General Assembly Security Council
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Mr. President,  
 
 Listening to previous speakers make me realise the validity of the dictum I heard many years ago and that dictum was that each generation tends to confront the challenges of the next generation, using the tools of the preceding generation, without knowing it.
 
2. Today's debate appears to be one such instance. The topic refers to the complexity of the contemporary challenges to international peace and security.
 
3. It is useful to remind ourselves of the need to focus on the terms contemporaneity and complexity. 
 
4. Seven decades ago, to paraphrase the unforgettable depiction of   the poet, W.H. Auden, the world was emerging from the 'low dishonest decades' of depression, tyranny, war and genocide. The years of catastrophe were on account of the then leading powers fighting over territories and resources globally. The threat to international peace and security at that time was from these competing powers jostling for geo-strategic supremacy. The primary concern in terms of peace and security, at that time, was to prevent a recurrence of a major war by maintaining geo-strategic balance among the major powers. 
 
5. On the other hand, the challenges that are increasingly finding mention in the discourse in this chamber these days, as areas of concern to international peace and security, are different. The emphasis we have heard is on challenges such as climate change or pandemics or famines or natural disasters or humanitarian crises or cyber security.This surely is a different agenda than 70 years ago. Also, the power balance that then existed has itself since changed quite significantly.  
 
6.   Once we recognize the 'complexity' and the contemporaneity of our times, it is not difficult to understand why the structures designed for vastly different times tend not to be effective in dealing with the challenges that are being outlined here. In short, our responses require a basic reordering of our perspectives. 
 
7. Such challenges are not new to mankind. Humans have faced these since time immemorial. However, it is acknowledged that their impact is sometimes much wider in modern times in an interdependent world. Technological changes are creating economic, ecological, political and social globalization that require cooperative responses. Disruptions anywhere tend to impact aspects of contemporary life everywhere. 
 
8. The complexity of issues on the global agenda is today, perhaps, distinctive to our times. This has added to the challenges in the delivery of global public goods. When global public goods are underproduced and fail to be delivered, everybody suffers.
 
9. At the same time, it is also obvious that some states are better able and equipped to handle complex threats. Those who are more vulnerable to such occurrences basically lack the resilience required. Again, often it becomes an issue of the level of economic development and availability of financial and other resources. 
 
10. The disparity in the economic development of countries cannot be seen in isolation of an increasingly globalized scenario that links markets for commodities, labour and finished products; manufacturing supply chains; services, as also financial markets. This then points us to the distortions in the way global governance for trade, investment and human mobility functions today. 
 
11. These are all issues that cannot be addressed merely by securitization of transnational challenges. Most of the inter-linked issues that are now being understood to be of importance point to the fundamental need for ensuring sustainable development available to all, and by reducing gross disparities. Such issues are rightly discussed outside this Council, rightly by the wider membership of the UN, as also at various levels, not merely in this chamber, not under its rubric of peace and security alone. 
 
Mr. President,
 
12. In this chamber, we would do well to address the complexities in the peace and security scenario such as those arising out of the globalization of terror networks.  These networks operate across borders in terms of propagation of hateful ideologies, sometimes based in deep-rooted perceived grievances; raise finances; procure arms; and recruit operatives. This is a common challenge which requires greater focus by this Council, one where closer international cooperation needs to be, can be and should be expanded for our common interest. 
 
Mr. President, 
 
13. It appears that this common threat to states and societies is not clearly understood here.  Even on counter-terrorism, cooperation continues to elude the Council. It is noticed that on an issue as serious as designation of terrorist individuals and entities, the Council-mandated Sanctions Committees fail to make concrete progress and fall victim to narrow political and strategic concerns in some cases. In other cases where Sanctions Committees have designated terrorists, there are states who venture  to mainstream UN designated terrorist individuals into their political process in total disregard of international law, thus putting our common security in peril.  
 
Mr. President,
 
14. The reasons for the lack of success of international structures designed seven decades ago in dealing with the complex challenges of today are self- evident.  A non-representative Council, designed many long years ago to maintain the balance of power among competing rivals is simply not equipped to handle the challenges that have changed beyond recognition in the intervening decades. An instrument that is no longer considered legitimate and has lost its credibility cannot be our hope for salvation. New realities cannot be addressed by using old paradigms. To tackle contemporary challenges, we need to move beyond old molds. Until then, 'Speech Acts' like today's debate will remain just that, having little impact on the billions of 'we the people', who are striving to live peacefully in a safe and secure manner. 
 
Thank you, Mr. President.