Saturday, October 16, 2004
New United Nations Trusteeships
The news from Haiti this morning reports on the continuing sad story of inadequate and irresponsible government combined with inadequate foreign assistance. The drama is playing out among a people who have been suffering through countless years of inadequate nutrition, resource depletion, and an everlasting internal war of all against all. While we worry about the problems of Darfur, it is not clear that we should not be concentrating on those closer to home.
More generally, as we look around the world we note that Somalia has been without government for years, making it a haven for criminals and terrorists, local and international. A new Somali government has been established in Kenya across the border, but it is doubtful that it will be more successful than the last attempt of this kind to actually govern. In Palestine-Israel we see another running sore that the political institutions directly involved have proved manifestly unable to heal.
Along with the multiple problems of Sudan, these crises suggest once again the need for the resuscitation of something like the trusteeship system that was set up for former colonies after World War I. In the form that was adopted then (having one Western state responsible for each trusteeship) it was too much like another form of colonialism. If a new attempt were made today, it would have to be more broadly based. In any event the international community should establish on more than an ad hoc basis an international governance agency that can be called upon to take over and govern parts of the world that are either unable to govern themselves or unable to govern in a responsible manner. Once established, the agency would develop its own management and civil service structure that would be able to handle crisis and development problems anywhere in the world.
Such an agency would need to begin in desperate situations where a society is so broken that the local people and the international community would be likely to accept massive outside intervention. Only after the agency develops a track record in such situations, would it be asked to expand its activities into a wider variety of situations. The development process might begin with the Security Council granting the agency the rights and the resources necessary for governing Haiti for a period of ten years, to be extended as necessary. During this period the agency would establish comprehensive educational and medical services for all. It would establish an effective, modern police force, disarming all others. There would be no army under such a dispensation (compare Costa Rica). It would undertake economic development and land reclamation projects that would make possible a sustainable future. Since agriculture resources will never adequately support Haiti, other forms of economic development would also be undertaken. As national and municipal services and jobs begin to be provided, the international agency would develop a modest level of taxation so that Haitians would not come to see themselves as little more than the uninvolved recipients of an endless stream of foreign goods and services.
To work, a major international commitment of resources and attention must be made. Recent experience suggests that the international community, and especially its lead countries, will be reluctant to make the kind of commitment that the establishment of this agency would entail. Yet the case could be made that in the long run it is more costly to the international community to confront on an ad hoc basis repeated crises in situations such as Haiti than it would be to address them in a more organized and long-term manner.
More generally, as we look around the world we note that Somalia has been without government for years, making it a haven for criminals and terrorists, local and international. A new Somali government has been established in Kenya across the border, but it is doubtful that it will be more successful than the last attempt of this kind to actually govern. In Palestine-Israel we see another running sore that the political institutions directly involved have proved manifestly unable to heal.
Along with the multiple problems of Sudan, these crises suggest once again the need for the resuscitation of something like the trusteeship system that was set up for former colonies after World War I. In the form that was adopted then (having one Western state responsible for each trusteeship) it was too much like another form of colonialism. If a new attempt were made today, it would have to be more broadly based. In any event the international community should establish on more than an ad hoc basis an international governance agency that can be called upon to take over and govern parts of the world that are either unable to govern themselves or unable to govern in a responsible manner. Once established, the agency would develop its own management and civil service structure that would be able to handle crisis and development problems anywhere in the world.
Such an agency would need to begin in desperate situations where a society is so broken that the local people and the international community would be likely to accept massive outside intervention. Only after the agency develops a track record in such situations, would it be asked to expand its activities into a wider variety of situations. The development process might begin with the Security Council granting the agency the rights and the resources necessary for governing Haiti for a period of ten years, to be extended as necessary. During this period the agency would establish comprehensive educational and medical services for all. It would establish an effective, modern police force, disarming all others. There would be no army under such a dispensation (compare Costa Rica). It would undertake economic development and land reclamation projects that would make possible a sustainable future. Since agriculture resources will never adequately support Haiti, other forms of economic development would also be undertaken. As national and municipal services and jobs begin to be provided, the international agency would develop a modest level of taxation so that Haitians would not come to see themselves as little more than the uninvolved recipients of an endless stream of foreign goods and services.
To work, a major international commitment of resources and attention must be made. Recent experience suggests that the international community, and especially its lead countries, will be reluctant to make the kind of commitment that the establishment of this agency would entail. Yet the case could be made that in the long run it is more costly to the international community to confront on an ad hoc basis repeated crises in situations such as Haiti than it would be to address them in a more organized and long-term manner.
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