UN Ambassador Bob Rae with Haitian Foreign Minister Jane Victor Geneus in Assembly Hall/UN photo

As the rising global power competition of the past two decades has affected every multilateral policy area from aid to trade, the United Nations has become both a battleground and a target for interests angling after a new status quo.

By Kerry Buck and Michael W. Manulak

January 25, 2024

Recent headlines impugning the effectiveness of the United Nations – including, in Canada, support from Conservative Member of Parliament Leslyn Lewis for a petition calling on Canada to expeditiously leave the UN and its subsidiary organs — has spurred debate within the country. Should Canada leave the UN?  Do “the negative consequences” of UN membership “far outweigh the benefits,” as the petition maintains?

Having just co-authored a report on the topic titled “Canada and the United Nations: Rethinking and Rebuilding Canada’s Global Role,” we have given much thought to this very question.

This is a period of remarkable change in world politics. Power is becoming more dispersed, with many rising actors — especially non-democratic ones — vying for influence. Leading states are stepping away from multilateral solutions to international problems. International institutions face real challenges in this context, the UN perhaps foremost among them. Multiple centres of global power are crystallizing, giving rise to a more fluid multilateral setting.

In this context, we asked an expert advisory panel of eight former Canadian ambassadors: Does the United Nations remain vital to Canada’s foreign policy?

Many today — including Lewis and the 60, 000 or so individuals who have signed the petition — would answer this question in the negative. Isn’t the UN broken? Frozen in futility? Why should Canada bother with such a frustrating institution when there are so many alternative venues available?

Yet, after detailed consideration, our advisory panel concluded, firmly and unanimously, that the UN today is more relevant than ever for Canada.

Rather than simply a mechanism for fruitless idealism, multilateralism advances vital Canadian national interests. The UN provides the basic foundation or operating system for the structure of norms, rules, and institutions governing world politics. While other institutions, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the Group of 7 (G7), are vital for Canada, they cannot make the same claim. The UN is the primordial organization for a world order in which Canada thrives. We take it for granted at our peril.

Rather than diminishing it, growing global polarization only intensifies Canada’s interest in maintaining the UN. The UN remains the best means of bringing the world together, North and South, East and West. Global problems, such as pandemics, climate change, or nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, demand that states make the UN work. It is the only global game in town.

It is through international organizations that Canada can best affect international outcomes. The greater the marginalization of the UN, the narrower the avenues for Canadian influence. When cooperation occurs in ad-hoc venues, including trendy mini-lateral ones, Canada too often finds itself on the sidelines.

The uncertainties posed by the 2024 United States presidential election further strengthen Canadian stakes in reinforcing the UN. Multilateralism and international law are the best means available to small and medium-sized states for checking the naked exercise of power by the largest states. Recent experiences with hostage diplomacy and arbitrary steel and aluminum tariffs are illustrative of the implications for Canada of a world where the constraints on big states are loosened.

As we learned in the 1930s and 1940s, Canada has a real stake in doing what it can to keep the US firmly enmeshed within the global order. A reversal in US commitment to international organizations is a very serious risk.

Plus, UN agencies, such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Universal Postal Union (UPU), and the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), improve the day-to-day lives of Canadians. Whether it is global transportation networks, the delivery of international mail, or GPS, well-functioning UN agencies provide valuable services that are too often overlooked.

These agencies will continue to matter going forward. The global health norms and regulations adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) that once led to the eradication of smallpox could forestall a future pandemic. The coordination of scientific research facilitated by the UN Environment Programme generates information vital to ensuring that we will sustain the earth’s life-support systems.

This is not to say that the UN does not have its warts. Our panelists readily acknowledged them and recounted often the frustrations of trying to advance Canadian priorities through UN bodies. Yes, building support among hundreds of countries is difficult. Yes, human rights abusers and committers of mass- atrocity crimes play prominent roles on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and other agencies. Yes, UN bureaucracy can be ponderous and maddeningly slow to work with.

But, the UN reflects the world we live in. Canadian governments must operate in the world that is, rather than the world as we would like it to be. Canadian values are not compromised by engaging diplomatically those with whom we disagree. While public shunning of bad actors can bring a certain self-satisfaction to governments and Canadians alike, it is often the easy way out. Much more can sometimes be done to alleviate suffering and foster peace through quieter diplomatic means.

Our panel found that the benefits of UN membership far outweigh the drawbacks.

A Roadmap for Renewed Influence

Our panel found that Canada today is a less influential UN player than it once was. Consecutive losses in elections for a non-permanent Security Council (UNSC) seat — in 2010 and 2020 —are only the most visible signs of this. Canada today punches below its historic weight at the United Nations. As the UN’s sixth largest donor, Canada must ensure accountability and effective oversight.

Canadian diplomats find themselves less able to supply new thinking on pressing cooperation problems, missing opportunities to shape global agendas. Years of underinvestment in diplomacy and risk aversion have taken their toll.

And while Canada sends excellent diplomats to UN bodies, Ambassador Bob Rae among them, our delegations are small by G7 or G20 standards.

Where Canada and other democracies are leaving a void, authoritarian countries are progressively rewiring the UN, rolling back established gender and human rights norms. China is increasingly seeding the UN bureaucracy with its own nationals, sympathetic and beholden to Beijing’s worldview.

Even for those who look upon the UN with suspicion, few wish to leave the field to those countries with radically different values and priorities.

Our report advances eight recommendations for rebuilding Canadian influence. These include a more interest-based approach to UN issues, including via the development of a United Nations Strategy and better prioritization among Canada’s UN activities. We advocate for an improvement in bureaucratic coherence on UN issues and public engagement.

We also find that Canada needs an increased presence at UN missions and bodies, including through cultivating multilateral expertise and supporting the appointment of Canadians to UN jobs.

In these respects, our panel’s findings accord well with Global Affairs Canada’s recent Future of Diplomacy and transformation initiatives, as well as the “Boehm Report” on the foreign service released by the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

We recommend the creation of a multilateral career stream within the Canadian foreign service, ensuring that new officers build contacts and expertise by spending the majority of their early career postings at international organizations. While multilateral diplomacy demands some of the same skillsets as bilateral diplomacy, certain competencies — including negotiation and network building — are different and would benefit from specialization.

Finally, we recommend that Canada put forward its candidacy for the next uncontested seat within the “Western European and Others Group” on the UN Security Council. By announcing its candidacy far ahead of time — likely for a vacant seat well into the 2030s — and beginning the hard legwork of building support, Canada stands a far better chance of succeeding. While often deadlocked, the Security Council remains the world’s top security table. Canada has an interest in being there.

To do this, a parliamentary consensus — at least in broad terms —on Canada’s UN policies is necessary. The interests of Canadians are not well-served when the UN becomes a political football or achievements at the UN are treated as domestic political trophies.

Multilateral Priorities for Canadian Interests

While it is easier to stand on the sidelines, pointing to the UN’s many faults as a reason for disengagement, Canada has a vital national interest in preserving and strengthening the United Nations in a period of global contestation and turbulence.

The world is changing fast in ways that can be unfavourable to Canada. The United Nations is the key venue for Canada to protect and promote its global interests. We need to up our game, not abandon the field.

Kerry Buck, a career foreign service officer, was Canada’s Ambassador to NATO from 2015-2018. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa and the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Michael W. Manulak, an Assistant Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Oxford. He is author of Change in Global Environmental Politics: Temporal Focal Points and the Reform of International Institutions (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and co-author of the report “Canada and the United Nations: Rethinking and Rebuilding Canada’s Global Role.”