Trend Institution Intergovernmental Influence effect

The reason
for this trend could be that in
international relationship many
intergovernmental institutions of
global influence were already
established, e.g. the UN and other
UN-related organizations, while
political aspects of international
relations are difficult to resolve. Of
course in many respects, politics
and economy are intertwined or
overlapping. The first or probably
the main problem in political
globalization is the sovereignty of
nations. National interests of one
country are not always in line with
others. The fitter tends to dominate
international politics.
If the world would like to embrace
global integration or world-wide
community, the strengthening of
global institutions like international
law, the principles of international
relations and global organization like
the United Nations and all its
respective organs should be
materialized.
Globalization in terms of economy
and trade also tends to favor
developed countries at the expense
of developing countries. The demise
of cold war and the collapse of
communism made the second
world disappeared as more and
more countries in Central and
Eastern Europe succeeded in their
development drives that propped
them up to the status of the first
world. Therefore countries are now
grouped mainly in two layers, the
developed and developing
countries.
The development of
multiculturalism should be in line
with the development of
multipolarism whereas in
unipolarism the dominating country
tends to dictate to other countries.
Propagations of supremacy of one
particular culture upon the other
may divide humankind and
humanity and, collision of civilization
could become reality, with all the
consequences that may arise.
The Importance of Holding
Principles of International Relations
The core task of the United Nations
as one of the most important
multilateral forums is to maintain
peace and security. The very same
idea was adopted by the Indonesian
people on 18th August 1945 when
the Indonesian Constitution was
promulgated, whereas the preamble
of the said constitution obliged the
country to join the international
community “….to strive for the
achievement of world order based
on independence, eternal peace,
social justice and welfare”. It is good
to note that the UN Charter was
adopted following the Indonesian
constitution.
In 1955, the first Asia-Africa
Conference held in Bandung,
Indonesia issued a declaration on 10
principles which until today are
known as the “Bandung Principles”,
as parts of code of conduct in
exercising relations among nations.
Among others these are the respect
on the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of states, non interference
in internal affairs of any independent
state, just and peaceful settlement of
international disputes, equality of all
races and nations, respect for justice
and international obligations. These
principles were adopted and
became the soul for the Non Aligned
Movement which culminated for the
first time in the Belgrade Conference
in 1961. As these principles are of
universal character they play
inspirational role for international
and regional organizations. The
Bandung Principles also make
special reference to the Charter of
the UN.
History was right to note that every
breech to these principles and the
prevailing international law and
universal civilized norms have
created problems and in many
cases caused grieve and unbearable
human sufferings. This is the reason
that the UN itself cannot transgress
these principles and the prevailing
international law as the Charter
dictates. Diplomacy and negotiations
are the most favored modes and
justified options in finding solutions
to international problems and
conflicts, as the prevention of threat
to peace and security. Only in a
situation that reflects threat to peace
and security the UN may resort to
the use of force. In that sense the
use of force is not only aimed at the
restoration of peace and the
promotion of security, but also
preserving international law and
norms and principles of international
relations. From legal point of view, it
is obvious that the UN has no right
to override or overturn international
law, and, if it happened that
supremacy of law flawed and
written off. Only by maintaining
commitment as a peace loving and
law abiding state, a state is eligible to
retain her UN membership, as the
UN is an institution designed and
destined for the maintenance of
peace and preservation of the
supremacy of international law.
Therefore the UN plays the role in
law enforcement.
Can the UN Play Role to Keep
Balance of Power?
The presence of a powerful global
organization like the UN is an ideal
one, although the UN itself
theoretically does not reflect a
supra-national status, but in
maintaining peace and security the
UN has proved as an effective
institution in many cases. The
effectiveness of the UN in this regard
constitutes itself a reliable institution
in preventing aggression or
intention for act of aggression.
