Published: 15/04/2024, Work In Progress
For several hundred years great powers have been playing "the Great Game". This has resulted in a tremendous loss of life, even shortly after we said "Never Again" after WWII (with the Nakba, the war in Burma and the Korean War), with countless massacres and over a dozen genocides, in part due to great power competition. If you take the cosmopolitan view, much of great power competition which devolved into war has resulted in either a classicide (mass killing of a class, usually the poor that are enlisted to fight wars, or the rich during revolutions), pedicide (killing of children), androcide (killing of men), femmicide (killing of women) or juvicide (killing of young people, usually military aged men - a term I've just invented now) and many other kinds of mass killings. There are also deeper questions in relation to the concept of genocide that I address here. In a time that is as tense as it is now, good news are important, and the best news that I've seen according to this Wikipedia page, is that deaths in most armed conflicts between 2023 and 2024 have halved.
The frame of reference that I encourage readers to take is contained in the two hypotheticals below:
1) Imagine that we are in a different timeline - one where the Soviet Union has just dissolved, and the other where WWII just ended and the Chinese Civil War ended at exactly the same time. Now imagine these two timelines superimposed on each other, with consideration to the fact that nobody ever chose the location or circumstances of their birth, and that no one ever will. The three questions that the international community, in a rare moment of coming together, should consider are:
How should the world order function for the coming future?
What are our greatest threats to our collective co-existence?
How do we codify the lessons of the past into the founding documents of domestic and international institutions?
2) Imagine that you are a soul that could be born as anyone anywhere at any time - what political and economic system would you like to be born into?
Other questions worth keeping in mind when reading the rest of this publication include;
How should justice be administered for the wars, genocides and other mistakes of the past?
Should any new states be created or consolidated, why, and should any borders be redrawn and why?
How should economically critical resources be allocated?
How should trade-route bottlenecks and security be administered?
What justifies military intervention and violation of territorial integrity, for security interventions such as humanitarian interventions and to exercise the Responsibility to Protect?
Who should exercise the right for such intervention, why, and under which triggers and circumstances?
What would our ancestors and future generations wish to see us change about the state of our world if they had access to perfect information? What would they have done differently if they could redo or undo something they did before?
What changes would animals wish to see us make about the state of our world if they could have a voice?
How should individual and group freedoms be maximised without any individuals or groups having to make contributions that are unacceptable to them, without a need for any sacrifices, and who should we expect to contribute more resources, time or effort?
What are the reasonable and unreasonable constraints with respect to the maximisation and/or constraint of individual and/or group freedoms, and what are the international community's boundaries for tolerance?
This is a very abridged list of all the things I'm thinking about, and I will soon publish much of the rest including (hopefully my last publications) on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as well as on xenophobia, the upcoming Australian election and maybe a couple of other things. These things take time to imagine, require a ridiculous effort with respect to how much attention needs to be paid to the zeitgeist, in a world which is very short on time.
Before I reviewed the list of the bodies that compose the United Nations I came up with the following list of bodies, based on my current understanding of great power politics, to restrain great power competition, provide avenues for cooperation to answer the above and many other questions for the greater benefit of humankind without sacrificing sovereignty and while empowering a cosmopolitan democracy without the establishment of a world government, the enablement of international capital and corporate influence from interfering in the democratic process and the internal political process of countries. The intent here is to essentially invert the moral vector for great power competition. In other words - great powers should be competing not on the basis of how much damage they can do to another great power, or how much influence they can get through forms of coercive leverage, but in pro-social forms which benefit the least advantaged persons everywhere.
