Global governance system needed to tackle spiraling risks, experts argue

Experts argue for a stronger global governance system and closer cooperation among nations to address risks of climate change, AI and nuclear threats, as Kyung Hee University holds panel discussions as part of its annual Peace BAR Festival.

Kyung Hee University Professor Kim Won-soo, left, and Choue In-won, chancellor of the Kyung Hee University System participate in a panel discussion as part of the university's annual Peace BAR Festival in Dongdaemun Distrct, eastern Seoul, on Thursday. Oxford University Professor Nick Bostrom and Princeton University Professor G. John Ikenberry participated online. [PARK SANG MOON]

Experts have called for a stronger global governance system and closer cooperation among nations as the world faces unprecedented risks across climate, AI and nuclear threats.

The panel discussion was held at the Kyung Hee University Grand Peace Palace on Thursday under the theme of “Peace or Collapse, Planetary Society at an Inflection Point."

Choue In-won, chancellor of Kyung Hee University System, understands that it is difficult for individuals or nation-states to be proactive about impending dangers such as global warming and wars, which is why he believes “the role of global government entities such as the United Nations has become more important today.”

The session was part of the university’s annual Peace BAR Festival, which commemorates the UN-designated International Day of Peace which falls on Sept. 21 every year.

BAR is an acronym that reflects Kyung Hee University’s three core values of “spiritually Beautiful, materially Affluent and humanly Rewarding.” The term BAR comprises of three values: “spiritually Beautiful, materially Affluent and humanly Rewarding.” The university holds the three ideals as a way forward to global citizenship and a sustainable community for the 21st century and beyond.

The International Day of Peace and the International Year of Peace was initially proposed to the UN in 1981 by Kyung Hee founder Chou Young-seek, a peace activist and philosopher.

His proposal was accepted by the UN General Assembly later the same year.

Since 1982, Kyung Hee University System, which governs Kyung Hee University and other educational institutes, has annually hosted the Peace BAR Festival, inviting scholars across the globe to discuss world peace and mutual prosperity.

Chou also brought forward ideas about multilateralism to prevent global collapse.

“There is a problem with our traditional paradigm, which is why I believe we have arrived at the critical state that we are in today,” Chou said. “The future will be led by the millennials, and it is important for older generations to take a more active approach to understanding younger mindsets. It is only then we can truly discuss ways to grow into a sustainable society. However, this will not happen if the older generation remains inflexible to new proposals brought forward by the younger people, whose values or thought processes are different from ours.”

Professor G. John Ikenberry of politics and international affairs at Princeton University pointed out the role of global governance is weakening in the multilateral system.

“The security council is paralyzed in the face of these great problems,” he said. “The Ukraine war has brought one of the prominent members, Russia, into direct violation of the core UN principles. We don’t use military force against another neighbor’s territory, that’s internationally recognized. But the Ukraine war has not had the effect you might hope it would — that it would unify the world, that it would create reasons for all parties to come together to protect our most precious international principles.”

Under the theme of “Peace or Collapse, Planetary Society at an Inflection Point," the panel discussion was held part of the university's annual Peace BAR Festival in Dongdaemun Distrct, eastern Seoul, on Thursday. [PARK SANG MOON]

As daunted as he is about the growing gap between the demand and supply of governance, Ikenberry urged the UN to reform and bring the nations together, because it is “one global institution that has all the parties, states, and different groups as members with a common global fate.”

Ikenberry proposes that the formation of a better UN would come from next-generation multilateralism.

“A lot of the next-generation multilateralism will not be universal at the outset nor constitutional in the sense of the top-down but increasingly not bottom up either, but coalitional islands of cooperative norm agreement among like-minded states that can then provide regulatory standards for monitoring and reporting, and best practices that can then be — if not universalized — put in a form that can incentivize countries [that follow the norms] and put pressure on those that do not join that normative grouping. Speaking as an international relation scholar, that’s where I think the action is and that can directly or indirectly bring us back to a better UN.”

Professor Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, said global centralization is needed to regulate destructive technologies but ironically, it has also become easier with technological advancement.

“In some respects, the situation we are entering now is different because of the advances of information technology just makes it a lot easier to collect massive amounts of data and analyze them,” Bostrom said. “[So] surveillance here is done at a scale in which you could centralize the surveillance much more. You could have one government agency that keep track of 100 million people, so I don’t know how much we can extrapolate from historical experience. I would say that if we are looking for concrete things we could do, we could develop a more general type of institution that could improve global coordination generally.”

Bostrom pointed out that despite recurring pandemics and global disasters, the calls for concerted efforts by governments to address these issues went unheeded.

“Although having just had a large pandemic, and still after these big, warning shots, there’s pretty much no interest among governments to actually regulate these capabilities,” he said ruefully. “Even with trillions of dollars in damage, millions of people dead, we still can’t get serious about this very simple thing — regulating a crisis or the machines [like AI], so maybe it takes a bigger plate to get our act together."

Kyung Hee University’s Peace BAR Festival wrapped up Friday, hosting a variety of other events and discussions on global citizenship and world peace, as well as a photo exhibition that recorded the 41-year annual event at the Seoul campus.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]