Success and Failure of the United Nations: Essay for

the UPSC Exam

The United Nations is an important topic in the IAS exam, as the actions of the UN have one
way or the other have ramifications on India especially with regards to its international relations.
Given below is an article on the UN success and failure which should be incorporated in your
UPSC preparation.

Overview of the UN
The United Nations was created decades ago to move the world towards peace and
cooperation. The new century presents the most appropriate time to review the history of this
institution, its successes and failures, and expectations for its future. Opinions may differ about
the successes and failure of the United Nations as an instrument for world peace and security.
But everyone will agree that it has played a crucial role in the economic and social advancement
of the people of the world.

Initial Challenges for the United Nations

The United Nations efforts in the early Cold War era concentrated on the relationships between
nations and the issues of war and peace. Not long into its existence, however, the UN was
confronted with the challenges arising from global interdependence and social and economic
inequalities. These new realities served to broaden the scope of UN activities and chart the
future course of its global involvements. For, with the end of the Cold War, international
concerns expanded to include the increasing economic competition between developed
countries, problems of development, environmental degradation, population growth, and the
threat of nuclear proliferation, the violation of human rights, and political fragmentation or civil
wars within national boundaries.

Challenges of the 21st Century

The Iraq war of 2003 represents the failure to resolve an international problem through
multilateral channels. For the critics of the United Nations, it represents a failure of that
organization. In fact, the UN has been buried many times by critics, but it has survived. It has
survived because the world does need a multilateral forum and a framework of international
rules to create order and assist security. Whatever difficulty the UN has had in trying to manage
divided international opinion over the use of force against Iraq, it is the belief that the UN will be
found once more to be essential in managing the post-conflict situation in Iraq. It will be
essential firstly in addressing Iraq’s humanitarian needs.
While the UN may have been sidelined by countries opting for unilateral action against Iraq, it is
somewhat ironic that it may be called upon to pick up the pieces after the conflict. A range of UN
agencies –the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the UN High Commission for Refugees, the
UNDP and the Mine Action Service – will spring into action to alleviate hardship and suffering of
the civilian population. There will also be the need for UN action to re-establish post-conflict
governance and civil functions in Iraq.

Those challenging the relevance of the UN, also, of course, ignore the critical role it plays in
wider areas of development, human rights, refugees and the environment. No other
organization is able to confront the plethora of cross-border challenges: global diseases
including HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, climate change, environmental degradation, refugee
issues, people smuggling, human rights, poverty and hunger. It is how it responds to these
cross-border challenges. The UN system continues to the international norms by which every
member state should abide. In today’s globalizing world, no member state, no matter how
powerful it is, can disengage from multilateralism entirely.

How relevant is the UN in the 21st century?

The UN remains a relevant organisation and will continue to have a central role to play in the
21st century. Notwithstanding media criticism of the United Nations, what seems to be forgotten
is that the organisation is only as strong as the will of its member states. The United Nations
system relies on the collective will of all its members. It is these member states that set its
priorities. The UN cannot act without their consent. It falls therefore upon us all to make the UN
relevant in today’s world. In this regard, the United Nations and its members are very aware of
the shortcomings of the organisation. For the UN to meet its potential it needs to reform.

It needs to better prioritise its work to meet the needs of member states. This was the essence
of the Secretary-General’s second term reform initiative, which seeks to strengthen the
organisation to better respond to the priorities established in the Millennium Declaration and to
meet the needs of Member States. The United Nations is not a perfect organisation, but it
remains true that any nation-state can achieve far less in isolation than it can working
collectively with other states under UN auspices.

The Secretary-General envisaged his role as an intermediary and a person who manages
peace institutions and also brought about new techniques to the process of peacekeeping. The
UN elucidated what human rights is for the international community. It played an important part
in the decolonisation process by giving formal recognition to the newly independent and formed
countries, and also by aiding them in their economic and social development. The UN also
played a huge role in the formation of international law.

To know how the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) carries out peacekeeping operations,
visit the linked article.
How has the United Nations progressed over the years?

By conducting many international conferences, the UN progressed towards building an

international consensus on major global problems such as population, environment, women's
status, development, human rights and such other basic concerns. The UN specialised
agencies steered major normative and regulatory arrangements in their respective fields of
activities and also gave humanitarian aid in many crisis-riddled parts of the globe. More
recently, in spite of many limitations on resources and manpower, the UN has somehow
responded to a considerable rise in the demand for peacekeeping forces and other emergency
operations in the world.

However, in spite of the reasonably good record of the UN, it is the organisation's drawbacks
that receive the highest attention. Many members have remarked about the UN's disappointing
performance but without acknowledging the fact that the organisation can only be as effective
as the governments' allowance of it. No doubt the UN has deficiencies, but it is generally made
a scapegoat of the pitfalls of the member states. .

Drawbacks of the UN

The UN has not as yet been able to deal effectively with such global economic issues as
currency instability, indebtedness, protectionism, and inequitable commercial relations. It the
Organization is to realize its potential in the world of the twenty-first century, its members must
recognize and resolve a paradox caused by the altered condition of the world. The association
of sovereign states set up half-century ago to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war” is now expected to function as the public service sector of a world community that does not
exist as a political entity.

In virtually all of its activities, from peacekeeping to development, from human rights to
environmental accords, the United Nations is being asked to play a larger role and to assume
fresh responsibilities at a time when governments are increasingly anxious to reduce their
financial contributions, and increasingly reluctant to provide the necessary political, military and
material support.

Governments will only give the needed support if they see the United Nations as essential for
advancing their interests in an effective and appropriate manner. Grappling with their current
concerns, governments can not be expected to invest in totally new formulas of international
organization or world government.

The way forward for the UN

The Independent Working Group on the Future of the United Nations was convened by the Ford
Foundation in late 1993 at the request of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to reassess
the role, mission, and function of the United Nations. The Working Group’s Report, The United
Nations in Its Second Half –century was presented to the Secretary-General and released to the
public in 1995. The working group was chaired by Moeen Qureshi, former Prime Minister of
Pakistan, and Richard von Weiszacker, former President of Germany.

Throughout these reports, it has been repeatedly stressed the need for the Member States to
provide the leadership, common will and purpose which are necessary to create a more
effective United Nations as it enters its next fifty years. The future United Nations System
Change will not come easily. A great gulf often exists between what is ideal and what is
politically possible.

For now, the key to progress is to understand the paradox which confronts the UN, and to work
more effectively through existing mechanisms or, where further change is necessary, to improve
those mechanisms. The UN’s galaxy of organizations must be made to operate as an integrated
system within the framework of agreed policies. Its activities, including peacekeeping,
development and social programs, must complement each other. Its work has to gain a greater
understanding among the private and nongovernmental sectors, the public and the media.
These goals are reachable. Indeed, they must be reached soon, if the United Nations is the
fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the world whom it was set up to serve.