Suggested organs of power for a reformed United Nations (names designed with memorable and comedic effect) which can consolidate existing organs for improved outcomes and service delivery, or created if listed functions do not exist;
ESRUS - Emergency Search Rescue and Utility Service
Rapid formation of teams and capabilities from differing jurisdictions
For search and rescue efforts
And provision of utilities for life support
UNAGI - United Nations Auditor's General Inspectorate
Equivalent function to VAGO/ANAO - for Auditing the performance and finances of international institutions, with a consolidated, transparent and regularly updated performance measures dashboard for each level of the international governance system
Composed of peak auditors of all UN Security Council members, and other states and entities through some inclusive selection process reporting publicly on a quarterly basis
With an open-source tool that can leverage IoT and AI for;
Real time data collection and reporting from all organs of power listed here
Enabling the tracking trends in historical data and well as projections and models (given current variables - what is the range of expected and conceivable outcomes in a given system) and inversions (given a target value of a variable or targets for variable set in a given system - what is the range of expected and conceivable systems)
Which can also be used by any government in any jurisdiction to report to the public on;
Performance outcomes against set targets, and the rationales for said targets
Distribution of all resources expended, to be expended, saved due to efficiency or productivity gains or due to reallocation and the reasons for savings or reallocations
Shortfalls
Reasons for shortfalls
Expected amount of resources needed to cover shortfalls
Ad-hoc measures taken to prevent shortfalls
Iterative measures taken to continuously improve systems
Strategies for the administration of ad-hoc and iterative measures
Factors affecting the stability of collaboration and cooperation on collective action problems between each pole in the multi-polar world order such as
Coherence (predictability of outcomes based on fulfilment or exceeding of mutual obligations and set targets) - a driver of political, social and economic stability (aka cooperation of all parties in a prisoners dilemma problem)
Decoherence (loss of predictability of outcomes based on non-fulfilment or shortfalls in fulfilment of mutual obligations and set targets) - a driver of political, social and economic instability (aka defection of one or all parties in a prisoners dilemma problem)
Ideas for investigations include;
Coordinating an investigation with the appropriate authorities of sovereign governments on the penetration of cabinets of sovereign governments by WEF, and any other non-state entities and for any related purposes not directly and/or explicitly consented to by a physical person
Coordinating an investigation on the origins of COVID 19, mRNA vaccine risk analysis, the extent to which considerations relating to company profits had an effect on the loss of human life, proportionality of governmental responses to virus risk based on lethality, transmissivity and virulence and extents of pandemic preparedness, identification of any currently existing research that may create pandemic risks, all facilities where this research is undertaken and involved parties
Coordinating an investigation on private sector influence on government policy, private sector collusion in affecting inflation rates and election outcomes including via price fixing, market monopolisation and any other levers used to affect public sentiment in relation to policy of any individual government
Coordinating an investigation into consulting firm influence on and relationships between
Tax policy advice to governments and tax policy advice to the private sector including but not limited to consulting firms with a particular focus on
Offshore tax havens, corporate and high-net-worth tax avoidance and tax evasion strategies
Military industrial complexes, offshore tax havens, private equity firms, pension and sovereign wealth funds
Private earnings that were influenced by consulting firm policy advice and any relationships between foreign, defense and tax policy advice and any coordination on said advice between consulting firms and countries
Coordination between consulting firms in the development of transnational policy advice as well as
Whether any advice provided considered matters of national, state, public interests and privileged those interests above corporate interests and the profit motive, the basis as well as detail in relation to delegations registers and authorisation procedures involved in the provision of any advice on matters of national, state or public interest, and any evaluation processes and measures taken to ensure advice consistency with the national, state or public interest
Whether any considerations other than the profit motive have influenced advice provided to any sovereign government and any of its constituent parts (eg; state, local governments), such as parent-company interests or the national interest of the country in which the head office of the consulting company, collaborating companies or parent companies are located, or any other jurisdiction's national and state interests apart from the jurisdiction to which any advice is being provided
Coordinating an investigation on human trafficking networks
Coordinating an investigation on prevalence and extent of modern slavery, including but not limited to wage, debt and sexual slavery
Coordinating an investigation on the existence, frequency and purposes of use of weather modification technology, tectonic weapons and any other systems capable of having global and transcontinental effects by unilateral decision of individual sovereign states
Coordinating an investigation on the existence of non-human intelligence, non-human biologics and recovered craft of non-human origins
IRLS - Intelligence Reporting and Leads Service
