CIAO DATE: 11/05

Angels and Dragons: Asia, the UN, reform and the next Secretary-General

Abstract

The relationship between the UN and Asia can seem unfamiliar and distant. Most of New York’s energy is consumed by the Middle East and Africa rather than Northeast, South and Southeast Asia; the international organisation can seem Atlanticist in orientation. On the other side of the Pacifi c Ocean the strict view of state sovereignty adopted by many Asian capitals leads them to keep the UN at arm’s length. As always, however, the story is more complex: we need to differentiate between the UN’s work in Asia on the one hand, and Asian behaviour at the UN on the other. Since 1945, the UN has contributed to the Asian security order but only at the margins, its security role circumscribed by power politics and Asian approaches to security. By contrast, Asian states have always been keen to exercise their prerogatives in New York, viewing their UN activities as a marker of sovereignty and a source of prestige. The Brief reviews this history and sets out the current stances of the three major regional powers — China, India, and Japan — towards the UN.

The next eighteen months will be an important period in UN-Asia relations. A reform process is underway in which Asian states are playing an infl uential role, and Kofi Annan’s successor as Secretary-General is expected to be an Asian. It is argued here that the historical tension in the relationship is evident in contemporary reform discussions, with Asian states more focused on Security Council reform than on those reforms that might conceivably involve the UN more deeply in Asian security issues. Not all capitals are behaving in predictable ways, however. This Issues Brief previews the September World Summit on UN reform and examines the prospects for an Asian Secretary-General, which could thicken Asia’s interactions with the UN.

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