Comment
Ashraf Ansari
At the advent of the 21st century, the concept of globalisation was gaining popularity in academic circles. Economists had come to believe that economic issues had to be tackled in a global perspective. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been a manifest of economic globalisation. Though the United Nations (UN) was founded on the concept of political globalisations, it has been failing in fulfilling its basic purposes namely those relating to maintenance of peace and security as well as protection of human rights world over. Interestingly it is the pandemic Corona-Virus disease has become a global issue because of its dynamics. When this disease surfaced in the Wuhan region of China, only the Chinese nation confronted the challenge while the WHO monitored and the world at large looked on in owe. Now that the disease has spread world over, the international community is feeling the need for international action to fight the disease wherever it surfaces. The WHO is spearheading international cooperation for control of the Virus disease but it is yet to evolve some strategy of collective action. Perhaps the Coronavirus disease has ushered in the era of health globalisation. The modern means of communication and information technology have knit the countries into a single network. If one part is disturbed the whole network comes to standstill. Maybe the world learns to take collective action to fight the Coronavirus disease. Optimists can hope that the international community may join hands to evolve a global health order. However there is also a reason to despair. The global political order foreseen by the fathers of the UN has not reached fruition, even amid terrible international conflicts and serious violations of human rights in various parts of the world. Apart from political and economic issues. There are social issues, which also call for a global approach. The fact is that peace and security are indivisible. The whole world is now a single entity. If peace and security are disturbed in one region, the whole world must be concerned as the spill-over effects would envelope the rest of the world ultimately. The UN charter lays emphasis on preservation of peace and security at the international level but unfortunately the world body has not been able to interpret this purpose in the global perspective. Perhaps the Coronavirus pandemic has shaken up minds of the people around the world to realise that vital issues faced by people anywhere need to be addressed globally. Climate change issue is another one falling in the same category. Terrorism, still another. Violation of Comment Ashraf Ansari human rights and Fascism also. Fall of the Berlin Wall had heralded a new era of democracy, human rights and free markets but the promise depended on globalisation of the international system under the UN framework. The UN needs reform to address the new challenges. The world body initiated the process of reform but the world powers who created the structure of the UN could not show seriousness for the reform of the world body. In a lighter vein, one would say the world powers had exhausted all their steam in San Francisco when they adopted the UN charter in 1945. These powers have been allergic to reform the UN because it would necessarily dent their hegemonic stature. The world powers better shed their superiority complex and accelerate the process of UN reform so that the world body could play a leading role in addressing issues of world interest like climate change, health, education, communication, human rights and international conflicts. Issues are emerging at global level whether one likes it or not. Peace and security depends on their resolution at the global level. Peace and Security are indivisible. You cannot preserve peace and security in one region while you fail to preserve them in the others. Peace and Security are the basic purposes of the UN and they can only be fulfilled by taking a holistic approach.