PERSPECTIVE Hope for Indebted States Will the United Nations be Successful in Establishing a Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism? JÜRGEN KAISER March 2015 n The United Nations asserted a leading role in coping with sovereign debt crises for the first time in September 2014. The majority of the developing and newly industri­alising countries prevailed in the General Assembly of the United Nations in the face of opposition from advanced industrialised countries – including the United States, Germany and Great Britain. n The confrontational resolution adopted by the majority is an expression of the con­siderable frustration in the Global South over the existing regime for dealing with debt crises. This regime, of which the industrialised countries are the architect, is held to be inefficient and unfair. n The industrialised countries now have the opportunity up until September 2015 to abandon their efforts to block the move and get involved in the process in a con­structive manner with their own positions.