On November 4, 2019, as part of the 2019 Global Governance Series, the European Studies Council of the MacMillan Center welcomed Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo for a special address on the role of the United Nations in forging multilateralism. Ambassador DiCarlo currently serves as Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs in the UN. The event was moderated by Yuriy Sergeyev, Senior Fellow at the MacMillan Center and the former Ambassador of Ukraine to the UN.
Ambassador DiCarlo began her speech by outlining the mission of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA). She says that the DPPA “plays a very central role in UN efforts to prevent deadly conflicts and build sustainable peace,” and provided examples of DPPA’s political missions and envoys that are addressing conflicts around the world. She specifically mentioned the DPPA’s increasing engagement in countries with no formal peace operations.
“We’re having this discussion today at a very difficult time,” she says, “Far from having any new world order or a preserved old order, what we see is unease and uncertainty around the globe. We have intensified competition among major powers, more serious threats, persistent conflict, accelerating climate change, and new forms of warfare deriving from technological change and without international governance.”
Ambassador DiCarlo summarized three negative trends in global conflicts: the increasing intractability of conflicts with prolonged duration, the abundance of complex and decentralized non-state militant groups, and the growing involvement of regional and international powers with complicating factors such as migration. The central paradox, she explained, is the increased calls for isolationism directly opposing the growing need for collective, multilateral solutions.
“There is a sense that we have lost traction on major conflicts,” the Ambassador said.
To explain this paradox, Ambassador DiCarlo revisited the mission of the UN. She stressed that at the founding of the UN, all member states pledged adherence to basic principles including sovereignty of all states and collective action regarding threats to international security. The Ambassador pointed out that, with the addition of new member states and the involvement of the original members, there is now a divergence among states in the basic principles of the UN. This has obstructed UN efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts.
In particular, Ambassador DiCarlo made note of the rise in nationalist and populist voices manifested in demonstrations. “While every situation is unique,” she says, “one common thread connecting all demonstrations is a growing deficit of trust between people and political establishments. This constitutes a rising threat to the social contract.”
Citing the high-level week of the General Assembly this past September as an example, Ambassador DiCarlo emphasized that, for many of today’s challenges, “the way forward lies in more, not less, international cooperation.” Importantly, this collective action “must be for a defined purpose, based on principles that are commonly agreed,” she said.
Toward the end of her address, Ambassador DiCarlo provided examples of international partnerships. She emphasizes that multilateralism has to go beyond states, regional organizations, and intergovernmental bodies. It needs to include civil societies, the private sector, women’s organizations, and youth, who all make important contributions to addressing global challenges.
After concluding her address, Ambassador DiCarlo fielded questions from audience members. The questions ranged from the Ambassador’s career to the outcomes of the peacebuilding efforts of the DPPA. Specifically, she described the challenges she faced as the first woman in UN history to hold her current position.
Ambassador DiCarlo served as a Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs from 2015 to 2018.
Written by Yilin Chen, Timothy Dwight College, Class of 2023