With every hard rain, my basement takes on water. It’s easy to place blame for the resulting damage on the water itself. Yet I’ve long been aware of the cracks in the foundation of my home, as well as the major reconstruction needed to resolve the situation. Yes, the water is the most proximate source of harm. But ultimately that water is a logical manifestation of the deeper fractures that need to be resolved. 

The point here, of course, is not to do with home improvement but rather the edifice of global governance at this moment in history. The multilateral system today is in the midst of a fearsome storm, taking on water on all sides. Its shortcomings are clear to supporters and detractors alike. But what should be our response?

Lately I’ve seen a tendency in UN spaces toward doubling down in the face of this adversity, presenting an uncompromising defense of the multilateral system as currently constituted. Critique is met with stronger, more forcefully expressed counter-critique. At times it becomes personal, attacking the individuals who express contrary views, maligning their motives. 

This is not the course that will lead us to the world we seek. 

I am a firm believer in international cooperation, global governance, and, at the heart of any system of global coordination, the oneness and unity of humankind. But I also know that we haven’t figured everything out just yet. The current international order is, indeed, often used by governments of all stripes as a tool to advance domestic or strategic interests. It is also often used to advance certain cultural assumptions about the world. And it has fallen short of its own promises of peace, development, and human rights for all. 

These are realities of the world as it is, the very real cracks in the foundation of the multilateral order. To pretend otherwise serves neither ourselves nor the UN we care so much about. And to disparage those who verbalize those realities is to substitute cursing the water in place of repairing weakness in the foundation. 

What we need is a narrative that acknowledges and, indeed, embraces the value of legitimate discontent, and channels that energy toward the resolution of long-standing problems. To use a different water metaphor: we need to be able to acknowledge both the present state of the bathwater and the need to save the baby.  

What does this look like in practice? It means exercising the discipline and courage to refuse the temptations of defensiveness, justification, excuses, and explaining away. But it requires affirmative measures as well. The United Nations Summit of the Future was a valiant attempt to have a conversation about purpose. It was not able to achieve everything the world needs, as is the case with any endeavor of its scale. But the conversation has begun and is continuing in a variety of forms. On UN Charter reform alone, to take one example, there is a recent IBSA communique (India, Brazil, South Africa) calling for it, a team of experts has been drafting a Second UN Charter, and an NGO coalition established to consider alternative models of global governance.  

At the heart of technical efforts such as these are more foundational objectives: articulating a shared narrative of the role of global governance at this moment in human history, or crafting a thesis statement broadly agreeable to the international community, against which we could test our theories of peace, development, and human rights. 

Movement in this direction will require qualities such as humility, compassion, understanding, and detachment. Without them, any critique or proposal will be met with suspicion. We see these constructive qualities in problem-solving every day: in the family, the classroom, and the neighborhood. Yet relationships become quite attenuated at the international level. This is one reason why centering the oneness of humanity is paramount. It can help us replicate the cooperation necessary at all levels, from local to global.

Crafting consensus around fundamental issues is no small task. But neither is the hard and resource-intensive work of repairing a cracked foundation. In some ways, it is easier just to clean up the water and save the hard work for another day. For the international order, that other day has come. The water is at our necks. The system we have needs to be modified, and it begins with open and honest conversations about where it is falling short—and where it has been successful. (And why!)

The challenges we face are too great to delay any longer. But working on our side is one undeniable reality: that striving to address long-standing problems in lasting ways is an endeavor inherently more motivating and meaningful than cleaning up the result, again and again, of deeper problems that remain unaddressed. 

Daniel Perell is a Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations