“People are becoming more and more aware of the need for a new international order that will make the most of the experience of the United Nations Organization and the results it has achieved in recent years …” Pope John Paul ii stated on New Year’s Day.
Although these words echo many statements from world leaders since the end of the Cold War, the pope’s call for a new world order hints at the Vatican’s desire for the weakening United Nations to be replaced by a growing European Union.
In his sermon at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope referred to the UN “as if it were already a part of the past” (Guardian, January 2; emphasis ours). The pontiff’s words “appeared to show he wanted the United Nations replaced in light of its failure to block the use of force by America in Iraq” (ibid.).
If the UN is unable to effectively counter America’s strength, the pope appears to argue that another power must rise on the scene to balance the U.S. What power could rise to such an occasion?
With a military force of its own, the EU is sure to undertake more of its own peacekeeping adventures—leaving the weak UN to watch from the sidelines. Watch for this counterforce to the U.S.’s military might and political clout to overtake America, leaving the U.S. as less of a power player on the world scene.