It has become clear that the United Nations is ill suited to the challenges of the 21st century. Its institutions were created in the aftermath of World War II and to this day they reflect that balance of global power. Yet the world has changed drastically in the past half century. The number of states has tripled, and the very structure of international relations has been transformed. The U.N. must evolve to cope with this new world.

The Iraq crisis of 2002, triggered by the United States' readiness to invade another sovereign state without U.N. approval, brought home the failings of the organization. The lessons were plain: New security threats had emerged that the world body was not prepared to deal with. And if the U.N. could not respond to them, then it risked becoming irrelevant. The failures reflected both structures and operating principles, and remedying them would require drastic measures on both levels.

Cognizant of these challenges, Secretary General Kofi Annan convened a panel of 16 eminent persons to assess the nature of future threats and to recommend changes in the institution to better enable the U.N. to deal with them. The High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change deliberated for a year, and presented its report to Mr. Annan last week, who will forward it, and its 101 recommendations, to the General Assembly. Mr. Annan will also boil that lengthy list down and provide his own version next March, which will then be considered by heads of state at a meeting prior to the General Assembly session in September.