Yet, the UN needs to be updated and
democratized to make it more
effective, particularly in facing
problems complicated with big
powers. At the moment only five
countries enjoy the most powerful
position as permanent members of
the UN Security Council with veto
rights. Four of them, the United
States of America, the United
Kingdom, Republic of France and
the Russian Federation represent
western culture which was heavily
characterized with Catholicism,
Orthodoxy and Protestantism. The
other one is China which has deep
root in Buddhism. Ideally other big
cultures should be represented in
the UN Security Council, in this case
Islamic as well as Hindu culture.
From this point of view, India and
Indonesia each may represent
Hindu and Islamic cultures
respectively. In case the size of
population become the barometer
to be admitted to the permanent
membership with veto right,
logically India, Indonesia, Nigeria are
eligible for that position. Other
options are possible to democratize
the UNSC, by erasing veto right of
permanent members and,
abandoning the permanent
membership. The countries
concerned may strongly oppose
this idea, but theoretically it could
happen if the Charter amended by
the General Assembly, which is not
foreseeable at this juncture.
In political sense, balance of power
could be established if world politics
gave birth to some new super
powers, meaning multi-polarism,
which is not necessarily bipolarism
and ideological based structure, as
the world has put aside ideology in
favor of economic and technological
might. The present high
development of industrious India
and China could contribute
positively to this idea, hopefully not
in a long distance time.
In the absence of multipolarism, the
UN may have difficulties in reaching
consensus in interpreting the
Charter. When the UN was
prevented or failed to act with the
necessary peace keeping operation,
than some big powers which in
many cases with the cooperation of
a superpower made another option
for themselves to act in
multinational military operation.
Such situation could be possibly
hindered if multipolarism does exist
where real balance of power
become reality in international
relationship and that not a single
superpower can dictate against
common interest of the rest. The
presence of multipolarism than
could engineer the democratic
decision making process in the UN.
With this mechanism, the UN could
play a great role in the
institutionalization of balance of
power within the framework of the
UN that the world needs in coping
threat to world peace and security
and the preservation of international
law and universal norms as a code
of conduct that guides every nation,
big or small.
Developing Countries Need to be
Strengthened
In 1997 several countries were hit
severely by monetary crisis, one of
them was Indonesia. Many argued
that Indonesia was too much
exposed to the globalization process
and, also because her most liberal
monetary policy combined with the
fact that money has become a
commodity that could be
transferred to and out of the
country in the most expeditious
time by the greedy and
irresponsible speculators who know
no boundaries. Indonesia was the
good example how vulnerable a
developing country is when
confronted with the vigorous and
unstoppable globalization process
where multinational companies and
interests play great role in a national
or regional economy.
Developing country is in a difficult
situation in facing globalization
process, but staying outside the
process can lead to unwanted
isolation, too. Exposure to the
globalization process at one time in
the full context is dangerous, but
with the very strict isolation does
the same impact. Therefore for the
developing countries the ultimate
choice is only gradual exposure to
globalization. This option is also the
safest alternative to developed
countries as the possible collapse of
developing countries would serve
no best interests of the developed
themselves.
Let us have an example, that in
order to increase the market of
commodities from developed
countries to the developing side,
there is a need to increase the
purchasing power on the
developing one. And it is obvious
that this purchasing power would
rise when eradication of poverty
successfully exercised. So
successful economy, education,
democratization, and, health drives
in developing countries are of
undeniable prerequisites in creating
common bases to serve common
interests and benefits. This should
be commonly understood by both
sides, and it happened as a
common practice that most
developed country provided soft
loans, commercial loans even
generously with grants or change
the soft loans into grants in favor of
the clients. One could not and
would not regard this as
philanthropic or humanitarian
endeavors but thing that goes with
economical considerations.
In forging a possible free trade
partnership, as one of the
globalization elements, between
developed and developing
countries, give and take principles
implies as each side has to
safeguard its national interests. Even
between developed countries the
same practice happened as
competition always emerges for the
same products and services they
produced and served.
Common perception on the need to
establish bilateral, regional and
interregional free trade areas is there
already. But every single country
and region has each own calculation
and consideration on the scope and
timing of the establishment of the
said free trade arrangement.
