On Sunday and Monday, the United Nations held the "Summit of the Future," a conference aimed at addressing the new challenges of the 21st century.

The agenda of the summit was ambitious, including the reform of the U.N. Charter, governance of artificial intelligence, and modernization of the global financial system.

The United Nations has not changed its structure since World War II and needs to adapt to the political and economic balances of the new millennium.

In my book, "United Nations Reorganization — The Unification of the U.N. System," I made concrete proposals to reform the United Nations system, so it can reflect the current geopolitical balances and become more efficient and less bureaucratic. 

Such reform should introduce a weighted voting system in the General Assembly, increasing U.S. voting power in the United Nations. Currently, the United States, which is contributing 25% of the U.N. budget, only has one vote in the General Assembly, the same as Nauru, a country with 10,000 inhabitants that contributes just 0.001% of its budget. 

U.S. influence is limited to the veto power at the Security Council.

Global financial governance is composed of the multilateral institutions created by the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944. After over 80 years, developing countries are demanding greater rights, to reflect their increased relevance in world finance.

While the United States maintained its global economic leadership, having the highest nominal gross domestic product in the world, other countries have a smaller stake in the global economy than they had in 1944, so their quota and voting rights in the international financial institutions should be redistributed to emerging economies.

The main stakeholders, who have the power to change the United Nations, snubbed the "Summit of the Future."

In fact, to amend the U.N. Charter, it is necessary that no country with veto power opposes the reform; and none of the leaders of the five permanent members of the Security Council attended the summit. 

President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron are attending the General Assembly, but skipped the "Summit of the Future." Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping skipped the U.N. annual gathering altogether, and Vice President Kamala Harris was absent, too.

Hence, the final declaration, called "Pact of the Future," was a mere declaration of intent; and it did not contain a clear solution to reform the United Nations and a path to implement such reform.

The pact calls for renewed efforts to combat climate change, promote disarmament, and guide the development of AI, without a framework to achieve these goals.

It was not necessary to hold a summit to have a declaration of intent, because such declaration could have been adopted by the General Assembly in a regular session.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was brave to admit that the United Nations needs to be reformed, but the "Summit of the Future" showed that the organization is currently unable to change.

Francesco Stipo is an author and expert in international affairs. He is president of the Houston Energy Club, a member of the National Press Club in Washington D.C. and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. In 2014, he was invited to join the Bretton Woods Committee. Born in Italy in 1973, Dr. Stipo is a United States citizen. He holds a Ph.D. in International Law, and a Master Degree in Comparative Law from the University of Miami. More here.