A move towards multilateralism- option or necessity?

By Kuljeet Chandel

(Image source: horasis.org)

It is a paradox that precisely at the time when the alliance of cross national and global challenge has significantly increased, nation states are less willing to cooperate and collaborate in tackling them. Covid-19 recognizes no national or regional boundaries as it rages across the world. One would have expect that countries, particularly those with technological and financial capabilities, would agree to pool their resources together to work on an effective and affordable anti virus vaccine. Instead, there are several parallel national

efforts under way even as the World Health Organization has put to gabble a COVAX alliance for the same purpose.

There is a competitive compulsion at the work which may be appropriate in economic and commercial domains. When the lives of people are at stake, active collaboration would have enhanced our collective ability to overcome what has become a public health cum economic crisis but we live in the era when nationalist urges, fuelled by political opportunism, diminish the appeal of international cooperation.

The post pandemic world will have no choice but the multilateralism with which every state will try and come out of this tormenting sequence of events. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was given to World Food Programme (WFP) in a recognition of its role in combating hunger and malnutrition across the developing countries. But the WFP’s achievement are modest, not because it is an inefficient institution but because it is perennially underfunded. But more

important is the message which this award is sending out to the world that we need multilateralism as an expression of international solidarity. It is also warning that the novel coronavirus pandemic is reversing the substantial gain made in the fight against poverty.

According to the WFP 132 million more people could become malnourished as a consequence of the pandemic. 690 million people go to bed each night on an empty stomach, perhaps another 100 million or more will be added to this number. This counts for a major worldwide catastrophe and unless the conscience of the world is aroused, an alarming number of people will be subjected to living in wretchedness and deprivation. All we can do is hope that the Nobel Peace prize won by WFP will nudge our collective conscience to come together and relieve this looming humanitarian crisis.

United Nations is at the centre of multilateral institution and processes. It is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding while it is a pale shadow of the vision with which it was invested at its founding. Nevertheless, it has kept alive the notion of international solidarity and co-operation. If it has become increasingly marginal in mobilizing international responses to global challenges, the fault lies with the most powerful member countries.

They have resisted efforts to Institute long overdue reforms. It’s structure no longer reflects the changes in power equation that have taken place. When we talk about it in reference to countries such as India being continually denied permanent membership of the Security Council and yet despite this disabilities, the UN is now an essential part of the fabric of international relations. Its role has become even more important precisely because the salience of global issues has expanded and the need for multilateral approaches in

funding solutions has greatly increased.

India has been a consistent advocate of multilateralism and India firmly believes that the path to achieve subscript sustainable peace and prosperity is through multilateralism. As children of planet earth, we must join hands to address our common challenges and

achieve our common goals. Given the scale and urgency of the challenges we confront, we need maximal not minimal responses. The dynamics of negotiation and their outcomes would dramatically change if delegation came with a brief to contribute as much as possible within limitation of resources and demand the minimum in terms of assessed need. This is the international solidarity which is a requirement in this globalized world to handle the dense

interconnections that bind us.

Keeping in mind that the globalization is increasingly being digitalized and there will be more, not less, globalization, this Pandemic has triggered galloping globalization in the digital economy which is driven by technology. As long as technology remains the key driver

of economic growth, there is no escape from globalization.

While we talk about multilateralism, one question inevitably comes to mind- Don’t we need to focus on getting our domestic imperatives right and then think of international cooperation?

Everybody has this sort of thought but in the contemporary world, the line separating the domestic from the external has become increasingly blurred, and in tackling domestic challenges, deeper external engagement is often indispensable. This is certainly true

of climate change. Suppose in India carbon emissions become zero tomorrow, climate change would continue to affect us if others do not also reduce their emissions

and same applies for others things as well. The pandemic originated in a country but soon started spreading across national borders. If there had been a robust and truly global early warning system perhaps it could have been contained.

In current scenario India needs to look after unprotected farmers who are exposed to high health risks and often get bankrupted due to crop failures and the recent policies that were introduced by the government and so, they need to face debilitating health cost. Hence, we

demand greater multilateral cooperation in order to succeed.

Finally it also points to another need for a more democratic world since lack of cooperation from even a single state may hamper the chances of success in tackling a global

challenge. A fresh pandemic, wrapped in any remote corner of the world, may spread throughout the globe.

Prevention cannot be achieved through coercion, but only through cooperation. It is only multilateralism that makes this possible and specifically for India looking at current

state of affairs, more stringent and organized multilateralism or cooperation is required within a country as well.