French ambassador Pierre Vimont visited UB on Wednesday to address a changing world in which superpowers such as the U.S. and France have diminished influence over other countries.
Vimont's lecture, entitled "The United States and France and the Renewal of Transatlatic Relations," described the steps that the U.S. and France need to take in order to work together to deal with this shifting influence.
"If we have new partners coming into this new international community... it is obvious today that we need to work with those countries if we want to succeed," Vimont said.
The rise in influence of countries such as China, India, and Brazil came as a shock to much of the western world, according to Vimont. These countries have had surprising effects on various aspects of global diplomacy.
For instance, the former Group of Six (G6), which was composed of the world's six leading western nations in 1975, became the G8 and the G20, and there is pressure on the entity to increase it further.
Similarly, the United Nations Security Council, which consists of five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members, has also received criticism for not yet allowing new nations into its core group.
"It will not be possible to go on like that without [adding new countries]," Vimont said. "If we don't [add them], the Security Council will lack progression and legitimacy. I think there is now an agreement among all members of the international community that something will have to be done."
In addition to the emerging countries that wish to work with the international community, several countries have emerged as powerhouses that seek to cause problems internationally.
Countries such as Iran, Sudan, and North Korea have tested the limits of their global neighbors and adamantly ignored pressure from western nations. Vimont believes that the emerging nations can influence these countries in ways that western nations cannot.
"We have been looking at the ways in we could ask [emerging countries] how they can get involved in the situations and how to help us," Vimont said.
In order to maintain influence in this growing global community, the U.S. and France need to collaboratively assess crises and international situations so they can approach the community with a singular view, according to Vimont.
"The best way to work together is... try to set up a few priorities in which we could work together," Vimont said.
Vimont cited the global economic crisis, the turmoil in Afghanistan, and the Middle East peace process as three important priorities that France and the U.S. could collaborate on first.
The countries could then take their shared views to the international community and lobby for them together.
"We have to outreach, to engage with those [growing] countries to have them understand our values and that we are not trying to impose those values," Vimont said.
However, western nations must legitimately consider the views of these new members of the community and should not ignore their interests, according to Vimont.
"We have to be aware that we are not creating a single western front imposing [our views] on the rest of the world," Vimont said. "This is happening a little bit."
In the past couple of decades, dozens of small yet influential countries have emerged all over the world, taking away the prominence that western nations have enjoyed since the end of World War II.
Currently, the European Union and North America only represent about one-sixth of the population, a figure that will shift to one-ninth by 2050, according to Vimont. The western countries also represent 50 percent of the world's total wealth, which will decrease to 33 percent by 2050.
Vimont is the second sitting French ambassador to visit UB. Prior to his lecture, Vimont visited the Rare Book Research Room in Capen Hall and a collection of French history books in Lockwood Library.
"I've been impressed by the number of French intellectuals who have visited your university," Vimont said. "I feel quite humbled being here today."
