Mr. Amr Moussa, former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and former Egyptian Foreign Minister, presented his vision for the need to introduce rapid amendments to the Charter of the United Nations and the definition of threats to international peace and security.
The Geneva Center for Political and Diplomatic Studies hosted Mr. Amr Moussa in a special dialogue within a research workshop regarding international and regional changes at the political and economic level after the Corona pandemic.
Amr Moussa presented his vision of the changes that must be entered into the Charter of the United Nations, including the introduction of four basic clauses in the definition of a threat to international peace and security, namely.
The first item: Epidemics.
The second item: climate change.
The third item: the population explosion.
The fourth item: the clash of civilizations.
Moussa stressed the necessity of excluding the first and second items from the "veto", given the danger of epidemics and climate change on international peace and security, and there is no disagreement about these two items and there should be no dispute, while the veto remains regarding the third and fourth items, namely the population explosion and the clash of civilizations, given the to the great differences in relation to them.
He said that calls for demands for change need to agree on a new concept of real threats to international peace, and that the definition that was based on the developments and results of the Second World War is today limited and not comprehensive, and that its texts in the Charter of the United Nations require reconsideration.
He stressed that the Security Council failed to rise to the level of the challenge, due to the differences and interests of the great powers, despite the assertion of the Secretary-General of the United Nations that "Corona" and what he presented are a threat to international peace and security, meaning that it is at the core of the Council's competence. Likewise - and unfortunately also - the General Assembly of the United Nations failed.
Amr Moussa pointed out that it is necessary to mobilize world public opinion (research and thinking institutes, civil society organizations, universities, federations, professional syndicates, and parties), all over the world, to pressure and demand these amendments to the Charter of the United Nations, and to expand the mandate of the Security Council to include them. The proposed amendments would also stipulate a reformulation of the “Purposes of the United Nations” to include public health issues in the forefront of its priorities, as well as international security and development issues.
In this context, he stressed the need to work on crystallizing a proposal calling for the General Assembly of the United Nations to call for a comprehensive conference, similar to the San Francisco Conference that approved the Charter of the United Nations, or to convene itself in the form of this conference, to consider and approve such amendments to the Charter.
Amr Moussa, former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and former Egyptian Foreign Minister, stressed that the international challenges facing the world at the level of health, economy and political changes after the Corona pandemic are very dangerous, and the world must prepare for what is to come, especially with scientists expecting new waves of epidemics. during the coming years.
Therefore, keeping the work system in the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly so constrained without taking any decisive decisions is unacceptable, and the UN and its institutions must rise above the geopolitical differences between the major countries regarding epidemics and climate change and have the upper hand in taking decisions All appropriate decisions to meet these challenges.
The Cold War and the need for a new "non-alignment".
On the other hand, Mr. Amr Moussa raised the idea of the need to activate a new "non-alignment", and said that the successive developments of the Corona crisis pave the way for a sharp discussion and perhaps policies and practices that form a fertile ground for a "new cold war", with the two main parties being the United States and China; A war that differs in its structure and premise from the Cold War that was between the United States and the former Soviet Union, and ended at the end of the eighties of the last century.
He indicated in a subsequent article he published in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the coming cold war will take all this into consideration, in addition to the fact that it will be a basic competition between two great countries and not between two blocs, although this does not negate that there will be friends or followers of this great country or That, without the expression of the bloc being validated... But in any case, it will be a cold war with its negative effects on the main building of the clash, which this time is the economy with its various elements, technology in all its manifestations, markets and the prices of its goods.
Of course, it is clear that all of this will affect the course of development and progress at the world level, severely hitting the foundations of development in the developing countries.
This makes me suggest the importance and even vitality of this large group of “developing” countries to be fully collectively aware of what is coming, and to be aware that a new cold war, in the expected way, will threaten their stability, opportunities for development and their hopes for prosperity... and that the matter will not be resolved. Through literature, meetings, and alignments, but rather by collective action, collective conscience, and full awareness of the interests that will be wasted and the opportunities that will be lost, and international stability that will be subjected to major tremors, and agreement on the means of resisting them.
Mr. Amr Moussa said that this collective awareness, which I see the need to crystallize and organize in the face of the upcoming international developments, which will translate in the minds of many into the form of a full-blown war, recalls the "Non-Aligned Movement", which successfully called for a general international position based on neutrality between The eastern and western blocs, but without serious attempts to bridge the gap, but rather to exploit it... It calls for this historical movement not to reproduce it, but to inspire its role while avoiding its mistakes.
In that, I suggest thinking about the role of the “Group of Seventy Seven” for developing countries after it accompanied and lived with the “Non-Aligned Movement” after it, albeit without significant achievements.
Amr Moussa suggested thinking about a new role for this group after its revitalization, with the development of the multilateral system and redefining threats to international peace and security to include climate change and transcontinental epidemics, as well as reviewing the roles of specialized agencies, especially the World Health Organization. At the top of its roles is the call for, and active work, so that the clash between the two major countries does not develop into a clash that threatens stability, peace, security and international prosperity... as well as reviewing the role of the Security Council and some articles of the United Nations Charter; Including its introduction and objectives and what is related to international security and development. As well as reviewing the performance of the international economic system and its institutions.
Geneva Center for Political and Diplomatic Studies
Political and Economic Research Unit
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