Collective of representatives of the intelligence community from each UN Security Council member
For the prevention of terrorism, fraud, extortion and any other actions and crimes which can be coordinated by organised crime networks on a transnational scale
For the identification of actions which violate the consent of states and actions which can be construed as violating state sovereignty
Information sharing between intelligence systems
In consistency with the laws, legislatures and executives in each jurisdiction
Quarterly and ad-hoc public interest and security televised reports to the global public
CRAP - Climate Response and Adaptation Plenary
First Nations and Indigenous + Underrepresented people (especially those most immediately affected by climate change, environmental destruction, rising sea levels, etc) + COP + Corporations + NGOs
Establishment of an international mechanism to balance access to affordable energy and reduce climate emissions in line with the Paris Agreement
Utilisation of Artificial Intelligence to reverse-engineer energy, environment and climate policy settings and pathways based on achieving net-zero emissions by 2030 and other scenarios with built-in iterative revision mechanisms
GFC - Global Finance Collective
International financing on the principle of "greatest difference to the least advantaged" (not maximum viable profit)
NFP Financing - social, environmental and developmental outcomes and impact focus
A common, internationally transparent marketplace for for-profit project bids
Design and deployment of infrastructure and systems for
the enforceable closure of all tax loopholes and havens between jurisdictions and the establishment and enforcement of a trans-jurisdictional international tax regime which respects the rights of individual jurisdictions
a common marketplace with transparently displayed details for project bids put up by consortia (offers) and individual jurisdictions (offers and requests) federal, state, local backing of bidders for
developing economies, to be subsidised by development banks and funds
developed economies
which follows best-practice procurement principles such as
minimum 3 detailed publicly viewable and scruitinizable bids
individual jurisdictions (requesters) always having
the final say on project risk tolerance
total independence from offerors
separate project pools (measured by number of allowed variations)
Custom - unlimited number of project variations
Fixed - maximum 3-5 project variations which can be exercised at set project milestones
Off the plan - no project variations permissible
a pool of funding composed of foreign aid, voluntary contributions, foreign direct investment and sovereign wealth funds (from the largest economies and high-net-worth individuals and companies) to multilaterally incentivise;
Sustainable economic development where the almighty GDP isn't used as the main metric of progress
Renewable energy, nuclear power, electrified roads, power lines which don't cause bushfires and other technologies based on net-zero targets
Transnational and transcontinental infrastructure projects
Cross-cultural connection
Local trade and logistical facilities
Resource and reserve identification
Targeting regions of net migration outflow due to armed conflict, environmental disasters, climate change and economic instability and
Targeting industries in developed and other large economies that can enhance abovementioned multilateral service and project delivery capabilities
SCAN - Space Collaboration and Activity Network
Cleaning up and recycling defunct satellites
Orbital regulation and licensing system
Extra-terrestrial threat identification and information sharing
Asteroid mining
BASEDS - Border Adjudication and Sea Extent and Demarcation Service
Border dispute resolution service
Settlement of sea demarcations
Such as the South China Sea dispute
Focus on consistent application of resolution principles between disputes
Agnostic to geopolitical relations and systems of government
IPA - Intellectual Property Agency
Determination and identification of intellectual property which is a matter of global public interest
Acquisition of intellectual property rights
to further access to and the development of basic free to use open source software for all purposes
to advance global public health, safety, and other causes in the global public interest
as was done with seat belts by Volvo, the constituent items in the intellectual property pool should be available to all governments, companies and private individuals at no cost
should be done with cures for cancer, diabetes and other diseases ensuring free global universal access
Recommendation of global regulations for big tech relating to maximisation of individual freedom and data sovereignty by countries and individuals
PURES - Plastic Use Recovery and Extraction Service
Coordinates extraction of plastic from the earth-system
Coordinates termination of plastic production worldwide (except biodegradeables)
Identifies plastic waste production and dissipation vectors
Optimises plastic waste extraction, recovery and extraction vectors
GRIETVA - Gender, Religion, Ideology and Education and Traditional Values Association
Development of an international baseline of standards and boundaries of reasonable disagreement relating to education systems
Promotion of inter-cultural tolerance and respect of human rights across value systems
Promotion of historiographical education and the awareness that historiography, state ideology, religion (or lack thereof) have a direct effect on human consciousness and individual wellbeing
Promotion of all levels of dialogue between custodians of different traditional and non-traditional value system systems
Raising awareness of the human rights charter, religious minorities, their belief systems as well as queer, disabled and other marginalised communities
Facilitation of lower-secondary historiographical education, especially in relation to perspectives of neighbouring countries and the relationship of their 'national consciousness' with one's country of birth/residence
