The “Board of Peace” should have the US, India, and Israel - ("USINIS") - at its core. It is a good idea to have the UN compete for US dollars and attention with the Board, when fully functional. Let the best Body win in a free marketplace for ideas and the world will be a better place because of it.
Quite recently, U.S. President Donald Trump led the signing ceremony for the founding charter of "Board of Peace."
Legitimate questions arise if, and how, this board coexists with the United Nations (UN) .
It's in this context we need to take a candid look at the status quo around the UN.
Looking around, you will see more failures of the UN system than legitimate contributions, especially recently.
Credible allegations of instinctively siding with terrorists, allies and sympathizers in the Mideast prove the UN is broken.
Antisemitism and hatred for the Jewish State run deep inside its body.
Seven million dead COVID-19 are a good example of how it failed.
Ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine proved UN is a toothless tiger.
Ditto for North Korean intransigence.
People of Uyghur, the metropolis of Hong Kong, the nation of Taiwan, victims of disasters in Haiti, strife in Sudan or Yemen, and many more could fare better if the glorious words of the UN Charter showed up in action.
All these things happened just in the last quarter century.
Post World War II, universality of good intentions was the release from previous years' mayhem. Evil of Nazism was vanquished, the world reckoned with the horrors of Holocaust, Imperialist Japanese expeditionary ideas dealt with decisively.
In a world brimming with idealism and hope, a Security Council was created with checks and balances – aka veto by any permanent member.
Needless to belabor, it created equal-opportunity-offenders, some more equal than the others, as history would bear out.
As it stands now, two of the five permanent members of the Security Council are autocratic. One of them is engaged in naked cross-border aggressions that defy reason.
The second engages in pogroms inside her own borders against ethnic minorities and other freedom minded peoples, brazenly uses bribery and handouts to buy puppet regimes, and so on.
If there were a murders' ball for countries, each would be a guest of honor.
Two others in the club of five are impotent, just because they are.
Both are imperialist hegemons of the past – a baggage not easy to get rid of, and they never cared. One of them is part of a landmass I call a "flyover continent" for good reason. Both are overrun with problems of utter mismanagement of internal affairs and failure to choose between rejecting legacy and moving on or doubling down on heritage.
These four members of the Security Council, combined, match the GDP of the fifth member – the U.S. The U.S. spends more on defense than the other four combined.
If the U.S. is supposed to be the economic engine, the peacemaker and the world's policeman, the United Nations surely fails to give us full-throated recognition.
The UN machinery is too burdened with its self-importance to bother checking in with its benefactor. Previous U.S. administrations played along, no longer.
The future this writer sees is not of multilateralism, forget universality of good intentions.
I see multi-axial world where the UN exists as a perfunctory busybody, if at all.
One of the axes is the "free world" comprising those who profess and practice free and fair elections, freedom of speech, respectful coexistence with minorities, rule of law, ease of intra and cross-border commerce and a respect for borders.
Do not expect them to be tranquil internally since democracy demands a never-ending peaceful battle for power amongst competing interests and ideas.
Naturally, the "free people" find solidarity with other members of the tribe.
Who will lead this coalition?
The U.S., of course.
Additionally, there are two bright spots in our orbit – India and Israel.
Geographically the three straddle the world.
All maintain a multi-ethnic/religious/cultural milieu in the face of cross-border incursions and destructive interests within.
Role of the judiciary as a check-and-balance in a parliamentary system delivers results. Armed forces in each – every single day of their independent existence – have obeyed supremacy of civilian leadership.
Each is a vibrant – if cantankerous - democracy.
None is perfect, but each stands up to be counted for a better tomorrow.
Each has a unique flavor.
Israel and India boast lineage going back thousands of years and maintain close ties.
India has close relationships abroad through its cultural pollination – Bollywood and music.
Israel is the startup nation bubbling with ideas and technologies at the next frontier of economic progress.
Taken together, the three countries – I call the trio USINIS for short - create a formidable triumvirate that can counter any concentration of power in any other emerging axes.
The "Board of Peace" should have USINIS at its core. It's a good idea to have the UN compete for U.S. dollars and attention with the board, when fully functional.
Let the best body win in a free marketplace for ideas and the world will be a better place because of it.
All opinions are of the Author alone, and do not necessarily represent that of any organization he may be part of. The author alone is responsible for any error or omission.
Partha Chakraborty, Ph.D., CFA is an economist, a statistician, and a financial analyst by training. Currently he is an entrepreneur in Water technologies, Blockchain and Wealth Management in US and India. Dr. Chakraborty is based in Southern California. Read more Partha Chakraborty's Insider articles — Click Here Now.