The panel titled "Rebuilding Trust and Inspiring Hope in the post-COVID-19 Era: Türkiye's Perspective on the International Order" organised by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications at the UN Plaza ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly addressed concrete reform proposals for the UN discussed in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's book "A Fairer World is Possible."
Speaking during the panel moderated by TRT World Managing Editor Ghida FAKHRY and attended by Research Director at the SETA Foundation in Washington DC Kılıç Bura KANAT (PhD), Former Advisor at the U.S. Department of State Rich Outzen said, "I believe that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council pursuing their own national interests violates the UN's concept of international benefit. We must understand the explanation for this."
Stating that the UN Charter was drafted a century ago, Outzen added, "As the international system is still based on national sovereignty, nation-states do not share their sovereignty, and there is no supranational sovereignty that trumps national sovereignty."
Expressing that rather than transcending national power or sovereignty for UN reform, the idea in the establishment of the UN that countries should voluntarily delegate a part of their national sovereignty in exchange for a benefit should be reinstated, Outzen said that the benefit in question would be transparency, efficiency and a functioning mechanism.
Reminding that when the UN Security Council structure of five permanent representatives was founded, there were only a few countries capable of conducting global security operations, Outzen suggested that in today's multipolar world, the UN should abandon its security function and focus on issues such as the refugee problem and the pandemic.
"The new world order necessitated a new UN"
Referring to President Erdoğan's idea that reform would not be sufficient to solve the current problems in the Security Council, that all the UN bodies were managed by powerful states and that the problem was in the entire system, Research Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington DC Kılıç Buğra KANAT (PhD) said, "We must recognize that when the Security Council becomes dysfunctional, this situation penetrates to all other UN bodies. This situation affects the UN's field staff as well. Resources cannot be used properly due to bureaucratic obligations. The problem in the Security Council even extends to a refugee camp in Jordan."
Kanat stated that what President Erdoğan meant by the democratisation of the UN was not only horizontal equality among all states but also equality in the core functions of numerous key organs of the organisation, and emphasised that he saw institutional democratisation as more critical in this sense.
Touching upon Türkiye's insistence on UN reform, Kanat recalled that from the perspective of Türkiye, which is situated in one of the world’s most unstable regions, the UN, whose main mission is to ensure peace and security and to serve as a forum for the resolution of international conflicts, became ineffective in resolving the problems surrounding Türkiye. Kanat stated that Türkiye, like other states that complain about the dysfunction of the international order, requests a solution to the problem.
Kılıç Buğra Kanat said, "During the Cold War era, the current UN Security Council system was required to bring the United States and the Soviet Union together around a table. However, as the international system changed after the Cold War, international institutions should have been re-evaluated immediately. The new world order necessitated a new UN."
Pointing out that in a world where World War III was no longer an immediate threat, the concept of security evolved, Kanat said, "People now believe that the real problems that need to be addressed quickly are climate change, pandemic or economic inequalities in the world. The Security Council should no longer be the sole organisation responsible for developing specific policies."
