The challenge of reforming the UN: 

The challenge of reforming the UN: 

Context

Reforming the UN is an important agenda for United States. India is trying to expend its diplomatic capital on finding a seat at UN Security Council. It will have to articulate new ways to make UN more effective and efficient.

Trump Administration on UN reforms

• Trump pledged that US would be partners to make the organization more effective for peace across the globe.
• Reforming the UN is big on the Trump administration’s agenda and this reforms agenda is largely based on two principles: sovereignty and accountability.
• Trump’s vision is anchored in his “America First” approach with national sovereignty as the main pillar of the internal system.
• US is keen that management of UN becomes more accountable and transparent as it remains the largest contributor to UN budget, in-line with its position as the world’s largest economy. It pays 25% of the UN’s regular operating budget and over 28% of the separate peacekeeping budget.
• The Trump administration has been critical of the UN’s overreliance on the US and wants a more equitable sharing of burden.

Challenge  

• UN is structured in such a way that decision-making process is distributed among a wide range of countries and constituencies with often competing and contradictory views and interests.
• Russia and China, for example, did not attend the UN meeting on reforms.

India stand on UN reforms

• India has suggested that the UN reforms need to be “broad-based and all-encompassing” and the changes should not be restricted to its secretariat only.
• India thinks that reforms cannot sidestep issues related to the governance of UN bodies.
• But India has extended its support to Trump’s efforts at UN reforms, saying it should include the expansion of the world body’s permanent and non-permanent members to keep pace with the changed times.
• India has been spearheading a move for reforms at the UN to make the world body more representative of the changing global realities while enhancing its credibility and effectiveness.
• India remains one of the largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping operations.
• New Delhi has been concerned about the post-Cold War international acceptance of the UN’s questionable “right to intervene” where it believed it to be necessary, allowing the UN to act with little debate.
• UN peacekeepers were deployed to environments in which the belligerent parties were not entirely on board with the deployment, thus seriously threatening the safety of the troops under the UN flag. India has repeatedly underlined the dangers inherent in such a rapid transformation from traditional UN missions to these new operations.
• Trump administration’s focus on “sovereignty” as the defining feature of UN reforms is welcomed by New Delhi.

Way forward

• India continues to expend its diplomatic capital on finding a seat at the UN Security Council.
• It will have to articulate new ways on how the UN can be made more effective and efficient.
• There is a need to create a new balance between India’s pursuit of its narrow national interest and its responsibility as a rising power to maintain global peace and stability.