The UN Pact for the Future: Last Call to Save Multilateralism, Christian Manahl
Abstract: Last September, UN member states adopted a Pact which acknowledges our responsibility for the present and future as the world faces existential threats. Controversies during the process of adoption reflect a fractured international system and foreshadow a difficult implementation. This is compounded by populist trends on both sides of the North Atlantic. However, a cynical surrender to narrow-minded power politics will not resolve the tremendous socio-economic, environmental and security challenges ahead of us, but will only serve to exacerbate them. Future generations will judge today’s political leaders – and today’s electorate in the big democracies – by the choices they make and by their resolve to implement the Pact that they have signed up to.