The concluding year will be remembered for the many ways it undermined the building blocks of the world as we know it. Globally, regionally and even here at home, the events of 2003 posed a direct challenge to the most basic ways in which states and societies act. While change is inevitable, it is by no means clear that this assault on the established order will open the door to a better future. That will depend on whether our governments have the courage and the wisdom to seize the opportunities presented by a world in flux.
Globally, the big story of 2003 was the invasion of Iraq. While Washington mustered an international coalition to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the attack was most notable for its blatant disregard of the United Nations. The decision to proceed without U.N. approval was not unprecedented -- NATO action in Yugoslavia in the 1990s did not enjoy U.N. legitimacy. But rarely had a government -- and an architect of the international order at that -- so flagrantly dismissed international opinion.
The decision to go to war despite those misgivings was prompted by equal disregard for world opinion by Hussein. As U.S. President George W. Bush and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan have pointed out, the question now is whether the U.N. is ready to face its own shortcomings and redeem the hopes that attended its birth. Stalled efforts at U.N. reform regrettably suggest that it does not seem prepared to do so.