Blair Urges Change in the UN

Some of his ideas seem pretty radical but may be needed in this post-Cold War World.

Singling out Iran - whose ongoing nuclear programme has alarmed international leaders - Mr Blair warned technological change and economic globalisation meant western states had to act "pre-emptively" to meet potential threats and crises.

He said: "In the old days, countries could wait, assess over time, even opt out - at least until everything was clear. We could act when we knew. Now we have to act on the basis of precaution."

So this really adds onto the so-called Doctrine of Preemption. We need to hit threats before they grow. This would be the biggest change though and would go a long way toward creating a more effective UN:

His most contentious ideas concerned the Security Council, the UN's highest body, where Britain, along with France, China, Russia and the US, have permanent seats and veto power.

Nations including Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have all been pressing for permanent seats on the council, and Mr Blair signalled he was sympathetic, saying the council in its current form "cannot be legitimate in the modern world".

These other nations will give the UN a more global reach that will reflect the true power players in the world. We have the 2nd biggest economy, the largest democracy, the most powerful South American country, and the other big power player in Europe. I think it will provide them with quite a bit of prestige if they let those four nations in on the Big Game.

There could even have a more altruistic look at certain things because Japan, India, and Brazil really has nothing to gain or lose from putting troops in or sending "preemptive humanitarinism" into a place like Darfur. The U.S. doesn't care about Darfur because there is no oil, gold, or potential consumers there. Britian is on the U.S. team. France probably doesn't want any part of a continent's that they were once the colonial overlords of. Russia and China have no direct interest in anything on the African continent so why should they care?

So bad stuff goes down in Africa and the permanent members just shrug their shoulders because they really have nothing to gain and only something to lose on that continent. The only country that can really act is the U.S. However we can't afford another Somalia and that is what we will get with our troops stretched so thin.

Perhaps Japan, India, or Brazil could take over some of the altruistic World Cop duty since they have no history on that continent. They more or less have nothing to lose. They will go in fresh and might actually help the helpless. And if downed Japanese pilots get dragged through the street there will be world wide condemnation. It won't be hated Americans but selfless Japanese who would be dead. Then you might see the world community actually take Japan's side and not give out candy and shoot off guns like they would if it was dead Americans.