Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Spring 2006
With the end of the Cold War came renewed hope that the United Nations decision-making process could be strengthened. Enforcement policy arose as the UN’s key concern—particularly in regional and internal crises involving the Security Council. Legally binding on all member nations, Security Council resolutions include a wide range of political, economic, and military sanctions, but for reasons such as the difficulty of dealing with civil strife and massive human rights violations, these actions were not consistently enforced. Seeking ways to make the Security Council a more effective institution, the Corporation provided funding of $350,000 to UNA-USA to conduct an extensive study of the strengths and weaknesses of UN enforcement measures and options for promoting implementation, with followup activities planned for the UN and member states. An international team of advisors chosen for their military/defense, economic, foreign policy and United Nations experience guided the project. Conference papers on enforcement policy were presented and the final report was handed over to high-level U.S. and UN policymakers.
Not surprisingly, the end of the Cold War had brought about an altered view of the world, which permeated discussions of global values, security, development and governance. Acknowledging the resulting need for renewed policies in these areas, the independent Commission on Global Governance had been established in 1992 to assess post-Cold-War policy needs and produce a report to advance fundamental changes in the structures and systems of governance at the global, regional, national and local levels. While not an official body of the United Nations, the commission was endorsed by the UN secretary-general and funded through two trust funds of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nine national governments and several foundations.
Co-chaired by the prime minister of Sweden and the former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, the commission’s 28 members, who represented a wide variety of countries, made myriad suggestions for change—recommending a far broader definition of responsibilities for the UN Security Council (which would ultimately require amending the UN Charter), revitalizing the General Assembly and strengthening the International Court of Justice. Carnegie Corporation provided a grant of $150,000 to disseminate the commission’s report, Our Global Neighborhood, including a major policy-level briefing at the United Nations General Assembly’s fiftieth anniversary.
The Corporation’s work was not always involved directly with the UN, but also supported organizations interested in strengthening UN activities and impact. Another event timed to coincide with the UN anniversary was the publication of the American Assembly’s findings on the relationship of United States foreign policy and the United Nations system. The assembly, a nonpartisan public affairs forum established by Dwight Eisenhower at Columbia University in 1950, had convened semi-annually to review a range of critical policy issues. The 1995 agenda covered peacemaking, nonproliferation, sustainable growth and development, human rights and refugees. The Corporation provided a $100,000 grant to this program, which aimed to identify specific policies and reforms and ways to attain bipartisan U.S. support for the United Nations. Twenty thousand copies of the resulting report found their way to U.S. policy leaders, including members of Congress and UN officials.
Although the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict formally ended operations in December 1999, its work continued to influence the Corporation’s strategy in subsequent years. One issue of special concern—competition over scarce water resources—was expected to become increasingly important in the decades ahead, and several significant grants were made to address this critical problem. The Corporation was concerned that, although no wars had been fought strictly over water, with the earth’s rapid population growth and accelerating pace of industrialization and modernization, contending claims to shared water supplies contributed to extreme tensions in many regions. Beyond the direct, and increasingly dangerous, threat of conflict over scarce water from the Middle East to Northern China, it was clear that water scarcity would also undermine a state’s ability to function, increasing its risk of takeover or collapse.
In the year 2000, a $400,000 grant to Johns Hopkins University and the research institute Global Environment and Energy in the 21st Century, supported the launching of “Track II,” or unofficial diplomatic talks to address the technical aspects of water management in South Asia. Although a number of formal water-sharing agreements had been established between India and Pakistan at the time, a host of technical and political issues prevented successful implementation of the agreements. Members of the project, which brought together government officials, scholars, business leaders and other experts, produced a final report that was disseminated to policymakers and ultimately promoted technical solutions to regional problems while fostering cooperative relations among the neighboring countries.
In 2001, a joint $389,000 grant went to Oregon State University and the Pacific Institute, both leading centers of analysis on water issues, to build a body of knowledge and understanding that aimed at reducing the risks of water-related conflicts in international watersheds. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars received $400,000 in funding the same year toward interdisciplinary policy dialogues and publications on critical water issues leading to understanding of water as an economic or a social good; investigating water conflict and cooperation; and utilizing lessons learned about water conflict resolution. Coming after 9/11, this grant demonstrated the Corporation’s awareness that terrorism added a further dimension to the issue of fresh-water scarcity, already regarded as a potentially destabilizing global problem.
Concurrently, the Corporation funded an international forum on arctic and circumpolar issues, providing $60,000 in grants to the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies. Established in Reykjavik, Iceland, at the suggestion of that country’s president, Dr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsso, this ongoing biannual forum fosters regional stability and serves as a foundation for dialogue among the United States, Russia, Canada and the Scandinavian countries. Issues of mutual concern including social and environmental changes, sustainable development, economic globalization, security and economic development were (and continue to be) explored by study groups comprised of policymakers, scholars, economists and representatives of NGOs and grassroots groups. Corporation grants went toward publication and dissemination as well as attendance costs for key participants.
Several times during the past decade, requests have come from the UN secretary-general seeking the Corporation’s leadership in bringing other foundations and NGOs to the aid of the UN. Responding with speed, efficiency and timely financial assistance, UN supporters (along with the Corporation) have enabled the secretary-general to act more expeditiously to address the needs of the world body. Such was the case in 2004, when the conflict in Iraq added urgency to the issue of how best to confront contemporary security threats. Deep divisions among the Security Council’s five veto-wielding members—China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States—had drastically undermined the body’s credibility and authority. Wilton Park, an internationally respected executive agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, convened a problem-solving session of senior policymakers from Security Council member states and other key countries along with UN personnel and independent policy analysts. A grant of $25,000 made possible full participation in this event.