Justin Kilcullen hopes the Taoiseach will find the strength and courage to lead as Ireland has played an important role in the run-up to this summit.
The three-day world summit at the 60th session of the UN General Assembly next month will bring together 191 heads of state and government to address some of the most critical issues on the international agenda: ending global poverty, terrorism and protecting human rights.
Perhaps most importantly, they will ask what kind of multilateral system do we want to address these issues? The future of the UN will be on the line.
Preparations for this summit on September 14th-16th have been among the most acrimonious in recent memory. Such is the division within the international community, and so high are the stakes, that one prominent figure within the UN has described the negotiations at UN headquarters as "toxic".
The twin issues of Security Council reform and the creation of a Human Rights Council unleashed a "poisonous atmosphere" in which nothing could be taken for granted. Negotiations on the reform of the Security Council were postponed once more, as agreement was deemed impossible. Even well behaved UN members, like Japan, threatened to withdraw substantial support to the UN for a year in protest against this procrastination.
The arrival of John Bolton as US ambassador, just a month before the summit, heightened tensions further. The US has threatened to pull out of the heads of state meeting, arguing that the proposed declaration (which has been under negotiation for six months) was too long and President Bush would be unable to sign it.
The fear at the UN is of a "meltdown" in multilateral co-operation at a time when its role is more essential than ever. Any weakening of the structures of the UN could have long-term ramifications for global peace, security and development.
The danger is we will have a summit declaration at the end of the assembly that is full of rhetoric but devoid of any concrete commitments.
The real loser in this acrimonious debate has been the world's poor.
This meeting was originally billed as the millennium summit, where all member states would review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight development goals, set at the UN in 2000, were designed, among other things, to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
Yet despite the millennium project's subsequent 60,000 pages of research and recommendations into how to end world poverty, virtually no new commitments in this area have been discussed in the run-up to the summit. The lives of the poor seem as distant as ever from the power politics of the international institutions.
The general view is that financial issues were substantially taken care of in the EU council and at the G8 summit.
In April the EU collectively pledged to raise the levels of spending on overseas development to 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2015.
At the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July, the US and Japan also made pledges to increase their spending on overseas development assistance. They also pledged to cancel the debts of the 18 poorest countries to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The consensus was the deal had been done and there was no new money on the table. It wasn't even discussed.
Yet the deal reached at the EU and G8 left much to be desired. The collective contribution of the international community still falls well short of the recommendations of major international studies on the MDGs. A further push, in the context of the summit, would have been possible.
Trade reform has not been on the summit agenda either. This contentious issue was postponed to the forthcoming talks of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong. There is something incongruous about an international summit to review progress on the MDGs that hasn't negotiated any of the issues under Goal 8 - building a global partnership for development.
Ireland has played an important role behind the scenes in the run-up to this summit. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is to be commended for his role as special envoy to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in what must have been an extremely difficult and sensitive task. Now that this task is completed, Ireland has a responsibility to speak out forcefully and publicly in support of the multilateral system and, in particular, the UN's central role.
To do this, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern must lead by example. When he takes to the podium in the UN General Assembly Hall on September 14th, he must demonstrate an unswerving commitment that Ireland wants to be a leader in building a global partnership for development. This means three things.
Firstly, it entails a renewed promise to reach the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on overseas aid by 2010. Mr Ahern made the original pledge at the UN on our behalf in 2000, so he has a duty to renew that commitment at the UN.
Secondly, he must reaffirm Ireland's commitment to 100 per cent debt cancellation for the poorest countries.
Thirdly, he must underscore our commitment to reforming the world trading system to work for the poor.
If he does these three things, he will have the full backing of the Irish people. He will set us apart as a country prepared to take risks and lead the way in international affairs.
Ireland's leadership in 2000 helped bring about a shift in development thinking in recent years. Our sincerest hope is that the Taoiseach will find the strength and courage to lead by example.
Justin Kilcullen is director of Trócaire