Establishment of criteria for jurisdictional exclusion from adherence to said norms and standards (such as UNDRIP, religious principles and sanctity of the family unit as well as individual and group rights)
CARES - Conflict, Aggression, Recovery and Emergency Service
Early-phase conflict prevention and resolution
Identification of event sequences preceding conflict and aggression between state actors
Iterative improvement of procedures to de-escalate and return conflicting parties to negotiations
Determination on deployment of ESRUS or DAR service
Restoration coordination with GFC, CRAP and STAIRS, referral power for BASS
HART - Human and Animal Rights Tribunal
Ruling on what constitutes human and animal rights abuse
Determination of standards of treatment of animals, ecosystems and intersections with the use of animals and ecosystems as resources
MAIPS - Metadata, Artificial Intelligence and Privacy Service
Determination of cross-jurisdictional boundaries of reasonable disagreement in Artificial Intelligence development
Expropriation and/or nationalisation of all private citizen data and metadata collected by
Tech companies
Other private and public companies
Intelligence systems
Data brokers
Foreign (for a given citizen) governments
Creation of a single portal for each individual containing a consolidated catalogue of all existing metadata, collection sources as well as settings that can enable each physical person to;
Toggle the sharing settings of personal data and metadata at the following levels;
Device (at user interface level within each device)
App / Program
Service provider
Parent company
Host country of service provider and/or parent company
Enable physical persons (as well as small and medium sized businesses and non-for-profit organisations) to receive ongoing compensation for choosing to share any data and metadata when it is used for product development and optimisation or licensed to third parties for said purposes upon receipt of multi-factor-authenticated free, prior and informed consent
No compensation is to be received if a physical person chooses not to license their data
Compensation should be distributed on the basis of
50% of the value of data generated by each physical person to the person who generated it
50% "greatest difference for the least advantaged" within and between jurisdictions (meaning for this share, regardless of the value of the data generated by each physical person, the share is distributed to other physical persons within and across jurisdictions who need it most as determined by the will of the people)
The entire licensing chain, including any and all parties who have access to a physical person's data (who chose to share said data) should be transparent and visible for and only for said person, with the exception of service providers and government oversight authorities
This should be termed as "data sovereignty" in public discourse, considering how laxed big tech has been with its acquiescence to giving our data to
Facilitate an international debate led by experts from tech, privacy, ethics and moral philosophy and the intelligence community relating to
What should the extent of a government's right to access and retain any data (regardless of a person's individual choice be?)
The legitimacy criteria for the utilisation of said data for
Crime prevention and response
Advertising
Medical diagnosis and treatment recommendations
Employment and other opportunities
And any other purposes that may be considered as invasive by citizens of any jurisdiction
A physical persons right to delete data from the abovementioned catalogue
Whether any data should be excluded from the 'right to delete' provisions
Data storage integrity protocols and locations
International baseline as well as opt-out and exclusion criteria for individual jurisdictions and physical persons
TRADEES - Treaties Recourse Appraisal Determination Expropriation and Ejectment Service
This is an institution to constrain competition, promote mutual cooperation, cohesion and prosperity while retaining state sovereignty restoring international law and human rights norms
One of its first tasks should be to establish a process to review international law, the "rules" of the "rules based order" and human rights norms in reverse chronological order from some future point going back to;
The dissolution of USSR
The end of WWII
The end of WWI
The end of the Napoleonic Wars
The end of Thirty Years War
The beginning of the Doctrine of Discovery and the era of naval colonisation
With the purpose of reducing the levels of social unrest and division
And develop an overlapping consensus on a list of outstanding treaties yet to be signed (such as between the Australian Government and the First Nations of Australia)
As well as identify logical, ideological, values-based and principles-based conflicts within the body of "international law" and reconcile it with the principles and precedents of the "rules based order"
And suggest and facilitate negotiations on sets of reconciliation pathways for each those conflicts for a reformed UN Security Council, General Assembly and other relevant bodies to consider
This should take as long as necessary to allow for maximum inclusion, democratic engagement (within and between jurisdictions), procedural fairness and the atonement for historical injustice, but also tethered to urgencies relating to existential threats such as climate change
Many countries who are independent today emerged as a result of a process of "decolonisation" which in many cases put them into debt-slavery to a financial consortium behind their now seemingly consolidated financial system of former colonial powers. Many of these countries were not present during many of the negotiations for the architecture of international relations that exists today, so to preserve and build upon what has already been achieved, this suggestion would create an inclusive pathway to reconciling issues in and consolidating the structures of the evolving world order
