ited for A NEW MULTILATERALISM EDITED BY MARIO TELÒ REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES FOR A MORE REGIONALISED, BINDING AND LEGITIMATE UNITED NATIONS EDITED BY Mario Telò REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES IN POST-COVID REFORMING MULTILATERALISM PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER 2020 BY Foundation for European Progressive Studies Avenue des Arts 46 B-1000 Brussels, Belgium +32 2 234 69 00 [email protected] www.feps-europe.eu @FEPS_Europe EDITOR AND PROJECT SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR Mario Telò LEADER OF THE PROJECT Maria João Rodrigues, President, Foundation for European Progressive Studies FEPS COORDINATORS OF THE PROJECT Hedwig Giusto, Susanne Pfeil IAI COORDINATOR OF THE PROJECT Ettore Greco COPYRIGHT © 2020 Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) PROOFREADING AND COPY EDITING Nicky Robinson GRAPHIC DESIGN Triptyque.be COVER PHOTO Shutterstock PRINTED BY Oficyna Wydawnicza ASPRA-JR Published with the financial support of the European Parliament. The views expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Parliament. ISBN 978-2-930769-46-2 PROJECT PARTNERS FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE 747 Third Avenue, Suite 34D, New York, NY 10017, United States +1 (212) 687-0208 [email protected] https://www.feps-europe.eu @fesnewyork FONDATION JEAN-JAURÈS 12 Cité Malesherbes, 75009 Paris, France +33 (0)1 40 23 24 00 https://jean-jaures.org [email protected] @j_jaures CENTRO STUDI DI POLITICA INTERNAZIONALE (CeSPI) Piazza Venezia 11, 00187 Roma, Italy +39 06 6990630 [email protected] http://www.cespi.it @CeSPI_Roma FUNDACIÓN PABLO IGLESIAS Calle del Marques de Riscal nº 6, bajo, 28010 Madrid, Spain +34 (0) 913104313 [email protected] https://fpabloiglesias.es @fpabloiglesias OLOF PALME INTERNATIONAL CENTER Sveavägen 68Box 836, SE-101 36 Stockholm, Sweden +46 8 677 57 70 [email protected] https://www.palmecenter.se/en/ @Palmecente THIS PROJECT WAS DONE IN COOPERATION WITH ISTITUTO AFFARI INTERNAZIONALI Via dei Montecatini 17, 00186 Rome, Italy +39 063224360 [email protected] www.iai.it/en @IAIonline REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES FOR A MORE REGIONALISED, BINDING AND LEGITIMATE UNITED NATIONS EDITED BY Mario Telò WITH THE COOPERATION OF Hedwig Giusto TABLE OF CONTENTS List of tables 7 Foreword. Reforming multilateralism for the 21st century 8 Maria João Rodrigues Introduction. For a new multilateralism: 14 reforming the UN governance through a driving role of the EU Mario Telò 1. A new multilateralism: five main features 16 2. Reforming UN policies and functions 31 3. The UN institutional system and governance reform 52 4. The growing responsibility of the EU for multilateralism 72 PART I – THE UN AT THE CENTRE OF A MORE BINDING AND COORDINATED GLOBAL GOVERNANCE Chapter 1 82 21st century reform of the UN Security Council and the role of the European Union Nico J. Schrijver Chapter 2 92 Is state sovereignty compatible with multilateralism? Andrew Gamble Chapter 3 106 The Covid-19 inflection point in global governance and the European predicament Nathalie Tocci ited for A NEW MULTILATERALISM PART II – A RADICAL REFORM OF MULTILATERAL GOVERNANCE AND THE UN THROUGH AN ENHANCED ROLE FOR REGIONAL ORGANISATIONS Chapter 4 114 Beyond the early 1945 balance between global and regional UN dimensions: historical background and development Mario Telò Chapter 5 118 Regional organisations and UN reform: towards a flexible interaction mechanism Luk Van Langenhove Chapter 6 126 A Southeast Asian perspective: ASEAN and the UN Amitav Acharya Chapter 7 130 Regionalising a post-hegemonic and pluralist multilateral system Qin Yaqing Chapter 8 134 A Euro-South America project for a new inclusive multilateralism and regionalism Álvaro de Vasconcelos PART III – UN REFORM: INCLUSIVENESS, LEGITIMACY AND GENDER ISSUES Chapter 9 146 The legitimacy challenge: making the UN more inclusive and democratic Jo Leinen Chapter 10 150 Justice through gender balance in the United Nations: an urgent matter of consistency Ruth Rubio Marín and Eulalia W. Petit de Gabriel TABLE OF CONTENTS PART IV – UN AS A PART OF A STRONGER, MULTIFACETED MULTILATERALISM Chapter 11 168 Beyond the Paris COP 21 treaty: for a more binding global climate governance Jo Leinen Chapter 12 172 International economic crises and multilateral institutions Pier Carlo Padoan Chapter 13 178 A new multilateral agenda after Covid-19: the role of the EU Paolo Guerrieri APPENDICES Appendix 1 188 Multilateral organisations and arrangements at regional, interregional and global level Sebastian Santander Appendix 2 232 The UN system Appendix 3 234 The António Guterres UN reform project References 244 List of authors 260 ited for A NEW MULTILATERALISM LIST OF TABLES Introduction. For a new