The UN & the Freezing of the Intl Power Structure - ACastro

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The United Nations and the Freezing of the International Power Structure

Joao Augusto de Araujo Castro

International Organization, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Winter, 1972), pp. 158-166.

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THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE FREEZING OF THEINTERNATIONAL POWER STRUCTUREJoao Augusto de Araujo CastroJOAO AUGUSTODE ARAUJOCASTROis the ambassador of Brazil to the UnitedStates. This article is derived from a speech made by the author to the Na-tional War College of Brazil on June 11, 1971.

I. SPHERES OF INFLUENCEAlthough the international scene may have been gloomier andmore somber than i t is today, we may have been closer to a third worldwar, and certain situations may in the past have been more explosiveand fraught with peril, it is nonetheless true that we have never beenfaced with a more complex and fluid state of affairs than confronts ustoday. It would be impossible to define today's world in simple terms.Observe how greatly the world has changed since October 1962, sincethe "thirteen days" of the crisis precipitated by the emplacement ofSoviet missiles in Cuba. Since then a tacit understanding seems to haveprevailed between the superpowers according to which they haveavoided exacerbating crises and tensions in certain areas held to beof special interest to one or the other of them. For examgle, it is note-worthy that while many countries decried the 1968 invasion of theCzechoslovak Socialist Republic, there were few states - and notnecessarily the most powerful ones - which condemned the crudedoctrine of "limited sovereignty" on which that action was allegedlybased and by which i t was obviously inspired. In fact, during theAugust 1968 meetings of the United Nations Security Council the

mutual interest of the two superpowers in the preservation of thespirit of detente was so strong that it proved capable of withstandingall of the divisive events of that period - not only the invasion ofCzechoslovakia but also the Vietnam conflict and even the confronta-tion in the politically and strategically important Middle East.lII. PEACE, DISAR MAM ENT, A ND DEVELOPMENT

The superpowers appear determined to avoid the outbreak of a'Editor's note: The author was president of the Security Council during thatperiod.


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159THE UN AND THE INTERNATIONAL POWER STRUCTUREworld conflict, which could easily turn into a nuclear war. But, a t thesame time, they appear to have despaired of universal peace and ofgeneral and complete disarmament. Today there is very little talkabout peace; the talk centers almost exclusively around detente. Noris there much discussion of disarmament; the talk is almost exclu-sively about "arms control" or "limitation of armaments." As I haverepeatedly stressed a t the United Nations, a process of devaluationof the concepts and basic ideals of the Charter of the United Nationsis well under way. As a concession to considerations of "politicalrealism" the concept of peace is being transformed into a "tolerablestate of war"; the concept of disarmament is being transformed into a"tolerable arms race"; and the concept of development, of such greatimportance to three-quarters of mankind, is reduced to the meagerproportions of a "tolerable state of poverty."I l l . THE FREEZING OF THE WORLD POWER STRUCTURE

On various occasions, within the setting of the United Nations,before the General Assembly, and before the Economic and SocialCouncil (ECOSOC), Brazil has sought to warn against what has nowbecome an undisguised trend toward the freezing of the world powerstructure. When I speak of power, I speak not only of military powerbut also of political, economic, and scientific and technological power.The 1968 Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),the highest point of the current detente between the Union of SovietSocialist Republics and the United States, is the main instrument ofthis policy of freezing of the world power structure. According to allindications the treaty was demanded by the Soviet Union as a sinequa non for the continuation of the detente. The NPT aims primarilya t impeding the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the Federal Re-public of Germany (West Germany) and Japan, countries defeatedin the Second World War; it is thus linked to the effort, already re-flected in the UN charter, to preserve the 1945 international politicaland strategic framework. The superpowers are conducting a jointeffort to stabilize and freeze the world power structure on the basisof two arbitrary historical dates: October 24, 1945, when the Charterof the United Nations came into force, and January 1,1967, the dead-line for countries to qualify as nuclear-weapons states under the pro-visions of the NPT. The treaty, which is interpreted as a complementto the charter in the process of freezing of the world power structure,is in direct violation, however, of the charter's purposes and several ofits principles. The charter established distinct categories of states,one comprising strong and therefore mature and responsible countriesand another comprising weak and therefore immature and irresponsible


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160 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONcountries. Contrary to all historical evidence the NPT starts from thepremise that prudence and moderation are built-in features of power.It institutionalizes inequality between states and apparently acceptsthe premise that the strong countries will become ever stronger andthe weak ones will grow ever weaker.IV. THE COC HAIRMANSHIP A N D THE DWIN DLING CIRCLES OF POWER

