Thursday, September 2, 2004

The Guardian reports a speech by Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, calling for reform of the United Nations. His principal point is the obvious one that absolute internal autonomy (the idea that we can't touch Rwanda because it is sovereign) is an idea from the past. Mr Straw calls for changes to the UN to allow it to intervene more quickly and more effectively in humanitarian crises. This is a worthwhile goal, but will come up against several problems: The Westphalian nation state is enshrined in the UN's Charter; Changing the principle of absolute sovereignty would privilege "good" countries above "bad" countries (which is no bad thing, but a hard sell) The Americans (and the Russians, for that matter) are very attached to the Westphalian ideal, at least as far as it applies to themselves. Formidable problems - but the UN has to come up with a new formula for international action, or it will cease to be the place where international action is discussed. 2:34:27 PM    comment []