The end of global multilateralism: the gathering storm

 History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Mark Twain

The multilateralism that characterised the 20th century was the result of reflection on the origins of the two world wars of the 20th century and their precedents and consequences, and can be considered one of the key elements that led to a period of relative peace and the containment of conflicts around the world.

But multilateralism as an effective mechanism for resolving problems and conflicts disappeared when, after the end of the Cold War, instead of competent technicians with political management skills, member states decided to put at the head of multilateral institutions insignificant and easily manageable political figures, whose mediocrity ultimately led to the gradual ineffectiveness of the institutions and turned them into mere bureaucracies in which, protected by their diplomatic immunity, they sought to promote their particular interests and perpetuated inconsequential and increasingly costly and useless work, with member states allowing them to continue as long as they did not threaten their immediate interests. This is the origin of the deep corruption of the current global multilateral system, with honourable and increasingly rare exceptions.

Thus, instead of providing international responses to solve difficult local problems, they became the paradigm of self-serving inefficiency; if their inefficiency promoted the interests of the powerful or their leaders, a patronage system was perpetuated that mutually benefited powerful national administrations and the leaders of international administrations, to the detriment of the peoples in need of their technical assistance.

At the same time, regional international organisations were developed to finance and condition the development of areas and nations under the influence of the most powerful states (the EU, the CIS, NAFTA  – although the United States have always despised multilateralism – and, to a lesser extent, Mercosur and ASEAN+3). Global multilateralism has gradually faded away, and once influential organisations such as the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and the UNDP have become ineffective puppets in the hands of the most powerful states, to the detriment of the states in need of their assistance.

Only one global decision-making body remains, the United Nations Security Council, whose mandate is to maintain peace and security throughout the world and which, to this end, is empowered to take binding decisions, impose sanctions or authorise the use of force to resolve conflicts, but with all the significant limitations that history has revealed to be linked to the veto power of its permanent members.

Thus, it can be said that, eighty years after its creation, the global multilateral system has become an empty shell, and that once again there is a realistic prospect of possible armed conflicts aimed at establishing the domination of some countries over others, with total disregard for the memory of the more than seventy million people who died in the last world conflict, and creating a context in which any local or regional conflict effectively becomes part of a global conflict, with the aggravating factor of advanced weapons technologies capable of producing new catastrophes, this time with hundreds of millions of deaths and even the disappearance of humanity.

What are the most desirable characteristics of the multilateral system developed since 1946 that have been gradually lost over the years, accelerated with the end of the Cold War?

1.- Maximal expertise in a technical area essential to humanity (economic development, health, telecommunications, energy, social and labour institutions (labour rights, social security systems), trade, finance, education, etc.), with a supreme and common objective for all of them: to contribute to the maintenance of world peace.

2.- Creation within each of such institutions of a multilateral forum for debate and decision-making in the exclusive technical field of its competence, characterised by technical and political neutrality, equal rights in terms of participation, and assistance for the development of members who require it.

3.- The publication of useful, neutral and accessible information and statistics that contribute to the reflection of specialists in order to achieve solutions adapted to the needs of the members.

4.- The organisation of translation and interpretation services that allow members to contribute fully to reflection and decision-making, and the worldwide dissemination of the actions of the organisation and its members.

5.- An internal organisation that guarantees the neutrality and technical nature of its interventions, the pursuit of excellence and the financing of its activities through a reasonable and fair system of burden sharing among member states.

6.- An independent and modern international justice system to which all organisations in the system and their staff are subject.

Without such a system, humanity is doomed to suffer an increasing number of armed conflicts, all of which are capable of spreading throughout the world at any moment and leading to the greatest slaughter in history or, ultimately, to the end of history itself.