Gordon Brown came to power promising to “let the work of change begin”. After two months, and the well received appointment of David Miliband as Foreign Secretary, there are signs of a changed emphasis in British foreign policy. This emphasis should focus on promoting a strong, credible and effective United Nations, with a significant role to play in the various international issues which animate Brown.
The appointment of former Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, as Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN signalled a renewed respect for the UN. The Prime Minister’s personal push for a Security Council resolution on Darfur suggests that this respect runs to the very heart of government. This is vitally important, as a strong UN is an essential component of Brown’s foreign policy priorities. Darfur, Iran, climate change and development in Africa and the Middle East can be solved only through multilateral agreements. Such agreements carry greatest legitimacy when they are brokered through a strengthened and engaged UN. A search for international legitimacy must also lead to a belated, yet growing, role for the UN in Iraq and Afghanistan. The UK needs the UN.
Yet, the UN also needs the UK. The UK’s recently appointed ambassador to the UN, Sir John Sawers, has stated that Britain’s national interest lies in working for a strong UN. This is less true of other members of the permanent five – particularly the United States, but also China and Russia. That ‘UN reform’ has become such a controversial phrase attests to states’ differing perceptions of their national interests. Many on the American right (typified by the former US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton) understand UN reform as a process of neutering it, removing its capacity to act effectively. The UK must always counter this conception with a positive view of reform – improving the UN’s ability to act credibly, even when the major powers feel that their national interests are threatened.
Brown’s nascent foreign policy is dependent on a credible UN. The 26,000 troops authorised for Darfur will mostly come from members of the African Union (AU), but they will almost certainly be under UN control. Brown’s focus on African development cannot be achieved without peace, which requires peacekeepers. At the start of 2007, the UN had over 80,000 peacekeepers in the field (an increase of nearly 800% in 10 years), compared with a combined total of 68,000 NATO, EU and AU troops. As 75% of UN peacekeepers are deployed in Africa, the UK must work to increase the capacity of the AU, and to ensure that the recent split of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations into separate departments for logistics and operations enhances the UN’s ability to act decisively in response to conflicts.
No resolution of the Iranian and North Korean nuclear crises is sustainable without a well resourced UN International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor compliance with international agreements. Brown should resist attempts by the US to negotiate the successor to the Kyoto climate change treaty outside the auspices of the UN. The Kyoto treaty was flawed because it included too few of the major polluting states, so to conclude a ‘son of Kyoto’ outside the only truly worldwide institution appears doomed to failure. Brown should also work towards strong links between the EU and UN within the Middle East quartet, in order to continue his previous efforts towards Palestinian economic development.
Despite its centrality to Brown’s foreign policy, the UN’s credibility in issues of peace and security is damaged by the anachronistic nature of the Security Council. The reform process remains deadlocked, yet Brown must continue Tony Blair’s support for an expansion of the Council. It is unreasonable to ask developing powers such as India and Brazil, as well as developed powers such as Germany and Japan, to play constructive roles in international affairs without opening up the UN’s most prominent decision-making body to them. Equally, without such an expansion to reflect the realities of 2007, rather than 1945, respect for the Security Council will remain dangerously low.
Support for Security Council expansion should be motivated by the UK’s positive conception of UN reform and by a renewed respect for multilateral solutions to global problems. A strong and effective UN is essential to Brown’s global aspirations, and support for the UN from the highest levels of government will help to restore to British foreign policy some of the international legitimacy that has been sacrificed in recent years.