Clear symptoms of this process of freezing the world power struc-ture can be detected in recent developments in the disarmament field,especially in the proceedings of the Conference of the Committee onDisarmament (CCD) in Geneva, the new label now attached to theformer Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (ENDC). Thecommittee, installed in 1962 under the terms of the Zorin-Stevensonagreement, functions under the cochairmanship of the United Statesand the Soviet Union. Its composition is tripartite, along classic cold-war lines: one group of member states of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO), one group of member states of the WarsawTreaty Organization (WTO), and one group of countries designatedsometimes as neutralist, sometimes as nonaligned, and occasionally asmediators (the last designation was proposed by and has always beenused by Brazil). During nine years of work on disarmament issuesthe committee never got beyond two imprecise paragraphs of a would-be preamble to a would-be treaty. In the beginning the function ofthe mediator countries was that of seeking to reconcile the supposedlyantagonistic positions of the superpowers and of their allies. Perhapsthe mediators may have been a little too successful in their diplomaticefforts since through the cochairmanship the two superpowers becamereconciled and proceeded to act jointly in an effort to disarm - orto prevent the arming of - the mediator countries. "Disarm thecountries already disarmed" seems to have become the slogan and theprogram of the committee. This approach is reflected in the conclu-sion and signature of the NPT to which Brazil has made and continuesto make so many objections. The same phenomenon is applicable inregard to both conventional disarmament and regional disarmament.An almost total impasse prevails over the negotiations on nuclear"disarmament" while the intermittent Strategic Arms Limitation Talks(SALT) do not aim in reality a t the suppression of nuclear power butrather a t its regulation. These conversations aim a t best to eliminateexcess overkill capacity with the apparent understanding that a"normal" overkill capacity will subsist on both sides. Meanwhile, thereare frequent attempts to control the flow of conventional arms toless developed countries; the allegation is made that such flows con-stitute an obstacle to the tasks of economic development. The danger


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161THE UN AND THE INTERNATIONAL POWER STRUCTUREto peace now seems to lie in the conventional armaments possessed bythe medium and small countries for security purposes, not in the greatarsenals of the nuclear superpowers. The latter appear to be in favorof emphasizing conventional and regional disarmament. Brazil hasopposed posing the problem of disarmament in such terms; disarma-ment should be general and complete with specific obligations for allstates. The regionalization and sectorialization of the problem of dis-armament and even of that of arms control, in keeping with the termi-nology now used by the superpowers, are mere aspects of a process offreezing of the present world power structure under the aegis of a new,elusive, but all-pervasive art of cochairmanship practiced by the super-powers. The general philosophy appears to be that arms are extremelydangerous in the hands of the small states but not in the hands ofthe strong and therefore, theoretically, mature and responsible, coun-tries. No delegation to the United Nations has been so active andassertive as the Brazilian delegation in pointing out and denouncingthese attempts to establish a directorate or a cochairmanship thatwould be in charge of a new world order. Brazil has consistentlydecried the tendency to discuss world problems - and particularlythe problem of disarmament- within dwindling circles of great power.V. 1945 AND 1967

In this process of freezing the world power structure the super-powers tenaciously oppose all attempts a t review or revision of theUN charter which was designed to perpetuate the political and strategicconditions prevailing in 1945. With the support of an important groupof Latin American countries Brazil has taken up a determined policyof seeking revision of the charter, arguing that "we cannot live foreverin the year 1945" and that, in any event, attempts to freeze and im-mobilize history are futile and pointless. Any revision of the chartercan only be approved with the concurring vote of the five permanentmembers of the Security Council, and it is evident that none of thosemembers would agree to divest itself of the privileges and prerogativesconferred upon it by the UN charter and extend to other memberstates those same privileges and prerogatives. The charter and theNPT, 1945 and 1967, have thus become the two basic documents ofan entire process of freezing the world power structure.

VI. COLLECTIVE SECURITY I N THE ECONOMIC FIELDThe desire for the stabilization and the maintenance of the cur-rent power structure has led the Great Powers to oppose tenaciously


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162 INTERNATIONA L ORGANIZATIONthe efforts of less developed countries to modify the norms that gov-ern international trade. There has been some evolution in the attitudeof the industrialized countries since March 1964, the date of the firstUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).But the specific problems of the less developed countries have becomemore acute a t a much faster rate than the policies of the developedcountries have evolved; consequently the problem of underdevelopmenthas become more somber and discouraging than ever.

