[MUSIC] Well, I think the UN is an organization

looking for its second wind. I think it was badly damaged,

you might say left for dead in 2003, when Bush and Blair decided to go to war. Not
only despite Security Council vetoes,
but actually the absence of a majority
in the Security Council. That's sort of left it irrelevant,
weakened, its credibility weakened,
reduced in scope. But now we have a new
Secretary General coming in. It's a more promising period. We have new leaders in
most of the P5 countries. And the hope is that the UN can
restore some robust role in the world. >> If you look at the UN charter, it
will gives you issue of I mean peace and security plays a very big role
in what the UN was funded for. Also development and human rights. Now, this was
more than 70 years ago but
they are still very relevant today. Issues of peace and
security are still very relevant. Development is a very big issue. Human right's a
very big issue. Previously, these three aspects used
to be looked at individualistically. But now you find out that they're so
much interwoven, I mean in our world. >> But the United Nations is a body
which brings together 193 nation states. It's also a potential structure for
reconciliation and force for good for intervention potentially when there
are international or regional problems. The United Nations also serves as
a venue and a political arena, a place where diplomacy's conducted,
where policy is conducted. >> I do think that despite its many
ups and downs, and periods of apparent irrelevance as global conflicts
between big powers has sidelined it. It has retained an indispensability for
many groups of countries, particularly smaller and newer ones who look at it
as crucial to their own legitimacy. But above all, look at it as a place you
can take, either problems of security or longer run global problems
of climate change and development, which can't be any
more sorted on a bilateral basis. And so that indispensability of
having a multilateral forum which can serve all these purposes and provides
that sort of universal forum for all is, I suspect with us for keeps,
even if it's status and authority will widely fluctuate depending on the state
of broader international relations. >> Well, it's the only
multilateral organization we have. So if we didn't work
with the United Nations, we wouldn't have many other options. It represents most of
the world,
if not all the world. There are some imperfections
with the Security Council and its lack of representivity. But otherwise,
the United Nation's a universal, international organization and
there are many programs in the UN and specialized agencies that
are truly multilateral. So although there are many challenges and
difficulties, we have to make it succeed
because we have no other choice. [MUSIC]