In the context of a pandemic and possible global economic crisis, countries are trying to interact more closely with each other. International organizations, though online, hold their meetings more often than ever. However, their effectiveness in new circumstances is becoming increasingly questionable.
In the period after the end of World War II, a large number of international organizations were established with the aim of stabilizing the situation in the world and creating safe conditions for further political and economic development of mankind. And up to the beginning of the 21st century these organizations, though not always successfully, fulfilled their duties. However, over the past twenty years we have seen international organizations gradually losing their credibility and cease to respond to new challenges and threats and this create problems for global security, politics and economy. The pandemic finally highlighted the crisis of key international organizations and the need for their radical and urgent reform. The UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) , which are constantly criticized by both politicians and the public for their involvement in international scandals and corruption, and also for their ineffectiveness (including the fight against COVID-19 ), need to be reformed first.
The situation with the UN Security Council seems to be indicative. Despite the fact that the pandemic is a threat to the world and its future, the UN Security Council has so far adopted only one resolution directly related to the coronavirus pandemic (1 July 2020: S/RES/2532 “Maintenance of international peace and security”). UN and WHO reforms are necessary to make them functional again, but such reforms are unlikely to be possible while countries are fully engaged in the fight against the pandemic and its political and economic consequences on their own territory. And in turn, global stabilization with COVID-19 is unlikely to be possible until the reforms of these organizations are implemented. Prolonged impact of the pandemic on the political and economic situation in the world may lead to entire regions being on the verge of war, new epidemics and famine. Inefficiency of the UN and WHO may then become total and lead to irreparable catastrophe. Therefore, radical reforms of the UN and WHO is necessary now, and the only question is whether member countries are willing to sacrifice their selfish interests for such reforms. Special hopes in the fight against the pandemic and economic crisis were placed on the G20 and the two summits of its leaders held online on March 26 and November 21 this year, as this organization in the past was at the forefront of the fight against global crises. The G20 participants are the world’s 20 largest economies and together they represent 85% of the world’s gross national product, 75% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. Given that the current crisis can be much more serious than that of 2008, there were hopes that the G20 would take decisive measures to stabilize the situation. However, it turned out that this organization itself is in a state of crisis, does not have a common strategy and therefore the results of the both summits were disappointing. For example, in March the G20 reported on its decision to allocate an unprecedented $5 trillion to save the world economy. However, the problem is that this amount will not be allocated by the G20, but by the national governments of member countries. And they will most likely save their own economies first, not the world economy. This is confirmed by the fact that the G20 has not even been able to agree on a temporary lifting of sanctions during the fight against the crisis. All G20 decisions aimed at fighting the pandemic were also superficial and unspecified. Even on the issue of vaccine distribution through COVAX (the platform established by the UN and WHO to make vaccine available to all countries of the world), there was no consensus among participating countries. A similar situation can be observed in the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group (WBG) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), that can’t unite the efforts of member countries to solve problems in global economy and trade. There is no doubt that without reforms of G20,WTO,IMF, WBG and OECD it will be almost impossible to restore the global economy and trade as they were before the pandemic. The world has faced such a crisis of key international organizations for the first time. Just 10 years ago the international community was much more united on the most fundamental political and economic issues than it is today and it has helped to overcome previous crises. We are now in a much more difficult situation than in previous crises and it will take a long time to restore any unity as well as authority and efficiency of international organizations. The problem is also that UN, WHO, G20, WTO and other key international organizations reforms should be undertaken simultaneously, otherwise, the effect may be belated and insufficient to defeat the crisis. This problem as well as the loss of valuable time undoubtedly worries governments around the world and they have to consider different options how to stabilize the situation without the participation of key international organizations. Therefore it can be assumed that in the nearest future the main engine of the world development will be strengthening of bilateral political and economic relations between the countries, conclusion of new bilateral agreements and creation of new political and economic blocks. The dependence of the modern world on international organizations, their excessive number, irresponsibility, bureaucracy and increased level of corruption in them raise many questions. These include how these organizations should be reformed, which of them should be abolished or merged with the rest, and which new and effective organizations should be created. Functioning of the globalized world as well as relative stability and security in the world were largely based on the existence of international organizations and their decisions. However, in today’s situation where globalization is gradually giving way to the trend of localization and the role of the state has increased significantly, in case the global crisis is not over we may see the gradual degradation and disappearance of key international organizations. It is difficult to imagine what the world will be like without these organizations. But the countries of the world should be prepared for such a scenario, no matter how incredible it may seem to us now.
