New World Order?

'America cannot refuse the challenge of leadership in the post-war world. Mere physical reconstruction of ravaged countries & the reorganisation of political, economic, & social systems is the lesser task we face. The larger problem & the great challenge is in how to set up a new order of world ethics firmly established on a foundation of democratic idealism....The postwar planners have more of idealism in their programs than has ever before been expressed in the problem of the relationship of nations, but it is still not enough. A clear & complete statement of a world purpose is required - a world dream great enough to inspire unity of world effort.'
- Manly Hall America's Assignment with Destiny (1951).
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Below is an excerpt taken from;
https://archive.org/stream/TheHardRoadToWorldOrder/HardRoadtoWorldOrder_djvu.txt



"The contents of Foreign Affairs are copyrighted. >
[April] 1974 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE HARD ROAD TO WORLD ORDER
By Richard N. Gardner

.........The hope for the foreseeable future lies, not in building up a few ambitious central institutions of univer- sal membership and general jurisdiction as was envisaged at the end of the last war, but rather in the much more decentralized, disorderly and pragmatic process of inventing or adapting insti- tutions of limited jurisdiction and selected membership to deal with specific problems on a case-by-case basis, as the necessity for cooperation is perceived by the relevant nations. Such institutions of limited jurisdiction will have a better chance of doing what must be done to make a "rule of law" possible among nations — providing methods for changing the law and enforcing it as it changes and developing the perception of common interests that is the prerequisite for successful cooperation. In short, the "house of world order" will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great "booming, buzzing confusion," to use William James' famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault. Of course, for polit- ical as well as administrative reasons, some of these specialized arrangements should be brought into an appropriate relationship with the central institutions of the U.N, system, but the main thing is that the essential functions be performed. The question is whether this more modest approach can do the job. Can it really bring mankind into the twenty-first century with reasonable prospects for peace, welfare and human dignity? The argument thus far suggests it better had, for there seems to be no alternative. But the evidence also suggests some grounds for cautious optimism. II The hopeful aspect of the present situation is that even as na- tions resist appeals for "world government" and the surrender of sovereignty," technological, economic and political interests are forcing them to establish more and more far-reaching ar- rangements to manage their mutual interdependence. It is instructive to ponder the institutional implications of the negotia- tions to which nations were already committed before the "en- ergy crisis" preempted international attention in the fall of 1973. Although some of these tasks of institution-building may be com- plicated or postponed by the energy problem, all are now con- tinuing fixtures on the diplomatic agenda : 1. The non-Communist nations are embarked on a long-term negotiation for the reform of the international monetary system, aimed at developing a new system of reserves and settlements to replace the dollar standard and at improving the balance-of-pay- ments adjustment process. The accomplishment of these objec- tives would almost surely require a revitalization of the Interna- tional Monetary Fund, which would have unprecedented powers to create new international reserves and to influence national de- cisions on exchange rates and on domestic monetary and fiscal policies. Such a strengthened IMF might be given power to back its decisions by meaningful multilateral sanctions, such as uni- form surcharges on the exports of uncooperative surplus coun- tries and the withholding of multilateral and bilateral credits and reserve facilities from recalcitrant deficit countries. 2. Roughly the same wide group of nations is launched on a parallel effort to rewrite the ground rules for the conduct of international trade. Among other things, we will be seeking new rules in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to cover a whole range of hitherto unregulated nontariff barriers. These will subject countries to an unprecedented degree of international surveillance over up to now sacrosanct "domestic" policies, such as farm price supports, subsidies, and government procurement practices that have transnational effects. New standards are also envisaged to regulate protectionist measures to cope with "mar- ket disruption" from imports. To make these new rules of the game meaningful, GATT arrangements for consultation, con- ciliation and enforcement of its decisions will have to be greatly improved. Moreover, as will be discussed, the energy and food crises have stimulated a new concern about access to raw materi- als and a clear need for new ground rules on export controls. 3. The trend in recent years has been toward a steady increase in the resources of the multilateral development and technical assistance agencies, in contrast to static or declining bilateral efforts. This should enhance the authority of the World Bank, the regional development banks and the U.N. Development Pro- gram over the economic policies of rich and poor nations. By the end of this decade, a portion of aid funds may be channeled to international agencies from sources independent of national decision-making — many have proposed some form of "link" be- tween monetary reserve creation and development aid and some arrangement for the payment to international agencies of fees from the exploitation of seabed mineral resources. 