Jensen Schmidt
published 21 November 2020
The United Nations was created in 1945 after the Second World War with the vision of preserving international peace and security, cultivating civil relations among states, and to advocate for social progress, better living standards, and human rights. However, people’s attitudes have shifted and today the United Nations faces many critics. Despite the criticisms brought forth in modern arguments, the UN is a necessity, especially in our modern world of international politics. In order to explain why the United Nations is still essential, some typical objections should be acknowledged. Some argue, “it is an old and byzantine global bureaucracy, which politicians, the media, and staff alike have criticized... as expensive and ineffective.” Due to the fact that the UN relies heavily on large countries for funding, it creates power imbalances which result in the inability to make fair decisions for all countries. One of the biggest examples of power imbalance and a main hindrance to the UN’s effectiveness is the Security Council. The Security Council members which include the United States, United Kingdom, China, Russia and France, can protect themselves by vetoing a wide array of decisions.
Regardless of the impediments the UN faces as an actor, it acts as a stage for different voices. Multilateralism is an essential idea when it comes to the importance of the UN. There is immeasurable value in the participation of several countries pursuing a shared objective. The President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly said this about countries who are stepping away from collaborating with the UN, “The global systems, norms, and institutions that have carried us since the end of the Second World War are being questioned or, in the worst of cases, sidelined outright as some countries forego multilateralism for a go-it-alone approach. This is an unfortunate and unsustainable approach. Centuries of global conflict and strife have taught us that the world is better when nations work together.” We should be promoting international collaboration to address inequality, exclusion and alienation. The UN provides shared responsibility and accountability; our world is much better off with these services than without them.
Today we face many global issues that require multilateral institutions; in fact, Thomas G. Weiss, a scholar of global politics, notes that “If the United Nations did not exist, we would have to invent it. So why not use our analytical toolkits to repair it?” There has been much discussion on the reform of the UN to better equip it as an efficient actor. Since we have established that we need multilateral institutions, it would be better for us to work on developing and altering the already established United Nations. It is true that this will not be a simple and painless process, but if the alternative is a futile and depreciating UN in a world where complex political, economic and social problems overlap, it would be well worth it to try. One optimist writes on the potential of the United Nations saying, “...if we recall the unending series of reforms that have been tried more or less since the UN’s creation, it can be argued that the UN is able to catalyze action and has the potential for improvement and adaptability.”
Some countries show concern that the UN encroaches on their sovereignty. Many states act unilaterally in defense of their national security or in their immediate backyard. Large countries such as the United States have been wanting to pull funding from the UN to support interests within their own nation. This is not just a new mindset from the recent presidency either. Back in 2004 Shashi Tharoor, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General at the time, said this: "the larger a country's backyard, the greater the temptation to act unilaterally across it, and this I think in recent years has been rather acute in the case of the United States. But I would argue today that even the United States with its enormous economic and military reach needs to act in concert with other states to achieve its real objectives. I want to suggest to you today that the United Nations remains the best means to achieve multilateral co-operation in so many important areas."
Even though the UN’s capacity to enforce laws is limited, this does not make it obsolete in today’s political realm. With so many evils lurking in darkness across the globe, the United Nations works to shed light on many of these issues on its platform. The services the UN provides, such as data collection, information, investigating, and then demanding accountability, cannot be considered a waste of money. The rejection of the global need for the United Nations would be a rejection of progress, “Because however one may feel, the option for isolationism is no longer on the table – technology, trade and globalization have altered the shape of our world; today’s prosperity, peace and security at home cannot be separated from events beyond our borders.”
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