View this newsletter as a web page on CFR's website.  | Director's Note Dear Colleague, The Council on Foreign Relation's (CFR) International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) program has become a leading forum for generating new ideas and stimulating high-level debate on the best strategies for addressing today's pressing global challenges. A case in point is our upcoming symposium on "Food and Drugs: Can Safety Be Ensured in a Time of Increased Globalization?," featuring Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Laurie Garrett, CFR senior fellow for global health. The globalization of the food and pharmaceutical industries has confronted countries around the world with tough challenges in ensuring the safety of their food and drug supplies. Solving those challenges will require cooperation and agreement on appropriate rules for regulation and investigation. The food and drug symposium comes on the heels of four busy months at IIGG. We have been exploring new strategies for integrating rising powers into outdated structures of global governance and proposing new reforms to tired international institutions. We've released a major report on UN Security Council expansion, calling for robust U.S. leadership in enlarging the council's permanent membership; we've evaluated the performance of the Group of Twenty (G20), proposing concrete reforms needed if that body is truly going to emerge as the world's "premier forum" for global economic coordination; we've explored the implications of rising India for world order at a major conference in New Delhi; and we've launched a workshop series on Making Multilateralism Work at the United Nations, beginning with an event on steps to improve UN peacekeeping. In addition, our innovative web-based interactive, the Global Governance Monitor, educates a wider policy audience about the world's most pressing transnational challenges—from nuclear proliferation to climate change—and the multilateral responses required to address them. The IIGG program continues to foster constructive dialogue on the requirements for effective multilateral cooperation in the twenty-first century. We invite you to read through our newsletter, explore our website, and send us your feedback. All the best, Stewart Patrick Dr. Stewart Patrick
Senior Fellow and Director
International Institutions and Global Governance program
Council on Foreign Relations
1777 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
tel 202.509.8482 cell 202.337.0890 fax 202.509.8490
spatrick@cfr.org www.cfr.org | |  | | 
| | United Nations Council Special Report on UN Security Council Reform The United Nations' premier body for security and stability—the UN Security Council (UNSC)—does not reflect the evolution of global power structures. In UN Security Council Enlargement and U.S. Interests, a new Council Special Report by Stewart M. Patrick and Kara C. McDonald, the authors argue that the United States should use its unparalleled global leverage to reshape the UNSC to better integrate emerging and established powers. Countries aspiring for permanent UNSC membership should be judged based on a set of agreed criteria, including "political stability, the capacity and willingness to act in defense of international security, the ability to negotiate and implement sometimes unpopular agreements, and the institutional wherewithal to participate in a demanding UNSC agenda." The report recommends vigorous U.S. leadership in furthering this agenda. Critical steps include declaring U.S. support for a modest, criteria-based enlargement; fostering executive branch consensus on the qualifications for permanent membership; and initiating discreet dialogue in capitals of existing permanent members and major aspirant states. Simultaneously, the Obama administration should prepare the ground with Congress, identify useful reforms to UN Security Council working methods, and address legitimacy concerns in alternative forums, including the G20. | | | | 
| | The United States and the Future of Peacekeeping IIGG's recent meeting on the future of UN peacekeeping operations underlined the indispensable role that "blue helmets" play in addressing interstate conflicts, but also underscored how overstretched these operations had become in recent years. The event featured Victoria Holt, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of State, and Izumi Nakamitsu, director of the Policy Evaluation and Training Divisions at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. In the ten years since the Brahimi Report—a landmark document on modernizing UN peacekeeping—the size and scope of peace operations have expanded dramatically. But with more complex mandates and tight resources, the performance of these operations is faltering. Participants underlined the need for UN member states to fully implement sensible recommendations to which they have already agreed. They also identified areas in which the United States can play a critical leadership role, including in ensuring realistic peacekeeping mandates, training UN peacekeepers, and providing logistical support for UN operations. The meeting inaugurated a new workshop series, "Making Multilateralism Work," aimed at incubating new ideas to improve the work of the UN system. For a full summary of the discussions and proposals emerging from the event, we invite you to take a look at the meeting report. | | | | 
| | Global Governance Monitor In November, ahead of the UN climate change meetings in Cancun, the IIGG program relaunched the Global Governance Monitor: Climate Change, reflecting new developments and growing challenges to global mitigation and adaptation efforts since the disappointment of the UN Copenhagen Conference in 2009. Informing and educating a broad audience on critical global challenges is one of our mandates we take most pride in. The cutting-edge Global Governance Monitor—a multimedia interactive showcasing the history and current challenges facing international structures—provides a fun and unique way for viewers to learn and become more engaged on major contemporary issues. | | | | 
| | Emerging Powers Rising India: Implications for World Order and International Institutions Just weeks before U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to India in November 2010, the IIGG program convened a workshop in New Delhi to identify points of Indo-American divergence and agreement in addressing the daunting international agenda. Attended by high-level Indian officials and CFR fellows, these discussions illuminated India's evolving views on the future of global governance, including its priorities on issues ranging from climate change to UN reform to global finance. The India workshop was part of an ongoing meeting series on Emerging Powers and International Institutions, which explores how the current architecture of global cooperation should adapt to changing power dynamics and the distinctive preferences of China, India, Brazil, and other rising powers. | | | | 
| | Irresponsible Stakeholders? In "Irresponsible Stakeholders?," an article for the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs, IIGG director Stewart Patrick outlines the potential for cooperation in the multilateral system as emerging powers like China, Brazil, and India clamor for greater influence. Patrick finds that the United States will "need to decide when to stand firm, when to engage, and when simply to agree to disagree." Effective global governance will require leveraging the capabilities of—and adapting the existing international architecture to—dynamic rising powers. This will be a tricky undertaking, since today's emerging nations do not always share the priorities of the established Western order and may resist calls to fulfill their share of global leadership obligations. | | | | 
| | Group of Twenty IIGG Director Stewart Patrick evaluated the outcome of the Seoul G20 meeting, as well as the body's long-term prospects to evolve from a crisis committee to a permanent global steering group. How do these trends and outcomes bode for subsequent meetings? Patrick argues that the G20 has the potential to overcome longstanding divisions between the global North and South, and to drive reform in standing international organizations. To fulfill such potential, however, the G20 will need to manage the tremendous diversity of its membership and expand its formal agenda. | | | | Upcoming Events - January 31: Meeting on Food and Drugs: Can Safety Be Ensured in a Time of Increased Globalization? featuring Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- February: Launch of the Global Governance Monitor package on armed conflict
- March 10: Roundtable on the state of regionalism in the Western Hemisphere
- April: Workshop on South Asian regionalism
- May: Workshop on The Atlantic World and Rising Regional Powers
| | | | About the IIGG Program The International Institutions and Global Governance (IIGG) program is supported by a generous grant from the Robina Foundation. It aims to identify the institutional requirements for effective multilateral cooperation in the twenty-first century; propose reforms to strengthen or replace international institutions; and promote effective responses by the United States and its partners to today's daunting global challenges. Explore the IIGG Website.
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