Where the Liberal UN fails the Third World

The United Nations is the world’s peacekeeping body with liberalist ideals at the core. This institution allows individual countries and states cooperate for the insurance of global peace, equal rights and self-determination of peoples as well as international co-operation on solving international problems. [i] Each member country is only allowed five representatives and one vote, creating equal representation no matter size, power or status. As a liberal institution the UN member states should be able to mutually benefit from economic exchanges. That holds true for power blocs such as the United States and the EU but what about the Third World countries in Africa and Asia and Latin America? Liberalism does not state that all countries gain equally from these institutions but why should they not? These globally southern countries have sought to solve this dilemma by creating the Group of 77, or G77, a UN centered association of Latin American, African and Asian countries concerned with economic and development issues. Liberal theory fails to account for the creation of groups like the G77 and if the member states reap any benefit from yet another liberal institution. Was the G77 created out of necessity or lack of identity?

The Group of 77 was created in the early 1960s partially due to the changing composition of the UN and the search for a new international trade organization. The international trade system at the time still appeared bipolar and Americo-centric from the establishment of the World Bank and IMF. Together with the Marshall Aid program and the Organization for Europe Co-operation, America’s postwar preoccupation with Europe was evident in the international community. The Soviet economic system, Comecon was based upon on two world economies and continually exploited former colonies. The international economic order at this time was uneven and unequally bipolar and primarily American-dominated. The loosening of bipolarity began with the Bandung Conference in 1955 and then the expansion of United Nations membership. A Soviet-American bargain admitted sixteen new members to join the UN at once and principally opening the door for further new members. In 1960 alone seventeen newly independent states were given UN membership. This flood of new membership changed the plenary UN gatherings from NATO-esque to more Afro-Asian, even Third World, in character. July 1962, a conference on economic development was convened in Egypt and attended thirty-one countries, seven being Latin American and the rest primarily African and Asian. This conference marked an identity of purpose between Latin Americans and Afro-Asians that formed the basis of players and goals for the future G77. After the admission of the large number of the independent, non-aligned, these states were able to produce large majorities in favor of the common interest in development. However the OECD was not in favor of creating a world convention on international trade problems or creating a new organization to deal with trade and development preferring to use GATT and ECOSOC.

The first manifesto of the proto-G77 was created when 75 member-states jointly sponsored a resolution entitled ‘Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries’ several months prior to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The resolution favored the idea of a new international division of labor to reflect new patterns of production and trade, as the best way to increase and strengthen genuinely the economic independence of ‘developing countries’. (Geldart/Lyon) The UNCTAD was a compromise for the grudgingly conceded North and less than ideal forming South. The UNCTAD acted as a jumping off point with the Trade and Development Board acting unofficially as the executive committee of the G77. Later the UNCTAD Secretariat would be regarded as the principle voice and informal agency for the G77. For two or three years after UNCTAD I, the G77 was merely a caucusing group that met occasionally for UNCTAD and United Nations purposes without a clearly agreed purpose or continued program. It was at the Algiers conference in 1967 when the Algiers Charter was created; the foremost authoritative expression of the G77 collective endeavors and aspirations and marks the start of change in the G77. In the early 1970s, OPEC quadrupled the world market price for oil, encouraging the G77 to press the case for radical and comprehensive economic changes. With divisions among the major Western industrial nations over the price oil, the G77 took the offensive within the UN to seek publicity and attention for their concerns. Algeria succeeded in getting the general acceptance of the G77’s main concerns were North-South rather than East-West. The 7^th Special Session in 1975 ends the rhetorical debates between developed and developing nations. The G77 took this opportunity to bring their demands of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) to the table. The G77 began to function continuously and routinely and began to function within other UN bodies. However many small concessions in a large variety of issues, these have not been sufficient enough to ensure radical change.

In case of the G77, the UN is clearly failing in the eyes of liberalism. According to liberal ideals countries within international organization mutually benefit from economic exchanges. However, the larger players in the UN are not concerned with creating a new economic order to include these developing nations. The G77 states feel a sense of identity and collective power to influence the powerhouse countries in the United Nations and have their voice heard.

Works Cited

· Charter of the United Nations: Chapter 1: Purposes and Principles http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter1.shtml

· Swart,Lydia The Group of 77: Perspectives on its Role in the General Assembly

· Geldart, Carol, and Peter Lyon. "The Group of 77: A Perspective View." International Affairs . 57.1 (1980-1981): 79-101. Web. 4 Oct. 2011. .