The war in Ukraine has destabilized and polarized the international order. It pits two nuclear-armed superpowers, the United States and Russia, against each other. Any miscalculation can take all of us to nuclear Armageddon. How can the war be ended and on what terms?
Conventional wisdom holds that wars end in one of two ways. Either one side wins and the other loses, or they negotiate a peace agreement by coming to an understanding that both sides can live with. Peace agreements are reached by making a win-win deal where both sides get something they want out of it.
The “deciders” will be Russia (essentially Vladimir Putin) and Ukraine (the Zelensky administration). They will be the ones with representatives at the negotiating table. Beyond “the table,” there are other influencers, such as those who support Ukraine with arms and funding—the European Union and the U.S. There are those who tacitly support Russia by continuing commerce with Putin and by not voting in the UN to sanction Russia.
If a peace settlement is to be reached between Ukraine and Russia, we must consider the institution most capable of facilitating the necessary negotiations. The United Nations is the logical party for this task. The International Court of Justice was foreseen by the UN Charter as the primary method of resolution of disputes between countries, offering law as an alternative to war. But the law needs enforcement, and the ICJ has none, and its ruling against Russia nearly two years ago was utterly ignored.
But this does not prevent the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, from organizing serious peace negotiations. He is charged with mediation and appointment of envoys to broker peace agreements. In getting such negotiations off the ground, he might find it useful to draw upon countries such as China or Turkey, both of which have a rapport with Putin.
The United Nations is the logical place to organize these negotiations. We can move from war to law by reforming and strengthening the United Nations, but it will take some creative thinking and action by all of us.
Jerry Tetalman is co-author of ‘One World Democracy.’
