At the UNSC, a three-point agenda

Changing state of world

Troubles in Asia:

• India finds itself in a troubled region between West and East Asia, a region full of insurgencies, terrorism, human and narcotics trafficking, and great power rivalries.
• Other problems in Asia include strategic mistrust or misperception, unresolved borders and territorial disputes, the absence of a pan-Asia security architecture, and competition over energy and strategic minerals.

Inward looking west:

• Alongside, the western world is consumed by protectionist instincts, and turning its back on the universal values it once espoused as western values.
• The benign and supportive international system that followed the Cold War has all but disappeared.
• Fear, populism, polarisation, and ultra-nationalism have become the basis of politics in many countries.

But world is better today than at the end of WWII:

• Regardless of some troubling aspects, the world is in a better place today than when the UN was first established.
• The record on maintaining international peace and security, one of the prime functions of the UNSC, has been positive, with or without the UN.

India at UNSC:

• India is to re-enter the UN Security Council after a gap of 10 years.
• The previous time, in 2011-12, followed a gap of 20 years.
• In total, India has been in the UNSC for 14 years, representing roughly a fifth of the time the United Nations (UN) has existed.
• India must leverage this latest opportunity to project itself as a responsible nation.

India should help build stable and secure environment:

• India’s major objective as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2021-22 should be to help build a stable and secure external environment.
• In doing so, India will promote its own people’s prosperity, regional and global security and growth, and a rule-based world order.
• It could emerge a partner of choice for developing and developed countries alike.

 

Permanent seat for India will happen someday:

• There is no need for India to waste diplomatic goodwill in seeking an elusive permanent seat in the UNSC which will come India’s way by invitation soon enough.
• India will have to increase its financial contribution, as the apportionment of UN expenses for each of the P-5 countries is significantly larger than that for India.
• Even Germany and Japan today contribute many times more than India.
• Although India has been a leading provider of peacekeepers, its assessed contribution to UN peacekeeping operations is minuscule.

 

What India should aim to do at UNSC:

Reduce humanitarian interventionism:

• As a member of the UNSC, India must help guide the Council away from the perils of invoking the principles of humanitarian interventionism or ‘Responsibility to Protect’.
• The world has seen mayhem result from this.
• Given the fragile and complex international system, which can become even more unpredictable and conflictual, India should work towards a rules-based global order.

Targeting individuals and entities with sanctions:

• India should push to ensure that the UNSC Sanctions Committee targets all those individuals and entities warranting sanctions.
• Multilateral action by the UNSC has not been possible because of narrowly defined national interest.
• As of May, 2019, 260 individuals and 84 entities are subject to UN sanctions, pursuant to Council resolutions 1267, 1989, and 2253.

India should become a consensus-builder:

• Having good relations with all the great powers, India must lead the way by pursuing inclusion, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and rational internationalism.
• India should become a consensus-builder, instead of the outlier it has progressively become.
• A harmonised response is the necessarty for dealing with global problems of climate change, disarmament, terrorism, trade, and development.
• India could take on larger burdens to maintain global public goods and build new regional public goods.
  • For example, India should take the lead in activating the UNSC’s Military Staff Committee, which was never set into motion following the UN’s inception.
• Without it, the UNSC’s collective security and conflict-resolution roles will continue to remain limited.

 

Way forward:

Looking at polycentric future:

• A rules-based international order helps rather than hinders India, and embracing the multilateral ethic is the best way forward.
• India has a strong motive to embrace polycentrism, which might not be suitable to hegemonic powers (who prefer 1 or 2 power blocs) intent on carving out their exclusive spheres of influence.

India should start with improving neighbourhood relations:

• Finally, India cannot stride the global stage with confidence in the absence of stable relations with its neighbours.
• Besides whatever else is done within the UN and the UNSC, India must lift its game in South Asia and its larger neighbourhood.

 

Importance:

GS Paper II: International Relations