Power to make determinations for SAFERS to facilitate pathways for declarations of sovereignty, peaceful accession to neighbouring states, formation of new states, expropriation of wealth acquired from unjust enrichment, ejectment of foreign interference as well as restitution for historical injustices
Any parties putting new resolutions to the UN must collaborate with TRADEES in ensuring that
there is congruence with matters resolved in TRADEES, determined by internal coherence and alignment with priorities/foundations/fundamentals/constitutions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
that there is a return clause within each resolution to enable revision of said resolution subject to a total reconciliation of conflicts of principle within international law as well as within and between all international covenants and agreements or
until the international community has, on three separate occasions reached a supermajority (such as 75%) on this process no longer being necessary
SCONE - Supply Chain Operations Network and Exchange
An internationally accessible common pool for licensing supply chain services between countries and constituent jurisdictions
Prioritising access for areas in greatest need of basic goods and services
SAFERS - Sovereignty Accession Formation Ejectment and Restitution Service
Collective of all groups claiming sovereign or independent status within constituent nation-states of the United Nations (including all separatist groups engaged in armed conflict)
Collaboration relating to the pursuit of greater rights and autonomy status prioritising the unity of countries and supranational unions
Facilitate negotiations relating to accession of nation-states to other nation-states
Identify criteria for legitimate and peaceful pathways to autonomy, independence (as an absolute last resort, with binding requirement of the independent state becoming a part of a supranational union of the state from which it seceded), recovery of land, restitution and reparations
ISD - Infectious Substances Disclosure
First task - progressive total disclosure in relation to the origins and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic
There is clearly a global mandate to violate any commercial-in-confidence principles for the purposes of fulfilling the global public interest relating to this disclosure
DARTS - Drug and Alcohol Regulation and Trafficking Prevention Service
Power to direct SCONE
Receives intel from IRLS
Identification of and prevention of human trafficking and human slavery, including debt slavery
Identification of supply chains involved in fentanyl and other substance production and international coordination on the termination of their distribution to and within jurisdictions which prohibit said substance
Establishment of best-practice rehabilitation centres in addiction hot-spots, based on the best-available empirical and clinical evidence as well as self-reported recovery outcomes
DARE - Defense Armament and Restraint Executive
Peak security and arms-control body for multilateral cooperation
Coordinate strategic cooperation between armed forces of different jurisdictions
Targeted prevention of small-arms, ammunition and explosives proliferation as well as componentry which can be used to create said items
Prevent and reverse nuclear weapons proliferation while establishing new and consolidating existing security mechanisms
Facilitate multilateral cooperation to end conflicts by terminating ammunition and arms supplies
Pressure military-industrial complexes to de-lethalise security services across jurisdictions with minimal capability sacrifices
STAIIRS - Stabilisation Transformation Integration Investment Reconstruction Service
Coordinate immediate post-conflict and post-disaster recovery and development efforts
LADDERS - Leasing Licensing Distribution Development and Economic Reform Service
Coordinate targeted medium-long post-conflit and post-disaster development efforts between a given country and the international community as well as the private and non-for-profit sectors
CORPUS - Central Operations Response Planning and Execution Service
Central administration to
Coordinate these services, their decentralisation and progressive devolution in post-conflict areas
Coordinate with relevant parties for iterative improvement of these services
Coordinate regular reporting on expenditure, attainment of targets and opportunities for feedback and improvement with UNAGI
CURES - Currency Utilisation and Exchange System
Dissolution of the Bank of International Settlements and its replacement with an International Currency System - Energy Credits, which can be linked to national currencies
2 tiers:
Renewable Energy Credits (Solar, Wind, Tidal, Green Hydrogen, Geothermal, etc) - suggested 25% currency unit subsidy from GFC (or necessary amount to reach consensus climate targets) - suggested name; Ethica
non-Carbon Energy Credits (Nuclear, Hydro, Blue Hydrogen, Combined Cycle power plants) - suggested 15% currency unit subsidy from GFC (or necessary amount to reach consensus climate targets) - suggested name; Pragma
Subsidy means that in this case, for each Energy Credit generated a % is added to exchanged currency unit received upon exchange from GFC
Linkable to bank accounts, convertible to all currencies, measured in joules, megajoules, gigajoules etc
Can be generated at home with solar, wind, water wheels or exercise machines and stored in batteries and sold into the power grid, democratising power generation and the power grid and reducing income inequity
Global carbon credit and debit market which enables convertibility of monetary or other debt and other exchanges to Energy Credits
RASSH - Refugee and Asylum Seeker Settlement Hub
Integration of governances between refugee and asylum seeking outflow and inflow countries. In the latter case, countries with excess housing, settleable territory or demographic problems should consider this as an opportunity to address multiple problems simultaneously.
