Last month, world leaders gathered for the 79th United Nations General Assembly. The intended agenda focused on the United Nations' 17 points. sustainable development goals About climate change, poverty and inequality.
The reality was a little different.
Dominant was Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the multi-pronged conflagration in the Middle East. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky declared Russia was losing the war of conquest and wanted to demoralize the civilian population by attacking Ukraine's energy grid. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: deployed Using common metaphors to demonstrate his country's innocence, he issued a dark warning that NATO's support for Ukraine was “suicidal” due to Russia's possession of nuclear weapons.
The recently elected President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, spoke of his wishes He denounced Israel's “hopeless barbarism” while supporting reform and international engagement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: uncompromising address He denounced “a barbaric enemy who seeks our annihilation” and urged delegations from several countries to: go out.
Others have taken a broader approach. The ever-forward-looking Argentine President Javier Millay gave a speech redefining the goal of the United Nations as the right of people to live without “political oppression, economic slavery, or religious fanaticism.”・I drew heavily on episodes from The West Wing. Keir Starmer British Prime Minister tried to present His new government was the embodiment of all that is best about the United Nations: “equal and inalienable rights based on the essence of what it means to be human: freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”
Overwhelmingly, the speakers ignored the bigger picture: the United Nations is failing everywhere. It is an inefficient organization on the brink of worthlessness.
It has failed to intervene in the growing crisis in the Middle East. The number is over 10,000 lebanon peacekeeping force Israel has been reduced to a bystander status as it confronts Hezbollah. Sudan's civil war has caused 2.1 million refugees to flee the country, an additional 12 million internally displaced people, and 750,000 Sudanese at risk of starvation. security council I supported A Kenyan-led security mission in Haiti has made little headway against the growing chaos.
President Zelensky is hostile I don't believe in Ukraine “Unfortunately, at the United Nations, it is impossible to resolve issues of war and peace in a truly impartial manner because we rely too much on the veto of the Security Council. will have no power to stop the war.”
This is not only the core of the problem, but also its unsolvable nature. The United Nations was founded in 1945 as a serious response to World War II, embodying a passionate desire to prevent such a war from occurring again. However, the strategic architecture of that time has been preserved.
Only the five permanent members of the Security Council have veto power, and the winning countries in that conflict – the United States, Britain, Russia, France, and China (until 1971, officially the last place was Taiwan) (occupied). Republic of China, not the Communist People's Republic). This ignores seven of the world's top 10 countries by population and five of the top 10 countries by GDP. Repeated reform plans to increase the number of permanent members to include India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, or to secure seats for African countries and the Arab League, have failed.
There are two uncomfortable truths about the United Nations. The first is that the United Nations is based on the mistaken idea that all nations are equal and have equal moral weight and integrity. That is not true and will lead to grotesque outcomes like Iran. host Last year's Human Rights Council Social Forum.
Second, the United Nations is only truly effective when one of the major powers focuses on diplomatic, military, or other missions. For example, the United Nations It ameliorated the brutal conflict in the former Yugoslavia and helped hasten the 1995 war. dayton agreement Thanks to the military and financial contributions of the United States and its NATO allies. I have also supervised The fragile peace in Cyprus is more or less overseen thanks to continued contributions from Britain, which has 3,500 military personnel stationed on the island.
But as in Rwanda in 1994, no resolution or communiqué can stop a catastrophe if the world's nations turn a blind eye.
There is no clear solution. Permanent members of the Security Council will never give up their veto power, especially given Russia's isolation and growing defenses. On the other hand, the credibility of the United Nations is low; widespread accusations Sexual abuse by peacekeepers, terrorist infiltration into UNRWA, and Secretary-General António Guterres' widespread belief that the conflict cannot be understood without efforts to divide moral differences and hope that the conflict will end. feelings.
An increasingly polarized world is a challenging climate for multilateral organizations. As violence escalates, ethnic tensions boil over, and trade barriers are erected, how and why should states submit to overarching jurisdictions that effectively preach the sometimes controversial common good? It is difficult to understand what should be done.
The United Nations relies in principle on a strange combination of idealism and moral relativism, but in reality it is only a backdrop for the expression of great power politics and historical grievances. That's not a sustainable future.
Elliott Wilson is a freelance writer covering politics and international affairs and co-founder of Pivot Point Group. He was a senior member of the UK House of Commons from 2005 to 2016, serving as Secretary of the Defense Committee and Secretary of the UK Delegation to NATO Parliament.
