ブックタイトル佐藤栄作　受賞論文集

概要

佐藤栄作　受賞論文集

Ⅲ．Adapting the UN System to Changing Global RealitiesA global consensus is forming that the United Nations of the 21 st Century must bestrengthened and democratized to effectively respond to the emerging challengesoutlined above. Some improvements can be carried through in the short to mediumterm. Others will undoubtedly take longer. What is important is not to losemomentum toward achieving short and medium term objectives, while maintaining avision and commitment to more fundamental long-term changes required to meet themost difficult challenges. An initial and critical step in articulating a comprehensivereform program is the identification and prioritization of“what needs fixed”.Three inherent weaknesses in the UN systemAmong the structural deficiencies in the present UN set-up, three shortcomingsthatareparticularlydebilitatingtotheUN’sworkare:i）Anachronistic voting procedures in the General Assembly, ECOSOC, andSecurity Council: The one-nation, one-vote decision-making procedure of themajor UN organs is based on a traditionalist interpretation of sovereignty,which supports that all states in the international system are equal and shouldbe afforded similar privileges. This view serves to undermine UN authorityby encouraging powerful countries to move discussions on sensitive subjectsto other arenas -- such as the G-8 or NATO -- where the decision-makingrules more accurately reflect power differentials among states. Further, theascending notion of“popular sovereignty”is antithetical to a system thatequates votes from a country of more than a billion people to that of a countrywith less than a million. The“democratic deficit”in major UN organs, including26