1. The European Union and the United Nations Partners in Effective Multilateralism
- Author:
- Sven Biscop, Francesco Francioni, Kennedy Graham, Tânia Felício, Jeffrey Laurenti, Thierry Tardy, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- In a famous speech to the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September 2003, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a reflection process on the future of the organisation. He pointed out: we have come to a fork in the road. This may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the United Nations was founded. At that time, a group of far-sighted leaders, led and inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were determined to make the second half of the twentieth century different from the first half. They saw that the human race had only one world to live in, and that unless it managed its affairs prudently, all human beings may perish. So they drew up rules to govern international behaviour, and founded a network of institutions, with the United Nations at its centre, in which the peoples of the world could work together for the common good. Now we must decide whether it is possible to continue on the basis agreed then, or whether radical changes are needed.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Europe