Pascal Lamy delivers eighth Palliser Lecture at Aga Khan Centre in London, UK
A combination of experience and imagination is needed to overcome the breakdown of global governance, according to Pascal Lamy.
The coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institute and vice-chairman of the Paris Peace Forum reached this conclusion as he delivered this year's Palliser Lecture.
On January 29, 2024, guests convened at Aga Khan Centre, London, UK, to hear the former director-general of the World Trade Organization speak.
This year's lecture, "The Future of Global Governance and International Cooperation in an Increasingly Fractured World," was a collaboration between Salzburg Global Seminar – Austria, the 21st Century Trust, and the Aga Khan Foundation.
“A Total Breakdown of Global Governance”
Pascal began his lecture by outlining the difficulty of the topic at hand, indicating we were living through times "that evidence a total breakdown of global governance." According to Pascal, the causes of this breakdown include recent international developments and the existing structural nature of global governance.
On the latter point, Pascal identified the "in-built contradiction in our existing international system between what we expect from governance - global or domestic - and the very principle of sovereignty."
People expect leadership, coherence, and legitimacy from any "proper governance system." However, sovereignty is in contradiction with these expected outputs because "it cannot, will not, and is not designed to bring anything of this kind."
Pascal said that since the 17th Century and the peace of Westphalia, we've known sovereigns are equal and that there should be no leader. Pascal said he had witnessed sovereigns use their sovereignty to behave differently in different circumstances or areas of international life.
"We have to recognize that we should not expect from any kind of organization or power of international governance what we usually expect from domestic governance [...] our expected level of ambition should be low."
Another structural issue, according to Pascal, is the "long-standing problem" concerning the "obsolescence of the existing international system," which has failed to evolve as the world has since the end of World War 2.
After highlighting the distribution of voting rights around the IMF and the composition of the UN Security Council and where its veto powers reside, Pascal said, "This is only a part of existing major powers, not to speak about countries like yours or mine, who sit there because they were among the victors of the last World War. But let's be frank, quite a large number of countries on this planet have an economic, social, [and] political weight that is above our countries."
While these structural factors could be enough for some people to think the system is not fit for purpose, Pascal added, "This is not enough to explain the mess we're in."
Pascal began to highlight increasing tensions that have developed between countries over the past 30 years, which, in some cases, has led to armed conflict. He said, "These tensions have two big sides. One is East-West, and the other is North-South."
The East-West tension will "remain dominated" by the relationship between the West and China, said Pascal, as long as countries on both sides continue to share the view that they are "extremely and excessively vulnerable to each other" and limit their interactions to areas where they believe they are neutral. However, Pascal added, "The areas where they believe this have been shrinking and shrinking for the last 40 years."
Pascal then listed a series of layers of frustration causing tensions between countries from the North and South: memories of decolonization, improper behavior from countries in the North, the unfair distribution of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and polarization around climate change.
"The fact that this international system is now unable to deliver what is expected from a proper global governance system has domestic consequences," said Pascal. "It has to do with the space populism is now occupying in our political systems - the tendency to scapegoat [...] some kinds of exacerbation of nationalism - these consequences are there now within our system."
What's the Way Forward?
After outlining several of the problems facing global governance, Pascal discussed alternative ways to address some of the challenges. He began by reflecting on the concept of adopting a neo-Westphalian approach. He said, "The neo-Westphalian approach is the one a lot of diplomats today in the world are thinking about. Not really discussing [it], but thinking about [it].
"It has to do with trying to fix a number of problems this World War 2-inherited system has, such as, for instance, rebalancing the weight of countries within this system [...] reweighting the weight of power, [and] refitting the way these organizations work."
Pascal said there is a way to rebalance the member-driven nature within international organizations and the trust that can be given to leaders of these organizations, but this is rare.
"We also have probably to relook at the basement of the existing system, basically [the] UN Declaration of Human Rights," said Pascal. "There is a discussion now whether not just the superstructure of the system we built after World War 2 but the value basement of this should or not be reopened.
"You can see quite rapidly the argument on both sides. 'Don't you open this Pandora['s] Box. It will lead nowhere.' Or, the other side, which is my side, which is how long we will accept China to little-by-little de-human right-ize the present system, where they are now, each time they can, they try to push this aside, as if it was a problem."
Pascal said he accepted the global governance system had to be fundamentally reviewed, but, so far, concerning this neo-Westphalian approach to reform, "There's no serious proposal on the table."
As an alternative to the neo-Westphalian approach, Pascal said, "you have the supra-Westphalian option, which is the one that, considering that sovereignty is a problem, accepts that you dent sovereignty."
Pascal said we could also persist with a "getting things done approach." One avenue among sovereigns is creating and maintaining informal coalitions like the G7 or G20 that can lead to results. Pascal said, "At least the coherence coefficient is a bit there. The leadership, not really, the legitimacy certainly not, but coherence, after all, is something."
Then, there is an avenue that involves working with those other than those who are sovereign but have influence. This is an approach adopted by the Paris Peace Forum, which seeks to revive and improve global governance. Pascal said this approach "starts from the premise that the multilateral system is somehow clogged and that you have to do things differently."
There are serious, powerful, and result-minded people who aren't diplomats but can work together and produce results in health, climate, development, or culture. "Poly-lateralism," rather than multilateralism, according to Pascal.
“You don't have a big problem of coherence because the coherence is in built by the actors of this coalition. If they [coalesce], they create their own coherence. Leadership is not the real issue. This is very much bottom-up [...] And, for sure, it does not bring the type of political legitimacy which properly constructed institutions do, but, after all, we have to accept that [...] legitimacy has also not just to do with the way decisions are taken, but the way decisions are taken and impact reality. And if it is about impacting reality, this is one of the possible avenues."
In his concluding remarks, Pascal reaffirmed the need to explore all options given the current situation of global governance.
"I can see many experienced diplomats in this room, unsurprisingly. There is a wealth of experience, and I think we need to put a little bit more imagination [in]. This is what we've been trying to do with the Paris Peace Forum.
"I think if you combine these different approaches, maybe we will be able to overcome the structural fundamental forces that have led us [to] where we are."
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