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Reviewing the role of multilateralism amidst democratic uncertainty

The United Nations has always faced some internal conundrums in the realization of its founding goals. In its Charter, the organization seeks to promote itself as a bastion of and forum for global cooperation, viewing multilateral negotiation as a key towards the realization of peace, security, and human rights. Founded in the wake of two devastating World Wars, the organization seeks to achieve what is best for humanity, and it just so happens that the original ratifiers - the countries that then made up the Security Council’s Permanent Five - emphasized global, multilateral solutions to address barriers towards peace and security.

However, in the decades since the organization was founded, the UN has been fraught with problems, and many have called into question its attempts at realizing its goals. Its attempt to come up with global solutions to global problems in the interest of all of humanity has encountered a number of obstacles, but perhaps most importantly, they face the question of how to promote multilateralism for the good of all parties involved when a significant portion of parties reject multilateral solutions. UN-permitted military interventions such as those in Iraq and Libya, the failure of the UN to protect citizens in Bosnia, and many other historical UN controversies provide examples of how multilateralism and global cooperation is not infallible. When, in these cases, the UN’s use of multilateral solutions fails to solve some of the problems it was created to address, and when multilateralism has been disavowed widely as a result, it calls for a review of the methods and purposes of multilateralism and the role it continues to occupy in modern international relations.

Currently, many citizens around the world have voiced their disapproval with multilateralism: They have elected governments that reject global cooperation, often directing their anger at the UN and other international organizations that purport to facilitate multilateralism. They have protested the influence that international financial organizations and transnational corporations have in their country, violently opposed joint military interventions, and expressed their discontent with many of the trends engendered by globalization. On the other hand, a large portion of the global population seeks to push back against this trend. They warn that unilaterally acting strongman leaders are unstable and dangerous, argue that globalized trade provides economic benefits to all, and emphasize that global issues like climate change can only be combatted through a multilateral framework.

Regardless of where one stands on the issue, there is now heavy debate surrounding the merits of multilateralism. At YouthMUN 2020, we will be seeking to review the role of multilateralism amidst global democratic uncertainty. Simulating a series of UN committees, we will still be searching for global solutions for global problems, but we call on delegates to assess the drawbacks of these approaches, reevaluate their merits, and we hope that delegates will seek to adapt global multilateral approaches in a way that addresses the global concern and uncertainty that has arisen concerning their role in the modern world.

We look forward to meeting you all in February!

The YouthMUN Secretariat

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