Mark Malloch Brown: United Nations at a Watershed Moment

On November 1, 2006, Mark Malloch Brown gave his final public address as the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General to a full audience at the Yale University Law School. Speaking at a critical time for the UN-as Secretary General Kofi Annan turns over his post, the Iraq war grows increasingly stagnant, and strains on the environment, development, and human rights intensify-Brown articulated his high hopes and expectations for the future of the UN.

	Yale World Fellows Program

Given both the precarious state of the global relations today and the universal nature of some of the world's most troubling issues, it may not be surprising that a more intense spotlight is shining on the UN than ever before. Brown suggested that this has been reinforced by the recent flurry of literature being published on the UN, including Yale History Professor Paul Kennedy's Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations (2006). "This is a rather odd moment for the UN" Brown said, and consequently, "a lot of people are writing books about us." Because most of these authors began their work 2-3 years ago, they were formulating arguments when writing a book "would seem to be a kind of obituary for the UN. when its back seemed broken, in 2003," Brown said. At the time, two of the most influential players in the Security Council, the U.S. and Britain, were appalled by other countries' opposition to their stance on the war in Iraq. The unilateral actions that followed, marked by dogged determinism, fundamentally undermined the legitimacy of the UN. Combined with the Oil for Food scandal and internal corruption, this opposition seemed to suggest that the organization's days were numbered.

Recently, however, "those books have taken an interesting turn," Brown continued, creating "a much more complicated picture." Rather than struggling for legitimacy from the periphery, the UN now plays a central role in pressing global issues such as the Darfur crisis, elections in the Congo, conflict in Lebanon, North Korean nuclear proliferation, HIV/AIDS in Africa, climate change, and natural disasters, among others. Surprisingly, the primary supporter of the United Nations in these issues has been the "same U.S. that in 2003 seemed close to washing its hands of the UN" Brown said.

Renewed U.S. presence in the United Nations seems to be motivated by military failures in Iraq, leading to a more reconciliatory approach. "We have arrived at a moment when the Iraq War has driven the U.S. back into the arms of the UN," Brown said, although he noted that the return has been a reluctant one. "2003 proved to be the high noon for military action taken without global support," but now more than ever, the U.S. is realizing that military action across a sovereign border "must be widely supported if it is to be sustainable," Brown reinforced.

The U.S. has recently campaigned for UN involvement in the Darfur crisis as well. Darfur has been a tough area, Brown said, as there has been consistent reluctance on the part of the Sudanese government to allow the deployment of peacekeepers. Moreover, the UN lacks the military machinery, planes, helicopters, support and internal capabilities to adequately respond to the crisis. "We are much bigger than NATO" deploying 100,000 troops, "but our supplies are all begged and borrowed and take months to assemble," Brown lamented. The member states "all have different views on training and the vitality of their mission as well," he continued. "Machinery is assembled by the passing around of the hat," often leaving three to six months between the approval of mandates and the presence of troops on the ground. Because this is a localized war, UN officials recognize that it must be solved through reconciliatory measures among local leaders. The UN has helped to facilitate this process through the work of trained peacekeepers sensitive to the local conflicts. Despite their efforts, however, "the U.N. is not adequately equipped with the mediators to be put on this kind of a task," Brown said. Ultimately, the success of UN in handling the Darfur situation will depend on the recruitment of an unwavering community of supporters from the member states.

Perhaps the most important role the UN can play in this situation and other conflicts worldwide is to reinforce that it is intolerable for a nation state to target its own people, Brown asserted. Indeed, a neutral international body is proving increasingly important for intervention in the kind of warfare that troubles several nations today, including interstate war, civil conflict, and terrorist activity. "We are seeing the development of big cities that cannot control their growing populations and where justice systems are proving inadequate," Brown said. This is where the UN military forces can and must take action.

Despite the admitted limitations of working within the UN, the global community is beginning to recognize that there may not be a better agent to address issues with tangled interests across country lines. "I consider us at a watershed moment" Brown said, as we have entered an era when "most problems are problems without borders, and we therefore need an international government to address them." Globalization has created vast new categories of winners and losers in growing patterns of inequality. Because paramount issues now affect even the remotest of populations, such as the supply chains of multinational organizations and the environmental impacts of various countries, there has never been a more important time for a world-wide governing and regulating body. Development issues and climate change are at the top of the UN's agenda precisely because they are global in nature. "We have to find ways to place pressure on governments to bring climate change issues to the forefront, and we need to engage the market sector in market-based solutions as well," Brown said.

In order to confidently address some of the world's largest problems, Brown said, the UN must tackle reform that will renew and strengthen its political legitimacy. Recognizing this need, Brown and his team have recently proposed reforms focusing on the most pressing demands being placed on the UN. Proposed reforms prioritize gaining a better understanding of the needs of various constituencies. In order to follow through on these reforms, the UN-whose organization is still dictated by a 1945 power structure-must allow space for emerging economies such as Brazil and various Arab countries.

A strong UN will undoubtedly require strong leadership, such as that of outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has made reform one of his priorities, Brown said. Over his 10-year term, Annan has tried to emphasize issues that transcend national borders, including development, security, human rights, and democracy. Under his lead, the UN reformed its human rights council and expanded the UN Development Program. Annan also successfully introduced the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight objectives which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. Over the past couple of years, these goals have emerged as a major focal point in the UN. "We had no idea the MDGs would become the focus of the international agenda," rather than a forgotten page, as has been the fate of many documents, Brown said.

As the new Secretary General elect, Ban Ki-Moon of the Republic of Korean (South Korea), inherits the ongoing processes of change and renewal at the UN in January, 2007, many people are asking if he is the man for the job. "I am actually gob-smacked by this guy," Brown said. "Nobody has managed to do this as effortlessly as he did," he continued. Brown highlighted that Ban overcame two hurdles to his election: getting China to agree on his candidacy, and then getting the rest of the membership to agree that he can represent a global voice. Although it is unclear whether Ban will bring the same degree of charisma as his predecessor, Brown is not put off by his initial aloofness. "All really good secretary generals are smart enough to not let you know whether they will be good or not," Brown said.

Ban Ki-Moon will begin his term as Secretary General at a time of paramount importance for the UN. Ideally, he will continue to strengthen the legitimacy the global body has acquired over the past few years and serve interests across national borders. Particularly as the U.S. reevaluates its actions in Iraq and approaches the UN with a conciliatory attitude, the delicate and tenuous international system has the opportunity to emerge as the center stage for global relations. Hopefully Mr. Brown's visions will be realized.