The gravity of the situation is illustrated by the following: Theentire United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has a t its dis-posal yearly a maximum of $230 million, representing one-tenth of onepercent of the world's yearly military expenditures. Brazil once advo-cated in the General Assembly that a fund equal to one percent ofworld military expenditures be allocated for the tasks of developmentwhich would permit a tenfold increase in the effort actually under-taken. "We are only asking for one percent of human folly" wasthe explanation then given by the Brazilian delegation^.^

It should be noted that the attitude adopted by the Soviet Unionand the other socialist countries has been extremely negative towardthe idea of multilateral programs for economic development. In thisfield the socialist status paradoxically cling to outdated principlesof economic liberalism and show themselves to be ultrafaithful follow-ers of Jean Baptiste Say's concept, "laissez faire, laissez aller." Ithas been said that when the socialist delegates are preparing to at-tend any meeting of ECOSOC or of the Second (Economic and Finan-cial) Committee of the General Assembly, they take the elementaryprecaution of leaving all their copies of Karl Marx's books in thecloakroom.

Essentially, the less developed countries are seeking to transposeinto the international field certain principles of social justice and re-distribution of wealth that have been gradually gaining ground withinthe domestic systems of the more politically advanced countries. Ulti-mately, the objective is to obtain international recognition of theprinciple of "collective security in the economic field," a principleanalogous to that which we are trying to encourage in the field ofpeace and international security. The results to date have not beenvery promising. The first United Nations Development Decade wasa failure, and the prospects for the second one which is now beginningare also not very promising. Basically, the problem is whether theUnited Nations, or rather, the states comprising that organization,

a General Assembly Official Records (18th session), 1208th plenary meeting,September 19, 1963, p. 5.


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163THE UN AND THE INTERNATIONAL POWER STRUCTUREare willing to accept collective responsibility in the field of economicdevelopment.

This is the problem on the multilateral plane. On the bilateralplane the Great Powers stubbornly resist the claims of the less de-veloped countries to economic assistance - assistance which shouldincreasingly be regarded as a matter of establishing fair and equitableconditions for the pursuance of international commerce. Furthermore,as the cold war progressively fades away, the motivation which thesuperpowers formerly had for granting bilateral assistance, creationof alliances or alignments, is gradually disappearing.

VII. THE DIVIDEND A N D THE DIVISORThere exist, however, other factors that are beginning to assert

themselves within this process of freezing the world power structure.I refer specifically to some tendencies which are emerging in the treat-ment of the problems of population and preservation of the environ-ment. It has been said that the "population bomb" could become morefatal and nefarious than the nuclear bomb itself, and there is a growingtendency to handle the problem on a universal level, ignoring thefact that the matter lies within the exclusive competence of each statewhich, in the exercise of its full sovereignty, has to take into accountfacts and circumstances of an eminently national character. No onedoubts that there are overpopulated states, just as no one shoulddoubt that some states, such as Brazil, for instance, with its 95 millioninhabitants, require a demographic growth in line with their needsfor full use of their natural resources and effective occupation of theirterritories. To try to solve the problem in the abstract, in allegedlyimpartial statistical terms, without taking into account a series offactors which are of the greatest importance to the general problemof development, is an attitude devoid of logic and sure of politicalfailure. It is argued that demographic growth neutralizes the advan-tages of the growth of a state's gross national product (GNP), prevent-ing a rise in the level of per capita income which is currently con-sidered, rather simplistically, as the sole and absolute index ofeconomic development. In short, instead of an insistence on an in-crease in dividend, or GNP, there is an emphasis on the stabilizationof the divisor, or population size. In other words, an at tempt is beingmade to convert the grave problem of underdevelopment into a mereproblem of population stabilization, thus ignoring the fact that anyattempt to stabilize the populations of many countries at their presentlevels would be tantamount to accepting extremely low levels of eco-nomic development as a target for stabilization.


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164 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONVIII. AGAIN, THE HAPPY SAVAGE

In tackling the problems related to the preservation of the humanenvironment the tendency is to place an unduly strong accent on thedangers of rapid industrialization. Emphasis is put on the dangersof pollution. These are certainly serious for the highly industrializedcountries, but the larger part of the planet is still in a stage of pre-contamination since it has not yet had a chance to become polluted.Two-thirds of mankind are far more threatened by hunger and povertythan by the evils of pollution. For the same reason much concern wasfelt over the recent statement made by Robert McNamara, presidentof the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development(IBRD) - against which Brazil argued in ECOSOC - to the effectthat the IBRD henceforth would not authorize any project for eco-nomic development without a prior evaluation of possible repercussionson the environment. It is clear that the less developed countries willnot want to repeat the errors of the highly industrialized countries,but it is evident that they cannot passively accept the resurrection, inthe twentieth century, of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of the"happy savage" which lent flavor and color to French romanticism."Do not let happen to your cities what has happened to New York.""Preserve your beautiful landscapes." Such warnings are constantlyhammered into the ears of the representatives of less developed coun-tries. But these less developed countries start from the premise thatschemes to preserve the human environment ought to take into accountthe basic factors of development since underdevelopment is, itself,one of the worst forms of pollution.

