A New Charter for the United Nations
In more than three decades of teaching International Organization at the National University of Mexico, the syllabus of my discipline has been changed many times, in order to reflect the ever changing reality of international society. But what happened between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Irak war of 2003 is more than a change. It is a real and unique revolution which transformed international relations in a way that was both unpredictable and even unthinkable not long ago.
In the face of that, we had the right to expect a stream of ideas and proposals to update all social institutions; instead, we have witnessed a desperate and irresponsible attempt to go on as if nothing had happened, in a clear denial of reality. Even more absurd was the fact that the doing --nothing policy was explained in the name of political realism. The second Irak war changed this attitude... up to a point. Now everybody agrees that something must be done; but the consensus ends there, and there has been an outpouring of proposals clearly oriented to the protection of all kinds of vested interests.
What follows is a proposal that many a respectable scholar will discard as political fiction; but while I agree that as a personal blueprint of a new Charter of the United Nations, it is arguable, I must point out that this intellectual exercise carries the weight of my many years of teaching and research on the subject. I also believe that those who reject it out of hand, without offering any kind of alternative, place themselves in the realm of delusion, by believing that reality may be ignored.