THE UNITED NATIONS AND COOPERATIVE MULTILATERALISM.

• Author: Aravena, Francisco Rojas

The international changes associated with the post-cold-war period demand a reinvention of the United Nations. This is a great opportunity for the Millennium Assembly. The structural reform of the United Nations is still unresolved after a decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Organization will either occupy a central place as a global institution in the new millennium, or it will cease to be an instrument that is able to confront the big challenges of humanity.

The revitalization of the United Nations suggests the development of an institution capable of accounting for the international changes in relation to the number of actors, including their power capacities and the complex processes involved, such as globalization. The reinforcement of multilateralism through the United Nations will allow for an organization with new characteristics: more plural, greater participation, more legitimacy, better degree of representation, more democratic, updated capacities of administration and finally, increased political weight. This will be translated in the Organization's capacity to change the international environment in order to reach its fundamental objectives.

To date, the United Nations has been maintained inside the inertia of the old world. It is necessary to give a qualitative leap and recognize the new realities characterized by a greater number of State actors, with incremental levels of asymmetry among them (financial, technological, military) which suggests greater inequity. Not only this, the State is no longer the sole actor; it is necessary to recognize the growing presence and influence of transnational organizations. These actors are found immersed in a process in which globalization defines the current trends, and the various means of communication accelerate these processes. Some of the fundamental western values begin to have more weight and world meaning, such as the case of human rights. To face this new reality requires a new institutionalism that takes into account the new realities of power and cooperation.

The principal problems of the world are in fact global and they require a global means of action. Due to this immersion in the process of globalization, we require a global vision. We need to prevent the impact and multiple effects that are disseminated in the diverse regions of the planet, related for example to the environment, health and global financial stability. This capacity does not rest with the State...