Collaboration between the international community to shelter, care for, and reverse the flow of mass and illegal immigration after
Resolution of armed conflicts
Stabilisation of governments
Occurrence of disasters
Climate change refugee inflow zone identification and resettlement preparation
Coordinating with STAIIRS and LADDERS to utilise the creation of prosperity hubs as a tool for reversing the vectors of illegal immigration, refuge and asylum seeking
Suggested reforms to the UN Security Council and the broader international governance system along the principles of a 'Multipolar Cosmopolitan Democracy' which pursues a global ethic of mutually assured cooperation and prosperity;
A new UN Security Council version 1
Abolition of all UN Security Council memberships
Establishment of 3 permanent seats for
NATO/ANZUS/Quad
SCO
and a third entity composed of newly formed International Youth Council, International Women's Council, Under-represented countries, Marginalised voices as well as First Nations and Indigenous Peoples
The groups constituting this third entity should each also receive representation in the UN General Assembly with the same voting rights as a nation-state
Decisions on humanitarian and other security interventions can occur on a 2/3 majority basis but with the third entity being the sole to hold a veto
This set of reforms is designed to temporarily preserve the existence of the two security blocs
A new UN Security Council version 2
Dissolution of NATO/ANZUS/Quad and SCO
Additional members to hold veto power (including one's that do not yet exist) such as
First Nations and Indigenous Peoples Federation (composed of First Nations and Indigenous Peoples irrespective of whether they have been counterparties to treaties in the settler-colonial states that they were colonised by, or are represented by existing sovereign states)
Abrahamic Federal Republic (State of Palestine, State of Israel, Arab Republic of Egypt, Kingdom of Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic being the ideally founding states)
India
ASEAN
Pacific Federal Republic (Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island states, or also in union with ASEAN) or Commonwealth of Nations (Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Fiji, etc)
Latin/South American Union
African Union
European Union/Federation (consolidating the votes of Britain and France into one, presuming Britain chooses to rejoin the EU)
United States / North American Union / American Union
State of the Union or Slavic Union or Eastern European Federation
China (PRC and Taiwan)
Under-represented countries (those which do not fit into any of the above entities)
International Youth Council (composed of members below 35 years old, or some other cut-off for the term "youth", from the abovementioned bodies, who otherwise are not state representatives)
International Women's Council (composed of women from any country that is a part of the United Nations to improve the international representation of women and women's interests in matters relating to international security)
Marginalised voices (marginalised communities like the international queer community, religious minorities as well as other marginalised and under-represented groups)
Totalling 15, this version of the new Security Council should require 4 members to vote against for a decision to be vetoed, always ideally striving for consensus
The UN General Assembly should be able to veto a veto of the new UN Security Council by a single 67% vote
Subsequently, the International Youth Council alone should be able to veto a UN General Assembly veto and requires
Maximum 3 meetings to agree to a veto of a UN General Assembly veto
67% voting threshold for a vote, but always ideally consensus
Maximum diversity of representation and inclusion
These are two examples of a set of reforms which, I think would;
Improve the quality of decisions made in the international governance system
Reduce the speed of decision making, creating a higher-bar for security interventions, but also enabling the international community a clear and robust pathway to facilitate security interventions and transparently articulate the causes for intervention
Prevent the abuse of a veto by a establishing a pathway for any resolutions to be carried even if a veto is used, with multiple layers of overlapping consensus
Create a set of checks and balances on great-power competition
Create a set of avenues for cooperation between great powers
Maximise inclusion of all groups in critical decisions for an interconnected world which will continue to only get smaller due to globalisation
Restore legitimacy to international institutions in the eyes of the global public, utilising new and existing democratic processes (whether direct or de-financialised representative democracy on an international scale) while retaining existing governance systems and structures of countries
Provide pathways for resolution of the worlds most complex problems while empowering democracy and giving a greater voice to the least advantaged members of the international community
Provide a pathway for legitimate security interventions that would have international consensus, be binding, enforceable and actionable with strong and un-overturnable, well reasoned mandates
The only other means to legitimise security interventions should be those determined within the established frameworks of a new UN Security Council member, or its constituent state/region/organ of power (and the request to terminate said intervention by a resolution which starts at the new UN Security Council should be binding and enforceable, meaning that a state should desist or itself face the risk of a security intervention by the international community). One problem with this model is the existence of nuclear weapons, and the potential of their use for any purpose other than against extra-terrestrial threats, which is why the above process should be undertaken alongside international nuclear disarmament.
