A promise to eliminate 1000 staff positions and reduce overhead costs from 38 percent to 25 percent were the plan's key features heralded in the media. Little, if any, attention was focused on the effect of the reform plan on the structure of the institution. The plan puts into motion a fundamental shift of purpose for the existence of the United Nations. The United Nations was created, and heretofore, has functioned to serve its membership of sovereign nations. The market, or service area for the United Nations is now shifting away from sovereign nations to focus directly on the citizens of those nations.
Comprehensive security embraces the idea of disarmament, demobilization, and demilitarization.
But the UN has an answer. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. The new International Criminal Court has been under development for several years. The idea is being presented as a mechanism to prosecute war criminals. Our Global Neighborhood describes this new UN entity not only in the context of war criminals, but in the context of international law.