4. The next few years should see a continued strengthening of the new global and regional agencies charged with protecting the world's environment. In addition to comprehensive monitoring of the earth's air, water and soil and of the effects of pollutants on human health, we can look forward to new procedures to im- plement the principle of state responsibility for national actions that have transnational environmental consequences, probably including some kind of "international environmental impact statement" procedure by which at least some nations agree to have certain kinds of environmental decisions reviewed by inde- pendent scientific authorities. At the same time, international agencies will be given broader powers to promulgate and revise standards limiting air and ocean pollution. 5. We are entering a wholly new phase of international con- cern and international action on the population problem, drama- tized by the holding this year of the first World Population Con- ference to take place at the political level. By the end of this decade, a majority of nations are likely to have explicit popula-tion policies, many of them designed to achieve zero population growth by a specific target date. These national policies and targets will be established and implemented in most cases with the help of international agencies. Under their auspices, several billions of dollars in national and international resources will be mobilized in fulfillment of a basic human rights objective already proclaimed by the United Nations in General Assembly Resolu- tion 2542 (XXIV) — that every family in the world should be given "the knowledge and means necessary to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children." 6. Belatedly, a World Food Conference has been scheduled to deal with the long-neglected problem of assuring sufficient food supplies for the world's rapidly growing population. As reserves of food and arable land dwindle under the impact of crop fail- ures and disappointing fish harvests, there is mounting concern about "world food security." The Conference is likely to result in efforts to expand agricultural productivity, assure the mainte- nance of adequate food reserves, and food aid. 7. In the 1974 Law of the Sea Conference and beyond — in what may be several years of very difficult negotiations — there should eventually emerge a new international regime governing the world's oceans. New law is, all agree, urgently needed on such crucial matters as the territorial sea, passage through inter- national straits, fisheries, the exploitation of the mineral resources of the seabed, the regulation of marine pollution, and the conduct of scientific research. To make these new rules of law meaningful, there will have to be tough provisions to assure compliance as well as to provide for the compulsory settlement of disputes. The regulatory responsibilities of the new oceans agency are likely to exceed those of any existing international organization. 8. As the INTELSAT conference has foreshadowed, and in accordance with responsibilities already lodged in principle in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations, new rules and institutions will almost certainly be created to regulate emerging communication technologies, no- tably direct broadcasting from satellites. While providing some safeguards against the unwanted intrusion of foreign broadcasts, these arrangements will aim to maximize the potential for using satellite communications to promote trade and economic develop- ment as well as world culture and understanding. Ways will very likely be found to give the United Nations and other interna-tional agencies access to this new technology for both operational and informational purposes. The ITU and other agencies will probably be given new powers to allocate radio frequencies and satellite parking orbits among users. All these are cases where negotiations are already underway or scheduled for the near future. In addition, one could add two other items that have already been, one might have said, negoti- ated to death over the years; nonetheless they are so absolutely critical that progress simply must be made — and nations must come to know this. 9. At some point in the years ahead the world will move be- yond U.S. -Soviet agreement on strategic weapons, and NATO- Warsaw Pact agreement on some measure of force reduction, to a truly multilateral set of negotiations (comparable to the non- proliferation treaty) designed to limit conventional weapons. It seems inevitable that the United Nations and perhaps regional bodies will be given new responsibilities for the administration of these arms control and disarmament measures, including means of verification and enforcement. 10. And finally, despite the constitutional impasse over U.N. peacekeeping, there will in practice be increasing resort to U.N. forces to contain local conflicts. The arguments over authoriza- tion, financing and operational control will be resolved on a case- by-case basis where the interests of key countries converge, as they have already in the launching of the United Nations Emer- gency Force in the Middle East. With the United States, the Soviet Union and China each behaving "more like a country and less like a cause," some principles for mutual noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries are likely to be worked out, either bilaterally or under U.N. auspices. A corollary of such agreements will be international peacekeeping arrangements to patrol borders, supervise elections and verify compliance with nonintervention norms. Does this list read like a decalogue, more convincing as a state- ment of what nations ought to do in the pursuit of their enlight- ened self-interest than as a prediction of what they actually will do? Let the reader who has this impression go back over the ten items. Admittedly, there is not a one of these specialized negotia- tions that could not be wrecked and brought to nothing by the same forces of shortsighted nationalism that have crippled the central institutions of the United Nations. But is it not a totally hardheaded prediction that we shall see very substantial changes in the great majority of these areas by the end of the decade? The reason is simple : for most, perhaps eventually all, of the subjects, failure is simply not an acceptable alternative to deci- sive coalitions of nations.............."

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