World is witnessing a retreat from M.L—Challenge coming from its main stakeholders-
Nationalistic turn in global politics– Rise of populist Right
Protectionism—BREXIT, “America First”
Treaty withdrawals
WTO stagnation
Failure of M.L inst evident from—Syrian & Libyan crisis, Covid-19
Disillusionment with globalisation– Rise of bilateral & minilaterals
Multilateral challenges are in surplus, but there is not enough multilateralism to address them
Corona is reminder of fragility in M.L
Why strains in Multilateralism?
Macron declared “brain-death” of NATO & pointed to the fragility of Europe.
Backlashes with globalisation—Scapegoating of Into trade for inequality, job losses etc
Inadequacy of existing multilateral rules to meet new challenges.
China’s meteoric rise & its expansionism
Henry Farrell & Abe Newman mentions about “weaponized interdependence”— to highlight the use of global economic networks for geostrategic purposes.
Way ahead—
Multilateralism needs a brand new narrative with global Appeal + Renegotiation of multilateral inst
Commentaries
Amb Manjeev S. Puri—M.L is under unprecedented stress due to COVID-19 & disenchantment with Glb. But for global action there are no substitutes for M.L
Hardeep S. Puri (Perilous Interventions: The Security Council & Politics of Chaos) —Shameless pursuit of narrowly defined interests is most often the motivation in world of M.L diplomacy.
Antonio Guterres—
World have a surplus of M.L challenges but the deficit of M.L solutions
Labelled the present peaking of geopolitical tensions as a “great fracture”.
“A bad case of Trust deficit disorder”
Syed Akbaruddin—Multilateralism post COVID-19—> Issue specific ‘coalitions of willing’, ‘Plurilaterals’ & ‘minilaterals’ are likely to increase—India needs to avail such avenues.
PM Modi—“Path to achieve sustainable peace & prosperity” is through M.L—“Only reformed M.L with a reformed UN at its centre can meet aspirations of humanity”
C. Rajamohan—
India should now shape the global discourse as its past efforts during C.W underlines the possibilities
Leverage M.L to serve our interests.Ex—Delhi used FATF to mount pressure on Pak
C. Rajamohan—Calls for a “New M.L”—Radical restructuring of inst like UN, WT
Rajiv Bhatia—Devg countries need a say in global order & that can come only through Reformed M.L
Shyam Saran—Given the scale, urgency & seriousness of global challenges—we need maximal, not minimal M.L—M.L is needed as an expression of intl solidarity
Need for a more democratic M.L as Covid-19 has shown “no country will be safe until all countries are safe…so we really need to work together.”
United Nations
Nehru—“Even if UN did not do anything wonderful, the mere fact of UN itself has been of great significance to the world”
Brochure on India’s priority at UNSC for 8th term—
India’s approach will be guided by “5 S’s”—Samman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Co-op), Shanti (Peace), Samriddhi (Prosperity)
Overall objective—Achievement of NORMS: New Orientation for a Reformed Multilateral System.
Committed to— M.L, RoL, A fair & equitable intl system
Key priorites for India—
Reformed multilateralism
Effective response to Intl terrorism
A comprehensive approach to Intl peace & security
Bringing professionalism in UN Peacekeeping.
Maritime security
Counter terrorism
Peacekeeping
What should India aim to do?
In present times of “Leadership crisis” in Liberal world order, India needs to undo its image of being a ‘Fence-sitter’ & should take the lead for strengthening the multilateral & RBIO
