The Struggle for World Order

Reflections in Times of Global Realignment

♦ President of I.P.O. addresses 20th International Likhachev Conference ♦

Saint Petersburg / Vienna, 12 June 2022
RE/28475c-is

 

In a position paper for the 20th International Likhachev Conference in Saint Petersburg, the President of the International Progress Organization, Dr. Hans Köchler, challenged the narrative that a new era of international lawlessness has begun in 2022, and that the "international community" must return to a "rule-based order" between states. In spite of the many proclamations to the contrary, such an order has not been realized in all the years since the foundation of the United Nations Organization after World War II, the President of the I.P.O. explained, referring to the special privileges and de facto "immunities" granted to the then most powerful countries in the UN Charter.

In his paper, the President of the International Progress Organization calls for a structural reform of the international system, and in particular of the United Nations: "Under the circumstances, there is no global arbiter – no intergovernmental organization that would be capable of moderating the repositioning of power in the gradually unfolding multipolar framework. Herein also lies the existential challenge for the United Nations: how to survive the transition from the multipolar order of 1945 to the multipolar order of the 21^st century? The organization will simply become irrelevant if it continues to embody the power balance of an earlier era. (...) After the post-World War II period of de-colonization, the four decades of the Cold War, and upon the end of a destabilizing hegemonial interlude, the grand task for the international community will be how to manage the post-colonial constellation of the 21^st century – with the former colonial countries finally emancipating themselves from persistent tutelage – and how to integrate the Global South into the balance of power. This will, among other measures, require an enlargement of the Security Council in regard to permanent membership." So far, in the absence of unified and consistent mechanisms of enforcement of the norms of international law, any global realignment will need to be rooted in a rational calculus of each nation's interest to survive, on the basis of mutuality, the President of the I.P.O. concluded.

The International Likhachev Scientific Conference is an annual event, hosted by Saint Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, and jointly organized with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

• Full text of the position paper 

• Hans Köchler: "The Saint Petersburg Lectures" (2013-2019)