THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 18 JULY 2019 (At the UNSC, a three-point agenda (The Hindu))

At the UNSC, a three-point agenda (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : International
Prelims level : United Nations Security Council
Mains level : UNSC Sanctions Committee targets

Context

India’s singular objective as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2021-22 should be to help build a stable and secure external environment.
India will promote its own people’s prosperity, regional and global security and growth, and a rule-based world order.
It could emerge a partner of choice for developing and developed countries alike.

Background

India’s representation in the UNSC has become rarer. It is to re-enter the Council after a gap of 10 years.
The previous time, in 2011-12, followed a gap of 20 years.
In total, India has been in the UNSC for 14 years, representing roughly a fifth of the time the United Nations (UN) has existed.
India must leverage this latest opportunity to project itself as a responsible nation.

Changing state of world

India finds itself in a troubled region between West and East Asia, a region bristling with insurgencies, terrorism, human and narcotics trafficking, and great power rivalries.
There has been cataclysmic dislocation in West Asia. The Gulf is in turmoil.
Though the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) has been defeated, Iraq and Syria are not going to be the same as before.
Surviving and dispersed Daesh foot soldiers are likely preparing new adventures, many in their countries of origin.
The turbulence in West Asia is echoed in North and South Asia, a consequence of the nuclear and missile tests by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Afghanistan’s slow but unmistakable unravelling from the support, sustenance and sanctuary provided in its contiguity to groups such as the Haqqani network, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda.
Other problems in Asia include strategic mistrust or misperception, unresolved borders and territorial disputes, the absence of a pan-Asia security architecture, and competition over energy and strategic minerals.

What should India aim to do?

There is no need for India to fritter away diplomatic goodwill in seeking an elusive permanent seat in the UNSC — it will come India’s way more by invitation and less by self-canvassing.
India will have to increase its financial contribution, as the apportionment of UN expenses for each of the P-5 countries is significantly larger than that for India.
Even Germany and Japan today contribute many times more than India. Although India has been a leading provider of peacekeepers, its assessed contribution to UN peacekeeping operations is minuscule.
At a time when there is a deficit of international leadership on global issues, especially on security, migrant movement, poverty, and climate change, India has an opportunity to promote well-balanced, common solutions.

Responsibility to Protect

As a member of the UNSC, India must help guide the Council away from the perils of invoking the principles of humanitarian interventionism or ‘Responsibility to Protect’.
The world has seen mayhem result from this. And yet, there are regimes in undemocratic and repressive nations where this yardstick will never be applied.
Given the fragile and complex international system, which can become even more unpredictable and conflictual, India should work towards a rules-based global order.
Sustainable development and promoting peoples’ welfare should become its new drivers.

UNSC Sanctions Committee targets

India should push to ensure that the UNSC Sanctions Committee targets all those individuals and entities warranting sanctions. Multilateral action by the UNSC has not been possible because of narrowly defined national interest.
As on May 21, 2019, 260 individuals and 84 entities are subject to UN sanctions, pursuant to Council resolutions 1267, 1989, and 2253.
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a larger list of individuals and entities subject to U.S. sanctions.
The European Union maintains its own sanctions list.

Maintaining good relations

India must lead the way by pursuing inclusion, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and rational internationalism.
India should once again become a consensus-builder, instead of the outlier it has progressively become.
A harmonised response is the sine qua non for dealing with global problems of climate change, disarmament, terrorism, trade, and development.
India could take on larger burdens to maintain global public goods and build new regional public goods.

Looking at polycentrism

A rules-based international order helps rather than hinders India, and embracing the multilateral ethic is the best way forward.
India will be a rich country in the future and will acquire greater military muscle, but its people will remain relatively poor.
India is a great nation, but not a great power. Apolarity, unipolarity, a duopoly of powers or contending super-powers — none of these suit India.
India has a strong motive to embrace polycentrism, which is anathema to hegemonic powers intent on carving out their exclusive spheres of influence.

Conclusion

India cannot stride the global stage with confidence in the absence of stable relations with its neighbours. Besides whatever else is done within the UN and the UNSC.
India must lift its game in South Asia and its larger neighbourhood.
Exclusive reliance on India’s brilliant team of officers at its New York mission is not going to be enough.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With respect to “Seva Bhoj Yojna”, consider the following statements:
1. Financial Assistance under the scheme shall be given only to those institutions which are not in receipt of any Financial Assistance from the Central/State Government for the purpose of distributing free food.
2. It is a Central Sponsored Scheme by Ministry of Culture.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both
D. None