A catastrophic climate crisis, a glut of nuclear weapons, or unregulated AI: when it comes to potentially existential threats to humanity, there are plenty to choose from.
When the United Nations was founded nearly 80 years ago, the world was shocked to emerge from a conflict so devastating that world leaders created institutions to ensure that something like it would never happen again.
While that impetus remains relevant, there is broad consensus that the instruments the UN developed in its early days need to be fundamentally revised to make them fit for purpose.
At the Top of the futureAt a two-day conference in late September, world leaders will discuss how to bring about these changes, and will also broach the thorny issue of one of those instruments that has sparked heated debate for years: how to reform the EU. Security Council.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gives a presentation to the Security Council in February 2003 on his country’s evidence about Iraq’s weapons program. (file)
A credible Security Council
“We cannot accept that the world’s foremost peace and security body has no permanent voice for a continent of over a billion people… representing 28 percent of the membership of the United Nations.”
On August 12, 2024, the UN Secretary-General António Guterresaddressed the Security Councill, at a meeting convened by Sierra Leone during its month-long presidency of the Council, to address “historic injustices” and improve “the effective representation of Africa”.
“The fact that Africa is still clearly underrepresented in the Security Council is simply wrong, as it violates both the principles of equality and inclusion,” added Dennis Francis, then the president of the Security Council. Chairman of the General Assembly.
These comments from the highest echelons of the UN were the latest in a decades-long series of calls into question what many see as the Council’s outdated composition.
“There has been a huge increase in recognition from the member states themselves, including the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), (You know these have to be in alphabetical order!!) that some form of change is needed,” said Michele Griffin, policy director for the Top of the future.
“The Secretary-General has made it very clear that changes are needed in the composition of the Council to make it more trustworthy, effective and legitimate in the eyes of the people it seeks to serve.”
© NASA
A view of the deployed Light-1 CubeSat, which focuses on the detection of terrestrial gamma-ray bursts (GBRs) originating from Earth’s atmosphere.
Avoiding ‘Star Wars’
The way countries behave in space has been on the UN’s radar since the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The growth of space activities, dominated by the US and the Soviet Union, was inextricably linked to the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers and the fear that missile defenses could be extended to locations in space. Ten years later, in 1967, UN member states drew up the first Outer Space Treaty to regulate activities in space.
More recently, there have been calls for stronger governance structures around these activities, as private sector use of space increases rapidly and new space-faring nations join the established players.
“There are many entities innovating without a clear idea of which actions are responsible and which are risky,” warns Michael Spies, Senior Political Affairs Officer at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. “Who decides what is dangerous and what is not? What if an object developed by a private company can be used to attack someone else’s satellite?”
According to Spies, these are the kinds of questions governments are facing as more and more objects are sent into the air by more and more countries and companies.
“We’ve seen an explosion of private sector activity that’s really pushing the boundaries of what can happen in space. We’re also seeing major intergovernmental initiatives to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, credible programs to push for human spaceflight to Mars, and various concepts for mining resources from the Moon and the asteroid belt. The governance framework really needs to be worked out to facilitate this kind of rapid growth in a safe and sustainable way.”
