July 29, 2008
Courtesy Of Asia Times Online
This week's 15th ministerial summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran represents an excellent opportunity for the developing world to sound its sirens about the mismanagement of the global order and to be "more proactive", as suggested by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has praised NAM as the "voice of a new and more powerful South". [1]
In the context of a slowing world economy, rising economic woes for many NAM member states [2], particularly those in the lowest bracket known as the least-developed countries, adversely affected by the double blows of soaring energy and food prices, it is abundantly clear that in the full range of issues on NAM's plate, the bread and butter issues of economic development cannot, and should not, take a back seat to other issues such as peace, security, human rights and cultural diversity.
Unfortunately, NAM is ill-equipped to tackle economic issues and in the post-Cold War milieu has proved more apt in addressing political, that is, war and peace, issues, given NAM's hopeless effort to revitalize the UN's economic arm, the Economic and Social Council, as the main venue for promoting its economic agenda.
Yet, such UN-focused approaches to economic development may be a hope against hope and NAM desperately needs a new and bold initiative on the economic front, otherwise its legitimacy may soon be questioned by its constituents, who happen to be the majority of world's population inhabiting the "Third World".
Pursuing a new level of economic multilateralism, on the other hand, means that NAM must replicate its current coordinating efforts at the UN at other world organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), currently wrapping up the marathon Dohan rounds of negotiations on trade, as well as at world financial institutions.
So far, only feeble steps, for example in the realm of NAM-led international financial cooperation for development, have been envisaged, even though all NAM leaders agree on the need for a new paradigm. In addition to 118 member states, eight regional organizations have observer status at NAM, which could benefit greatly from a more spirited NAM initiative on the global economy.
As a fount of global policy, NAM's key challenge is precisely how to prove relevant in the face of growing developmental issues bedeviling its "family of nations". Enough bemoaning the retarded achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals that has become a staple of speeches of NAM representatives at the UN. A de-centering of NAM's economic focus from the UN may be necessary, perhaps by envisaging a new economic sub-unit.
NAM has recently taken similar initiatives, such as forming a new center on human rights and cultural diversity that was adopted at a NAM meeting in Tehran last year. There is no logical reason for avoiding an economic center, in addition to the South Center in Geneva that has been acting as a de facto economic arm of the movement. A doubling of NAM's economic efforts, geared to achieve concrete results instead of paper formalities, is essential for a new form of international governance that was dreamt by the movement's founding leaders a half century ago. In terms of historical perspectives, this would be tantamount to taking NAM to the next stage, thus the appropriateness of NAM 2.
With respect to this week's NAM summit of foreign ministers in Tehran, two working committees on political and social-economic issues have already put together a 100-page document, covering an array of regional and global issues - terrorism, human rights, fair trade, sustainable development, poverty-reduction, countering unilateralism, promoting multilateralism, elevating women's status - for adoption as the summit's final communique.
A separate communique regarding Iran's nuclear program is also in the works, which is why Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki requested in his inaugural speech for NAM's support in Iran's bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, given the vote at the UN in this regard in the autumn.
NAM countries should endorse Iran's quest to join the Security Council as this would strengthen the UN-based negotiations on Iran's nuclear program in light of the UN Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran and Iran's related failure to jettison the Security Council from the nuclear row by getting its file back in the hands of International Atomic Energy Agency. What is more, Iran's presence at the Security Council may generate a new momentum in terms of Iran's compliance with the council's resolutions on Iran with regard to its nuclear program.
At the same time, Iran must realize that it may be risking NAM's prestige, as well as legitimacy, if NAM throws its weight behind its current bid to join the Security Council yet without any tangible signs of flexibility on Iran's part to resolve the nuclear standoff. In particular, China, which coordinates its policies with NAM, may suffer a setback diplomatically if it backs Iran's efforts without seeing any sign of improvement in the nuclear crisis.
Still, with disarmament on its agenda, NAM has the opportunity to utilize the Iranian, and even North Korean, nuclear issues to put heat on the nuclear-have states to stop their current nuclear arms modernization programs and to instead provide real signs of genuine disarmament. And this is precisely where Iran, a self-declared "frontline state in NAM's movement", to paraphrase Mottaki, can play a pivotal role by linking the Security Council's discussions on Iran with discussions of disarmament.
In conclusion, the international challenges of NAM are daunting and, given the sheer size and divergence of interests and allegiances of its member states, it is actually a small miracle that NAM has not lost its momentum in the post-Cold War era. All the same, its viability remains fragile and subject to the creative acumen of its leadership, which must now insert NAM fully into heated economic debates - about revised globalization, new South-South and North-South dynamics, food crises, world agricultural policies, otherwise the specter of failure looms large.
Note
1. Despite his stated support for the NAM, secretary general Ban Ki-moon has not been adequately cognizant of NAM's concerns, as reflected in his recent report on reform of the development pillar of the UN, which has triggered a critical response by NAM representatives at the UN expressing "disappointment that the views, priorities and role of developing nations ... are not adequately reflected in the report".
2. The Non-Aligned Movement is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded in April 1955; as of 2008, it has 118 members.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction. For his Wikipedia entry, click here.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved.)
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