multilateralism: reforming the UN governance through a driving role of the EU Table 1. Main multilateral organisations after Bretton Woods (1944) 19 Table 2. The five stages of the Open Method of Coordination 50 Table 3. EU representation within multilateral organisations 73 Chapter 1 21st century reform of the UN Security Council and the role of the European Union Table 1. Expanded Security Council ready for the 21st century 86 Chapter 6 A Southeast Asian perspective: ASEAN and the UN Table 1. Mechanisms for ASEAN-UN cooperation 126 FOREWORD REFORMING MULTILATERALISM FOR THE 21st CENTURY Maria João Rodrigues President, Foundation for European Progressive Studies, and leader of FEPS New Multilateralism Project Is it possible to imagine a multilateralism for the 21st century? The current multilateral system emerged from the ashes of the second world war and was mainly designed to prevent the eruption of a new world war. It was a partial success because it was possible to contain a cold war in a the multilateral system that shaped the global landscape for several decades. Nevertheless, throughout this period, new challenges and aspirations emerged and forced the multilateral system to develop new ramifications to cope with these chal- lenges and aspirations, thus creating a complex architecture which now has several significant inconsistencies and flaws. Furthermore, the range and dynamics of the relevant global actors are now very dif- ferent because the actors include many new countries that joined the UN system after decolonisation, as well as new great powers, regional organisations, multinational cor- porations, civil society organisations and global citizenship. These new challenges and new actors have generated a large set of global initiatives that create a very complex landscape of global governance: plurilateral platforms (such as the G20), comprehensive bilateral agreements (notably in trade), regional political organisations (such as the European Union and the African Union) and multi-actor coalitions focusing on particular issues (such as the environment). Competition between the great powers is also evolving. After the long USA-USSR bipolar period, and the unipolar phase after the fall of the Berlin Wall, American 8 REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES ited for A NEW MULTILATERALISM hegemony now seems to be in decline due to both American retrenchment and the emergence of new great powers, notably China. More recently, this multipolar world and this new great-power game seem to be reaching the level of systemic competition between different potential global orders. As an example, let us just mention a key shaping factor of the emergent new global order, whose implications must be fully understood. A new dimension of reality, the virtual one or cyberspace, is being massively amplified and transformed by the com- bined effect of the internet of things, which connects trillions of objects and services to artificial intelligence that can improve the algorithms of governance at all levels, includ- ing global governance. But this can only happen if we build the global governance of cyberspace, which is still very inconsistent and fragile. At the current point in time, we are heading towards a geostrategic competition to gain dominance over cyberspace, which will have huge implications for all the other dimensions of reality. All this shows a new frontier to improve global governance. The decline of the current global order seems irreversible due the combined effect of several factors: • the divide between the winners and losers of globalisation, which is particularly deep in some countries; • the level of systemic risk reached due to the financial crisis of the last decade, with lasting social impacts, particularly on the outlook of young people; • the level of systemic competition between great powers pushing for different priorities and solutions; • the emergence of strong nationalist trends in several big players – Russia, Brazil, China, Turkey and the Trump-led United States openly undermining the multilat- eral system (withdrawing from UNESCO, the Migration Compact and the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as weakening WTO trade negotiations) – this one fortunately gone!; • the current difficulties in coping with urgent global challenges such as pandemics and climate change. REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES REFORMING MULTILATERALISM IN POST-COVID TIMES 9 The Covid-19 pandemic is now acting as a catalyst on, and a magnifierof, all these trends and tensions. The pandemic has created a multidimensional crisis with strong impacts on the health, social, economic, political and cultural conditions of all countries. This crisis is unfolding along different phases of health emergency and lockdown, with