the global level by
tackling geopolitical divisions and strategic risk. The
recommendation is to make greater use of preventive
diplomacy.
Noting the continuing threat of nuclear war, it proposes a

ban on the use of nuclear weapons and calls for their
eventual elimination. An omission here is absence of a

recommendation to proscribe the resort to force, especially
as conflicts raging across the world involve the use of
conventional force. The brief itself notes the surge in
armed conflicts in the past decade, which reversed a 20-
year decline, with the number of conflictrelated deaths
reaching a 28-year high in 2022.
The second priority area identified is a “paradigm for

prevention” within countries to deal with “all forms of
violence”, so as to promote social cohesion, create links
between sustainable development, climate action and
peace, ensure meaningful participation of women and fully
respect all dimensions of human rights. This is an
ambitious goal given the uneven record among developing
countries on this account.
The third area in the report concerns UN peacekeeping. It

proposes updating peacekeeping operations to adjust to
changing conflict environments, especially challenges
posed by unresolved conflicts where there is no peace to
keep.
The actions proposed include avoiding unrealistic

mandates for peacekeeping missions, having more
integrated operations and recommitting to reform in this

area — all welcome and implementable suggestions. They
are directly relevant for Pakistan, which has been among
the world’s top troop contributing countries to UN
peacekeeping missions for over six decades. Since 1960,
over 200,000 Pakistani service men and women have
served in 46 UN missions in 26 countries around the
world. Currently, over 4,300 service personnel are
deployed in 10 missions.
The fourth priority focuses on prevention of the

weaponisation of emerging domains and technologies and
promoting “responsible innovation”. This calls for
measures to address threats posed by new technologies,
including artificial intelligence, and urges a prohibition on
lethal autonomous weapons systems. There can be no
disagreement with the contention that “machines with the
power and discretion to take lives without human
involvement are morally repugnant and politically
unacceptable and should be prohibited by international
law”.
The last priority action area recommends building a

stronger collective security machinery, including reform of
the Security Council, General Assembly and the UN’s
disarmament agency. The document calls for expediting

negotiations for Council reform to make it more “just and
representative” and democratise its working methods.
On the latter, there is firm consensus among states.
But fundamental differences persist on how to reform the

Security Council especially between countries that aspire to
permanent membership and others, including Pakistan,
opposed to enlarging and reinforcing centres of privilege
and who argue the only way to make the Council more
representative, democratic and accountable is to add more
elected, non-permanent members. This has held up
progress in negotiations. Unless these differences are
resolved, reform will remain elusive.
Having circulated this and other policy briefs to UN

member countries, it will now be up to them to deliberate
over these and offer their own proposals to arrive at a
consensus for a ‘Pact for the Future’. As Guterres points
out in his conclusion to the brief, it is member states who
have primary responsibility to carry out reform. The big
question is whether at a time when the world is so
fractured and divided, meaningful and substantive
agreement can be forged on the future framework for

multilateral cooperation.
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023

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8/3/23, 12:23 PM UN’s new agenda for peace - Newspaper - DAWN.

TODAY'S PAPER | AUGUST 03, 2023

UN’s new agenda for peace

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

0:00 / 7:22 1x 1.2x 1.5x

situation. Multilateralism is facing growing

Strong headwinds unleashed by competing crises are

Climate change has emerged as among the present era’s

It is clearly time for the international community to take

Can agreement be forged on a

This summit, scheduled for September 2024, will seek to

As part of the preparatory process for these deliberations,

feature. Never before have countries had to confront so

According to Guterres, all of this makes international

This ambitious policy brief prioritises five key areas. The

Noting the continuing threat of nuclear war, it proposes a

eventual elimination. An omission here is absence of a

The second priority area identified is a “paradigm for

The third area in the report concerns UN peacekeeping. It

The actions proposed include avoiding unrealistic

integrated operations and recommitting to reform in this

The fourth priority focuses on prevention of the

The last priority action area recommends building a

disarmament agency. The document calls for expediting

On the latter, there is firm consensus among states.

But fundamental differences persist on how to reform the

Having circulated this and other policy briefs to UN

agreement can be forged on the future framework for

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023

US-China The world is UN’s

DAWN NEWS ENGLISH YouTube 968K

Resurgence Of East – From Charter OF Explained: Official Deadly, Violent Clas

Shortcuts to Our cloudy War in tea leaves Why Pakistan is

A terrible law Poll delay? Dark reality for migrants

Intelligence failure SBP projections Haryana riots

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