WASHINGTON, Oct 2: A team of experts, backed by the US government, has suggested a new national security strategy for the United States, which suggests creating a ‘Concert of Democracies’ that would work parallel to the United Nations or may even replace it.
Known as the Princeton Project, the venture lasted over two years, brought in over 400 participants, and was chaired jointly by the Reagan administration’s former Secretary of State George Shultz and by former President Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, Tony Lake.
The new alliance, known as the Concert of Democracies, would allow powerful nations to implement their decisions without consulting the UN and the Security Council.
“The Concert of Democracies could be a pressure group to reform the UN, or if that fails, possibly to replace it,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and co-director of the Princeton Project.
“In an age of nuclear proliferation and of failed or failing states … one needs some form of international mandate, and if the UN is structurally incapable of proving one, then we have to think of other ways to establish a multi-lateral legitimacy.”
Ideally the group would work within existing regional and global institutions, but if those institutions fail to support a move backed by this new coalition, then it can act independently, says a report released this week by the Princeton Project.
The proposed alliance could be particularly effective in a situation when some of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council– such as China and Russia– threaten to veto a move the Concert of Democracies considers important for its interests.
The Princeton Project suggests that countries would self select in by adhering to strict pledges concerning election and other democratic institutions.
The project stresses that “the basic US strategy must be to protect the American people and the American way of life.
The top six recommendations held in the report include:
1) The United States must address multiple threats, not just one;
2) Focusing on “Islamo-Fascism” is a strategic mistake that strengthens America’s enemies- the global war on terror must be replaced by a global counterinsurgency focusing on global law enforcement, intelligence and special operations;
3) Sweeping reforms are due for international institutions, including democratizing the UN Security Council, setting up a concert of democracies, and transforming the nuclear non-proliferation regime;
4) The United States should build democracy around the world not by jumping immediately to elections, but by bringing countries up to PAR- Popular, Accountable, Rights-regarding government;
5) The United States must maintain a robust defence by sustaining the military predominance of democracies, update doctrines of deterrence and retain the option of preventive uses of military force, but only as a last resort under strict controls;
6) A gas tax should be introduced to wean the United States off its dependence on oil.
The new strategy seeks to absorb rising powers like China, India, Brazil and others into a global economic and diplomatic structure that avoids open conflict by making them stakeholders within the system.
The Princeton Project places the energy threat within a wider regional and environmental context.
“When the US purchases large amounts of petroleum from the Middle East, two things happen,” the report says. “First, an enormous amount of wealth is transferred from Americans to autocratic regimes, stifling reform in those countries and possibly strengthening the military capabilities of some of our potential adversaries. Second, the oil we consumer— at over $150 per barrel, when US defence spending dedicated to keep oil flowing is factored into the price— contributes to climate change and the degradation of our environment. Breaking up this axis of vice must be a key priority for America.”
The project begins from the perception that the network of international institutions that was established after 1945 is broken, and in consequence the global political and economic system they helped produce needs to be rethought. Institutions like the UN, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, NATO need fundamental reform, and should bring in important new players like India, Brazil, South Africa and Egypt and possibly Iran into leadership roles.
The project advocates a fundamental re-ordering of the UN Security Council to include riding new powers, and to modify the veto. Currently, any one of the five permanent members (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain) may cast a veto on any resolution. The project suggests that vetoes should be abolished on matters of instant action, like sending peace-keepers to Sudan or Kosovo. But the veto should be retained on declaratory resolutions, like those resolutions condemning Israel that the US routinely vetoes.
The participants in the national security project included former cabinet officials and senior White House staff, academics, diplomats, economists, retired military staff and Pentagon officials, international lawyers and a small group of journalists.
