Michael is the former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and 12th Director General of the United Nations office in Geneva. He recently embarked on a new multifaceted career. Michael will give us the benefit of his outstanding experience to shed light on the current challenges facing global and regional governance in our multipolar and fragmented world.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

  • Today’s multi-lateral, international governance structure, has given the world 75 years of unprecedented peace, but in its current guise, is no longer fit for service. Vital and rapid reform and re-tooling are needed if it is to meet the existential problems now facing the global community, primarily the climate crisis and its myriad of consequences. Furthermore, short-term domestic political and electoral agendas are fundamentally at odds with the need for long term, international solutions for global problems.
  • We have the means and the money to make the necessary reforms, but the essential ingredient is a collective – worldwide, society-wide – will to do so.
  • Only by adapting, can the global system of governance rise to the challenge, and only through collaboration can the necessary adaptation be achieved. The pandemic threw up examples of both best and worst practice in this respect. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, globally and even within nations, government at many levels failed to collaborate effectively. In contrast the global scientific community in its search for a vaccine succeeded in working together across political divides to spectacular effect.
  • In order to re-build trust in the system, places at the table of global governance must be extended to new actors sourced from business, civil society, youth, cities and the academic and scientific communities. A fragmented, siloed, disconnected approach must be replaced by exactly the opposite: a process that is networked, connected and that benefits from cross-pollination of ideas and expertise.
  • Such a broader stakeholder base would exert the necessary pressure on status quo-vested interests within the existing system. Nations states must show a willingness to set aside some sovereignty in pursuit of the collective good. Business also has a vital role to play in this process of change. Corporations can no longer simply sit by and make money from the system – they must play their part in seeking solutions to collective problems.
  • ‘The common good of the planet has to take first place.’ How does China fit into to this ‘new’ global governance strategy? Relations with China must favour collaboration with a focus on the future. A de-carbonization conversation with China is not an optional extra. Only collaboratively is there any hope of responding effectively and fast enough to the threat posed by global warming. Nothing else really matters, and we have about a decade in which to do so.
  • In certain areas there are signs of a greater propensity for improved collaboration, but this is not happening fast enough. A glaring example is the massive deficiency in terms of a coordinated global regulatory response to social media and other new technologies. If left un-checked, they risk inflicting irreversible damage on the democratic process and individual privacy.