IX. POLITICS AND TECHNOLOGYThe Great Powers currently appear to be interested in "depoliti-

cizing" the United Nations; in fact, the organization is becoming ir-relevant in the matter of international peacekeeping. Every effortis now being centered on the so-called "new tasks" - nonproliferation,population control, narcotics, environment, etc. - which are thoughtto require new norms of international cooperation at a supranationallevel. The Brazilian delegation has consistently and openly opposedthis tendency to transform the United Nations into an internationalinstitute of technology or into an ineffective chapter of the Interna-tional Red Cross (IRC). For this reason Brazil sent a memorandum,dated April 3, 1970, to Secretary-GeneralU Thant, proposing a "diplo-matic reactivation of the UN" through the establishment of ad hocnegotiating committees within the competence and under the authorityof the Security Council. More specifically, i t proposed that one of


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165THE UN AND THE INTERN ATIONA L POWER STRUCTUREthose committees be immediately constituted to explore the modalitiesof a peaceful solution of the Middle East conflict. Arabs and Israelishave, in principle, welcomed the Brazilian suggestion which, to date,has been received coldly by the Great Powers.

An effort is being made a t the moment to "rationalize" the work-ing methods of the General Assembly by concentrating all technicalsubjects in one of the political committees of the assembly. Technicalconsideration of political subjects is one of the tactics of the policy offreezing the world power structure since it is known that less developedcountries are not well prepared for discussions on an advanced tech-nical level. Recent proposals to set up UN committees composed ofexperts or "wise men" instead of official representatives of the mem-ber states are another tactic of this policy. Experience has showntha t such scholars and wise men tend to defend the interests of thehighly industrialized countries. This depoliticization of the UnitedNations, a continually growing tendency, is thus one of the main fea-tures of the whole process of freezing the world power structure.

X. MARE NOSTRUMIn matters relating to the law of the sea the same tendency toward

freezing the power structure is evident. The great maritime powersare tenaciously opposed to the fixing of limits to territorial seas beyondthe arbitrary distance of twelve miles. Here, also, it is argued thatnational sovereignty must yield to norms of a supranational characteron the premise that observance of the principle of freedom of theseas will ensure that the seas will be utilized "for the common benefitof mankind." It is relevant to note, however, that during the periodof their own industrialization the superpowers did not approach theutilization and exploitation of resources on the basis of the conceptof the "common heritage of mankind." Through the initiative of theBrazilian delegation the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2574 D(XXIV) on December 15, 1969, by a two-thirds vote. The resolutioncalls for a moratorium on the exploitation of the seabeds pendingan agreement on an international regime to govern that exploitation.The Great Powers not only stubbornly opposed the resolution but evendeclared that they would not comply with the recommendations ofany resolution adopted against their will. They held that resolutionsof this type should not be approved by a simple majority or even bya two-thirds majority; on subjects of such broad scope, they declared,unanimity or consensus would normally be essential. This signifiesthat, for all practical purposes, the Great Powers wish to extend tothe General Assembly the veto power which they already have in the


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166 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONSecurity Council. On the specific question of putting constraints onthe right to exploit the resources of the seabed the Great Powers, whichhave a monopoly of the necessary technology, cling to the traditionalrights of sovereignty which they try to discredit in other areas.

XI. INDEPENDENCE AND INTERDEPENDENCEIn order to provide better international regulation of the prob-lems of nuclear nonproliferation, population control, and preservationof the environment the Great Powers appear to favor a concept of inter-dependence which would imply a sensible attenuation of the conceptand practice of national sovereignty. Yet, they fail to make even theslightest political concessions in the fields of international peace and

security. No one doubts that the world tends to become ever moreinterdependent. No one doubts that any tangible progress in the in-ternational field will have to be stimulated by reciprocal concessionsof sovereignty. However, it is my view that interdependence presup-poses the independence, economic emanicipation, and sovereign equali-ty of states. We cannot declare that the principles embodied in article2 of the UN charter have been superceded before we transform theminto reality. First let us be independent. Then let us become- andas rapidly as possible- interdependent.

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