Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary: This paper raises important questions and provides valuable insight into multilateralism. The study's conceptual framework to measure countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism is Article 1 of the UN Charter. Based on Article 1 of the UN Charter, the UN is an international organization created to “maintain international peace” (Article 1.1), “develop friendly relationships among nations” (Article 1.2), “achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character” (Article 1.3) and “be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends” (Article 1.4).
The authors develop a novel index, UN-Mi, measuring countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism using six headline indicators to evaluate national policies and engagement with the United Nations system, an issue that deserves our close attention. The indicators are selected based on desk research, expert judgment, and public and targeted consultation.
The UN-Mi evaluates the contributions...