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A NEW GLOBAL TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL: HONEST BROKER FOR THE WORLD
UNDP-supported study warns that lack of international cooperation leads the world into a downward spiral of "permanent" crises.
To avoid a global "prisoner's dilemma" and repeated tragedies of the commons, study suggests creation of a new UN Global Trusteeship
Council to support Secretary-General in standing for "the common good". Embargoed until 10 May 1999, 12.00 EST The study: Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 MAY, 12.00 HOURS EST New York. -- For the past five decades, the United Nations demonstrated one concept of international trusteeship: it acted as an honest broker between the
"trust territories" of the decolonising world and the former colonial powers. That era of decolonization came to an end by 1994, when Palau's independence completed the UN Trusteeship Council's work and led to the suspension of its
activities. Yet, as Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg and Marc A. Stern contend in Global Public Goods, there is a powerful new need for international trusteeship, because in many issues, the global good cannot
necessarily be attained by each nation's pursuit of its individual interest. Ultimately, they argue, there is a need for a new UN Global Trusteeship Council, which can act as an honest broker on behalf of more sustainable and
people-centred development. Such a Council's primary mandate would be to aid the UN Secretary-General in situations where individual nations, acting in their own self-interest, would be unable or unwilling to implement the
policies that could result in the long-term, collective benefit of all nations. As many of the book's authors point out, international leadership is necessary – to combat world-wide recession, humanitarian tragedies, social
upheaval, and irreversible environmental damage. A Global Trusteeship Council comprised of eminent individuals could advise the UN Secretary-General on emerging crises which require collective action, so that the United
Nations could step in as a disinterested intermediary and assist governments in cooperating to find fair solutions. In Global Public Goods, this recommendation is embedded in a broader assessment of how individual
nations obtain (or fail to obtain) collective results. As UNDP Administrator James Gustave Speth underlines, "Only cooperation that offers clear and fair benefits will succeed." Another prerequisite of successful
cooperation is good information and certainty about the fact that a particular problem exists and how to address it. Without proper information, nation states often find themselves in a situation where "going it alone"
seems to be the more rational choice, although in the end, everybody will be worse off. "Why leave it up to chance?", the editors ask. "Since stability and progress today so critically depend on international
cooperation, there should be a more institutionalised mechanism for avoiding international collective action problems. Hence, the proposal for a new Global Trusteeship Council." Such a body is also needed to account
for the needs of future generations, whose specific concerns are likely to be undervalued by present-day policy-makers. And, as Amartya Sen notes in the book, policies should adopt John Rawls's criterion: that they are designed to
bring the greatest benefit to the least advantaged. Finally, such a Council would work with representative bodies, such as the General Assembly, to set priorities in terms of the public goods needed by the international community.
Any new concept of trusteeship will need a fresh mandate from the UN General Assembly. "Perhaps", as the editors suggest, "the Millennium meeting of the General Assembly next year could be the right moment to
adopt a resolution to create the new Global Trusteeship Council."
