Our Global Neighbourhood: If Not Now, then When?

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Our Global Neighbourhood: If Not Now, then When?
July 2 2014
Posted By:Rene Wadlow

2014 marks the anniversary of the presentation in Geneva of the report of the Commission on Global Governance to an audience of UN Secretariat, diplomats, NGO representatives and academics. The secretariat for the Commission had been in Geneva just across the street from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies where I used to teach. I knew some of the secretariat, and we would discuss how the report was being drafted as the 28 Commission members were all busy with their professional tasks and spread out over the world.

In a pre-email world, the commissioners met four times in Geneva for several days; worked on drafts prepared by the secretariat led by a senior Swedish diplomat, Hans Dallgren; and then made additional suggestions. The report was published as a book in 1995.1

The Commission followed the footsteps of earlier commissions, often known by the name of its chairman: Willy Brandt on development, Olof Palme on disarmament and arms control, Gro Brundtland on the environment, Julius Nyrarre on North-South relations, and Sadruddin Aga Khan on humanitarian issues . The book's name comes from one of the hopes of the UN Charter: “And for These Ends...to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.” It is unlikely that many of the Charter drafters or the Commission members ever lived in neighbourhoods in which people hate their neighbours and try to avoid them as much as possible.

Our global neighbourhood may not be that different!

As non-governmental organizations have been most active in the follow-up to the different reports of commissions − much more so than most governments − the Commission on Global Governance was the most open to receiving suggestions from NGO representatives, academics and government officials. I was part of a Geneva-based group of NGO representatives to the UN that prepared a joint statement for the Commission. I am not convinced that group efforts are more productive than a single individual writing on the same issue, but group proposals have the advantage of “balance” and geographic range that a single author does not.2

The book was written during an optimistic time period. The Cold War had ended formally in 1990, and the impact of local conflicts related to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the USSR had not yet sunk into broad consciousness.

Although the report makes no mention of “the end of history,” it is colored by the forces of democratic institutions, a market economy, and a strong trans-national civil society.

The Commission put forward a number of useful suggestions for restructuring UN bodies, especially to coordinate better economic and social policies and programs.

One of the innovations of Our Global Neighbourhood in contrast to the reports of other independent commissions was the emphasis on values and attitudes. The Report of the Commission concluded, “We also believe that the world's arrangements for the conduct of its affairs must be underpinned by certain common values. Ultimately no organization will work and no law will be upheld unless they rest on a foundation made strong by shared values. These values must be informed by a sense of common responsibility for both present and future generations.”

Since relatively little has been done in terms of follow-up on the recommendations of the Commission, the book is worth re-reading today in the spirit of “Can it be done now, and if not, why not?”

Notes

1 Our Global Neighbourhood (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)

2 Ramesh Thakur, Andrew Cooper, John English (Eds.) International Commissions and the Power of Ideas (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2005)

Source: http://globalsolutions.org/blog/2014/07 ... 7StibHZfuA

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Global-Neighb ... 0198279973