Turkey’s New Vision for “Man’s Best Hope for Peace”: United Nations Reform and Reorganization of the Security Council

Year 2014, , 5 - 18, 31.01.2014

Can Akça Ataç

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.167318

Abstract

Turkey’s New Vision for “Man’s Best Hope for Peace”: United Nations Reform and Reorganization of the Security Council

Abstract

Despite its present reputation
as weak, inefficient, and discreditable, the United Nations is one of
humanity’s most noble endeavors. Although the structure of the Security Council
prevents its decision-making procedures from being more democratic, the UN
still seeks to suppress aggression, respect self-determination, and promote
human rights and well-being. Furthermore, political cosmopolitans’ proposals
for comprehensive UN reform, which goes far beyond increasing the number of
permanent members of the Security Council, give us hope for substantial
improvement. Nevertheless, the UN is still the sum of the states it is
comprised of and UN reform depends on the broader and ambitious project of
state reform as both concept and practice. Within this context, this paper
argues that focusing exclusively on the Security Council and the geographical
distribution of permanent membership only harms the comprehensiveness of the
analyses seeking to reform the UN from a larger perspective. The fact that the
success of a UN reform is closely related with the enhancement of member
states’ ethical capacities should also be taken into consideration. The next
round of debates for a proper solution to the UN impasse takes place in 2015,
and Turkey is emerging as an enthusiastic voice for further reform and for its
own potential permanent membership in the Security Council. However, Turkey has
also developed a significantly anti-UN discourse unprecedented in its foreign
policy, which now runs the risk of curtailing the country’s capacity to partake
in substantial change in UN decision-making procedures. Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu currently acts as a statesman, insisting on a statist
reform (which focuses more on states’ individual interests) of the Security
Council. Interestingly, in the 1990s, when Davutoğlu was a university
professor, his views of the UN tended to be more cosmopolitan and suggested a
civilization-based solution. This paper, while elaborating on the discussions
of reforming the UN from a cosmopolitan perspective, also probes Davutoğlu’s
conflicting approaches to the issue. It thus seeks to argue that Turkey,
instead of pushing for a purely statist model, should consider supporting
pluralistic, multilevel, and more-complex participation in the UN’s
decision-making procedures. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu currently acts as a statesman, insisting on a statist reform (which focuses more on states’ individual interests) of the Security Council. Interestingly, in the 1990s, when Davutoğlu was a university professor, his views of the UN tended to be more cosmopolitan and suggested a civilization-based solution. This paper, while elaborating on the discussions of reforming the UN from a cosmopolitan perspective, also probes Davutoğlu’s conflicting approaches to the issue. It thus seeks to argue that Turkey, instead of pushing for a purely statist model, should consider supporting pluralistic, multilevel, and more-complex participation in the UN’s decision-making procedures. 

Keywords

United Nations Reform, Security Council, Turkish Foreign Policy, Ahmet Davutoğlu

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