In the awakening and emerging of
the sub-regional, regional and
interregional cooperation and
organization, the vision and
arrangement of a single market and
free trade area has been combined
with the vision of sub-regional,
regional and interregional
communities. Gradually these sub-
regional or regional organizations
have become or being in the
process towards the creation of a
community. A community based
arrangement facilitates free flow of
capital and unrestricted movement
of people including labors as well as
commodities and services. The best
model and the most advanced of
this community based arrangement
today could be the European Union.
ASEAN is also coming up with its
three pillars namely political and
security community, economic
community as well as socio-cultural
community. East Asia Community
comprises of all ASEAN countries,
China, Japan, Republic of Korea,
India, Australia and New Zealand
has been also under discussion.
When all of these sub-regional and
regional communities become
strong reality, an integrated world
wide based community could be
safely established for the best
interest of all through the just and
fair interaction among countries and
nations and among sub-regions and
regions.
Recognition of Multiculturalism
Nevertheless, one could not imagine
how a sub-regional or regional
community would be established
without democracy and
democratization, without
recognition and respect of each
other’s culture and inheritance,
without promotion of common
rights and without the supremacy
of law and order, or just simply
without advance and highly
developed civilization.
Today, most of the countries, if not
all, are of multi-ethnic and multi-
religions. Many countries enjoy the
presence of local languages within
their borders and consider these
languages as cultural richness that
has to be preserved regardless the
size of their members or number of
the users. Recognition and
preservation of these cultural
treasures, be it in term of ethnicities,
religions or languages, which are in
line with the relevant prevailing
international conventions such as
the International Convention on
Economic, Social and Culture (ICESC)
could also contribute to the
strengthening of democratic life and
national cohesiveness and resilience.
Sub-regional and regional
cooperation were made possible
among countries of different
backgrounds in race, language,
religion, ideology and other forms
of culture. Yet integration does not
unnecessarily define as being in one
race, one language and one religion.
Being in one community people
have to be able to give in mutual
recognition. Therefore,
discrimination on whatever bases
should not be tolerated in any form
of community, but tolerance in
religion should be promoted,
otherwise the community would
disarray and fall apart.
Interfaith Dialogue and Cultural
Cooperation
As has been stated before that every
country manifests richness of
cultural fabric including religions.
Therefore tolerance among the
adherents of different religions is
essential to keep the concerned
country or nation intact. As
Indonesia is a good example of
multi-ethnics and religions country,
since long time interfaith dialogue
has been conducted between the
leaders of religious organizations,
and between the government and
religion community leaders. Five
years ago this practice of interfaith
dialogue was brought up by the
Government of Indonesia to bilateral
context, even at the regional level,
namely ASEAN-Asia and South
Pacific, as well as inter-regional level,
in this case ASEM Interfaith Dialogue
and cultural cooperation.
To manage the continuous process
of these interfaith dialogues,
Indonesia herself with the vigorous
support of friendly countries has
established “The Yogyakarta
International Center for Interfaith
Dialogue and Cultural Cooperation”
with a headquarter seated in the city
of Yogyakarta. Indonesian initiative
in adopting and promoting interfaith
dialogues in her diplomacy’s agenda
has been manifested in other
regional initiatives, even the UN had
embarked on a series of
international seminar on the same
topic.
Conclusion
Actually, living in cooperation
among peoples and nations is a
recognition that promotion for
better and safer life for everybody
could be more effective and
successfully exercised by common
endeavors. It means that living
alone or in isolation has many
obstacles and too difficult to sustain.
Recognition of self-weakness forces
peoples to cooperate, and any
forms of cooperation would
promote democracy and mutual
recognition of rights. Surely,
cooperation among peoples and
nations at any possible level would
strengthen world-wide democracy
and promotion of human rights and
sustainable civilization.
Democratization of international
relations could prevent power
hegemony and open a wide range
of opportunity to developing
countries and people to achieve
international standard of living and
welfare which is important as a solid
basis of universal perpetual peace
and common global security for
every individual.