Page 185 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

6. Three years ago, the UN Secretariat - the executive arm of the
Organization - started the re-evaluation of its priorities and a radical
restructuring, overstretching of its resources in an attempt to do more with less.
However, the enhancement of the work of the Secretariat is just one side of the
UN reform. The other which is much more important is the reform of the
pattern of interaction among the UN Member States. Multilateral negotiations
within the UN should become much faster, more democratic and efficient.
There is also plenty of room for the improvement and refining of the decision-
making procedures. The relations between the main UN organs such as the
Security Council and the General Assembly need to be streamlined and the
functions of some of them reconsidered. Responsibility should become a
catchword for collective actions of the UN Member States. The sooner they
undertake this measures the better it will be for the UN.

7. Today, the world and accordingly the UN had entered unchartered and
dangerous waters of a transitional period. Still there is a hope and in fact a good
chance for the World Organization to overcome its present difficulties. This
belief is based, first of all, on the fact that the world needs the UN. The growing
economic interdependence and social and cultural cross-penetration makes it
imperative to maintain a mechanism for worldwide cooperation in dealing with
a wide-range of global issues. There is a growing understanding that the United
Nations is a safety net which can minimize the damaging effect of the change.
As the UN Secretary-General, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali said recently in San
Francisco, “We are the custodians of the dream of global cooperation. We will
not let it perish. As long as people seek national identities; as long as people
seek protection from aggression; and as long as people yearn for a better world
for their children, the United Nations will endure, and it will succeed.”

8. The most important fact is that the UN knows where to go and what to
do - it has the vision of the future. The international system of the future which
the World Organization is striving to implement will be based on the “Triad of
Survival” formulated by the Secretary-General - peace, development and
democracy. As far as peace is concerned, the current modest achievements in
the field of collective action on conflict prevention and resolution, as well as on
arms limitation and disarmament will further develop into a cooperative system
of security.

9. This system will have three major dimensions. Firstly, it is common
security which means that no State can be secure at the expense of the other.
Secondly, it is comprehensive security which covers not only traditional,

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