The abovementioned reforms would also help set new boundaries for reasonable disagreements within and between new Security Council members and help establish;
better reaction and response protocols to rhetorical, diplomatic, economic, material and military escalations and other kinds of leverage
codes of conduct for appropriate and inappropriate uses of geopolitical leverage and referrals to 'CARES' when an inappropriate degree of leverage has been used or in an inappropriate way (such as deployment of state-sponsored terrorism, funding or support for separatist and other political movements in the countries of your 'strategic competitors' or catalysing regime change in countries neighbouring strategic competitors). 'CARES' should also commence its work by developing consensus for a logic tree/protocol with minimal and sufficient conditions for the deployment of economic and diplomatic sanctions by individual states, regional unions, the new Security Council, the General Assembly and the entire international community
These reforms would also help advance various humanitarian causes and empower marginalised voices untethered to domestic and foreign policies of individual countries, facilitating pragmatic relations between countries irrespective of any metrics or measures
The abovementioned reforms are designed to eventually integrate and abolish the functions of NATO/ANZUS/Quad and SCO but have no effect on bilateral, multilateral agreements or national sovereignty while empowering groups who have a shared group interest or group identity and/or see themselves as a nation but are not a part of the nation-state system
Current international security dynamics are deeply conceptually flawed.
The etymological definition of the word 'security' is "a state or condition of being safe from danger or harm"
Is this new arms race that we are seeing making your citizens feel safer from danger or harm?
We've unsuccessfully tried colonial multipolarity (Age of 'Discovery' - WWII)
We've unsuccessfully tried a bipolar world order (WWII - dissolution of USSR)
We've unsuccessfully tried a unipolar world order (dissolution of USSR - 2023)
We haven't tried decolonised multipolarity in a globalised setting, or a tripolar world
We've tried 'peace through strength', and that has only led to wars and geopolitical games which result in escalation ladders
We've tried 'peace through escalation dominance', and in the 21st century that's only led to war
We've tried 'peace through capitulation', that also eventually resulted in wars
We haven't tried peace through shifting leverage vectors and "imposing costs" into creative domains of peaceful conflict resolution
We haven't tried making the geopolitical concept of "prestige" be something that is aspired through who can do most to better others, while bettering themselves
We need to invert the logic of imposing costs, because it clearly doesn't work (and arguably, considering the geopolitical climate today - has never worked considering the (almost immediate) failure of each and every security architecture ever designed, including the UN Security Council - shortly after its foundation and shortly after the dissolution of the USSR), and work towards establishing multipolar and multilateral incentive structures
We need to, on a geopolitical level, enable each pole of the multipolar world to use a logic of rewarding other poles with incentives and invert the current vector of great power competition, while empowering those who are less powerful to be on an equal footing
Whenever there have been such tension in history as we see now, the outcome has often been a chain of international meetings - whether it was the Peace of Westphalia, the Vienna Congress, the League of Nations summit, or the formation of the UN after WWII
Each time, great power competition resurged and led to circumstances that the international community tried to avoid for similar but related reasons. The Napoleonic Wars started because of Napoleon's sense of anti-monarchic righteousness, and a desire to spread 'Enlightenment values'. WWI started because of a chain-reaction of alliances that were triggered due to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and early refusals of counterparties to negotiate, despite many being relatives. WWII started because of a set of badly formed outcomes from WWI which due to capitulationist logic sought to humiliate Germany enabling Nazism to rise through the scapegoating and eventual attempt to exterminate Jews, Slavs, Roma, Queer, disabled and other people. The over a dozen genocides and countless wars happened after WWII because of superpower competition (immediately after the "Never again" and the formation of the UN, mind you) - and its still going, and some of them - have been going continuously since then. As a side note, I hope that Germany stops letting itself be defined by its history from one epoch and re-establishes itself as a strong and independent force within Europe and serves its geographically destined role - to keep Europe together.
