In its first two months on the United Nations (UN) Security Council, the Permanent Mission of Germany under the leadership of Ambassador Christoph Heusgen demonstrated that it was well prepared for the task. It has yet to make its mark, however, in the pressing crises at hand, for example with regard to the situation in Venezuela or the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Change could be in the air in view of the upcoming Franco-German "dual Presidency", according to a guardedly optimistic forecast by UN expert Richard Gowan in the first episode of "Draht zum Rat", the new webcast that is being put out by FES New York.
In a symbol of cooperation, Germany and France are planning something that has never been witnessed to date on the UN Security Council: Since France holds the Presidency in March and Germany in April, the two countries are planning a "double Presidency". They will jointly address focal topics over the two-month period. One of these will be a bolstering of humanitarian aid - both under international law and in practical terms whenever this warranted by crises. This is all the more important as in the Security Council Germany together with Belgium and Kuwait is in charge of the resolutions forHumanitarian Aid in Syria. Joint Franco-German coordination could be a foretaste of things to come in the post-Brexit policy of both countries on the Security Council.
Despite ever louder sabre-rattling, according to Gowan, Germany continues to be regarded in the Council as a country that keeps channels of communication and discussion towards Russia open. In his assessment of the situation, if a peaceful resolution of the Donbass conflict is ever to be found, then it will only be with German assistance on the Security Council as well.
Another issue that will have an impact on the UN Security Council is the US' and Russia's termination of the INF Treaty, in which it was agreed to scrap all medium-range nuclear systems. Although this is not an issue that directly concerns the Security Council, as disarmament treaties like this are negotiated outside the UN, termination of the INF will nevertheless have consequences: If the five permanent members of the Council, all of them nuclear powers, can no longer agree on a core element of the nuclear control regime, then such troubled cooperation may well spill over into other areas as well.
Compared to 2017, US President Trump will have a much harder time persuading the other veto powers, especially China and Russia, to put pressure on North Korea after the most recent bilateral round of negotiations between the country and the US failed to produce any results. This bears relevance for Germany, as it has assumed the chairmanship of the sanctions regime for North Korea on the Security Council.
Together with Peru, Germany will also be heading the expert group on "Women, Peace and Security". What this means in actual practice remains to be seen. In any case, Germany should support the UN Secretary-General in continuing to assign leadership positions on the basis of gender parity. In the hearings on specific countries as well, Germany could follow Sweden's exemplary approach from last year. The Swedish Permanent Representation had involved as much women's expertise as possible regarding the conflicts addressed by the Council.
Gowan sees little hope for a permanent German seat on the Security Council, as has recently been proposed once again in the Franco-German Treaty of Aachen. On the one hand, it is questionable how much sense this would make politically in terms of a more representative composition of a Security Council in which Europe is already over-represented. On the other hand, China and other countries continue to drag their feet with regard to this issue, anyway. Instead of pursuing this project any further, Germany should invest its considerable political resources in the here and now: These resources are urgently needed for the crises emerging in the de facto multilateral world that now exists.
We're keeping our finger on the pulse of the Security Council! New episodes of "Draht zum Rat" are scheduled for April, June and October 2019 on the following topics: Germany's Presidency of the Security Council, extension of the MINUSMA mandate, women, peace and security.
Would you like to receive more information and notifications about new episodes? Just write to the head of our New York office, Luise Rürup, or to our security expert in New York, Volker Lehmann.
Contacts in "Draht zum Rat" #1:
Richard Gowan is Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. In the run-up to German membership on the UN Security Council, the FES published his outlook "The hot seat - What can Germany achieve on the Security Council", which he presented in a video interview. In episode #1 of "Draht zum Rat," he talks to LuiseRürup, head of the FES office in New York.
The author:
VolkerLehmann is senior policy analyst at FES New York and specialised in international peace and security policy.
Countries / Regions: Germany | Worldwide
Unit: Global Policy and Development
Picture: Christoph Heusgen (standing), Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, speaking with Neville Melvin Gertze (on the left-hand side of the podium) and Kenji Nakano. From UN Photo/Loey Felipe