3. Peacebuilding News

In an online discussion meeting organized by the Kyoto Peacebuilding Center and supported by the Peacebuilding Association of Japan and ACUNS Tokyo Office held on 12 January, President José Ramos-Horta called for reforming the Security Council to meet the traditional and new challenges posed to Humanity, particularly by Artificial Intelligence by expanding the numbers of permanent and non-permanent members to overcome the legacy of the Cold War. Ambassador Shinyo found it necessary to abolish the permanent membership in the long run and create a new forum for cooperation not only between the Great Powers but also between the so-called global or middle-power countries and the Global South. Mr. Chikvaidze suggested a major restructuring to include G20 members and the African Union in the UN Security Council. Please see the details of their views by clicking here.

Franz Baumann, the new ACUNS President, suggests that while the climate crisis is, in fact, a fossil fuel crisis, the old mantra that mitigating global heating can be achieved without cost, inconvenience, or change is fading. Whatever Big Oil’s rearguard actions, the open question is: Before the climate tips, will whatever is politically possible prove to be ecologically sufficient, or will the ecologically necessary miraculously become politically possible? The answer is if only that plan from Rio would be resuscitated. Please click here for his full article.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mahathir, who visited Japan to attend the Japan-Asian Summit, gave an interview to NHK on December 15, and stated that while Southeast Asia has become a site of intense conflict between the United States and China, Japan has set itself apart from both countries. He urged that Japan should develop its own unique diplomacy based on its own vision.　See his interview with NHK.

The United Nations has just issued a report indicating that many UN peace operations are now in a spate of drawdowns, reconfigurations, and terminations. For the full report, please click here.

On 9 November 2023, Professor Ibrahim Gambari joined the Director of UNU-IAS, Prof. Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi, in a conversation on “Global Crises and United Nations Response and Innovations: Lessons Learned, Challenges and Prospects.” Professor Gambari is the former Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, and the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for political and other affairs. In response to questions, he pointed out the lack of national and international leadership as the main reason for the world’s inability to address challenging interlinked global crises, including climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflict in Ukraine and Gaza. He thought the UN Security Council needed to be reformed to reflect the actual state of the world, consisting of more countries and populations that existed when the United Nations was created more than 75 years ago.

Hans von Sponeck, Former UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, expresses his outrage about the hypocrisy of heads of state and foreign ministers flocking to Tel Aviv with one-sided messages and adding the fig leaf not to forget humanitarian aid and completely ignoring the context, the ‘why’ it all happened. Please click here for his full message.

NODA Shoko-san was appointed on 28 September by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as the next Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator, and Director of the Crisis Bureau of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Please click here for the announcement by the United Nations.