Following the Summit on peace in Ukraine in Switzerland, and the long-overdue overtures for peace in relation to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and everywhere else there should be a consistent effort to seek immediate ceasefires and start a chain of ongoing international peace conferences which:
include specific countries and all parties in each armed conflict with their demands (irrespective of whether they are nation-states or not)
and a follow-up conference which includes all countries and parties to armed conflicts
considers solutions to all currently ongoing conflicts (starting with those listed on this website)
considers non-military solution pathways to great power competition
determines means of iteratively restraining great power competition for the coming centuries, as well as early conflict prevention, resolution and recourse mechanisms
prepares international multilateral governance mechanisms to meet climate targets though sovereign, inclusive and democratic processes
deals with cultural and social issues in a world that is getting smaller by the day due to technological advancement
addresses differential rates of development on the planet
addresses the issues of equitable resource access, including critical minerals, trade route security and global economic stability
starts the process of reviewing and/or reaffirms international norms, laws, standards and agreements since the formation of the United Nations and before (with the ongoing process to be taken up by TRADEES)
determines compliance and enforcement procedures
arrives at a common set of principles for future conflict resolution between states (whether territorial or non-territorial)
establishes a framework to enable the self-determination of peoples within abovementioned structures while also seeking to maintain the unity of countries, including through the increased formation of supranational unions
Other mechanisms for managing great power competition along with the above, or as a failsafe mechanism for non-Security matters;
Tethering outcomes of some unsettled disputes (irrespective of whether they set precedents or not, but generally when they are minimally consequential relative to principles)
to globally transparent and mutually agreed-upon competition between countries' athletes in specific sporting competitions (such as tennis, Olympics, World Cups, computer games world cups, Formula 1, Formula E, or even co-designing new sports and competitions specifically for the primary purpose of a competitive means to resolve disputes via alternative, non military means where no cooperative agreement can be reached)
to outcomes reached in globally transparent and mutually agreed upon climate targets (such as % reduction of emitted carbon in a given year, or in a given industry)
to outcomes reached in globally transparent mutually agreed upon development, poverty-reduction and other targets in a country or between countries receiving development assistance, as well as competition between construction teams such as during the construction of Petronas Towers by Japan and Korea
Establishing international regulations and common markets for;
Equitable access to critical minerals and rare earths for all economies which operates on the principle of providing the greatest difference to the least advantaged peoples within and between jurisdictions
One example is the establishment of an international common market overlaid by a financing system which, by means of GFC, subsidises purchases of critical minerals and rare earths (and/or other resources) based on a combined index of PHDI and GINI (and/or other alternative but mutually agreed upon key metrics such as GNH, particularly in societies which do not seek or eschew the pursuit of material prosperity)
In other words, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo mining gold and cobalt for China and the US which produce commodities that all of us to then use every day would receive some degree more for the same amount sold (to any purchaser) than an equivalent amount of the same commodity mined in Russia or the US
As a note of rage, for those people who like using phrases like "prosperity comes from hard work" - the most mineral rich country in Africa who's people have literally been slaving away under gunpoint so that we can enjoy cat videos, and the treatment of educators in many parts of the world are both incontrovertible antitheses to such claims
This means that with time, as metrics such as HDI and GINI improve in source-country, the commodity subsidy decreases
This also means that irrespective of regardless of which great power the purchaser is, each of them pay the same market price for the same commodity from the same source-country
This would provide an increased disposable income for the source-country's population, and if coupled with other measures could rapidly improve economic dynamics with maximum choice for the population via a market system which facilitates the sovereign right of every country to determine its political future and ensure the integrity of its existing structures (whether they are capitalist, socialist, communist, monarchist, etc. so long as they align with the UN Charter and Human Rights)
Purchases of refined goods from monopolised markets should be distributed in accordance with the principle of greatest difference to the least advantaged peoples
One example is
A multilaterally or otherwise internationally enforceable investment and corporate tax regime with the figure determined on a needs-basis for outcome-based solutions to global collective action problems such as;
Climate change
Proliferation of plastics and other pollution
Arms control
Planetary rewilding
Elimination of hunger, poverty, child mortality and provision of universal access for utilities, healthcare, education, employment, women's rights and other human rights within the existing structures of communities
Encouragement of equitable and environmentally sustainable development that prevents the need for people to seek refuge and asylum for economic reasons