Leah Carrey D.

Dohiling BSCE 1A GE-TCW

United Nations as a New World (Dis)Order

Globalization continues to spread throughout the world increasing the number of

nation-states rising to power. The shift in global dynamics is more complex now than
before and the speed of demographic, economic, and technological changes is rapid.
However, at this rate of change, some issues our world was facing then tend to be the
same issues we are facing now. As the world pushes for global governance – a New
World Order – the United Nations (UN) is believed to have remained a static system
and have fallen behind in this rapidly changing, dynamic world. Has it lost relevance in
today’s world? If the United Nations is a global forum for world diplomacy, why are
regions not equally represented in the permanent seats of the Security Council? Is
international peace only at the hands of the big powers? With its number of
shortcomings, is it safe to say that the United Nations is ineffective?

Established in 1945, the United Nations is the largest intergovernmental

organization composed of 193 member-states. Serving as a forum for world matters, its
main objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human
rights and promote sustainable development. It aims to stop conflict before it starts and
when crises arise, to mitigate its negative impacts. The United Nations is made up of
six principal bodies: (1) the General Assembly, which makes the important decisions
such as admission of new members and budgetary matters, (2) Secretariat, which
provides information and facilities for the other UN bodies, (3) the Security Council,
responsible for peacekeeping and security measures through resolutions and
mandates, (4) the International Court of Justice, which adjudicates disputes, (5) the
Economic and Social Council, promotes and regulates cooperation, and (6)
Trusteeship Council, which manages mandates but is inactive now. Currently, the UN is
trying to resolve issues like climate change, gender equality, human rights, health and
poverty.
 Crises emerged because the old world is dying but the new world is yet to be
born. The United Nations, still using governance strategies from 70 years back, remain
largely unchanged since its first meeting. It has failed to accommodate to changes in
the modern world in a sense that crimes, human rights exploitations, and climate
change become more difficult to manage using its traditional methods. The United
States recently withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement in 2017 and United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2018, and the country being very influential may
cause other countries to follow suit. The challenges of our time are more complex and,
in some cases, the members are unable to reach consensus on how to deal with these.
However rigid, the United Nations still is relevant today. It successfully provided a
platform for states to convene to address the world’s problems peacefully. The UN can
do many things when its members work together.

The five permanent seats (P5) of the Security Council, belonging to the United
States, China, United Kingdom, France, and Russia, have the power of veto. Two-thirds
of the votes is required to pass a resolution but it takes a single veto to reject one, which
implies that other member-states do not usually have a say in the implementation of a
resolution. And worse, this power seemed to have been used as an instrument to
advance the P5’s own political interests. One example is the recent winning of the
Philippines in the South China Sea Arbitration case which China seem to have
neglected, still pursuing the islands and scaring Filipinos with military power. On this
note, international peace seems to be at the hands of big powers. Another note to take
is that the permanent members came to be because they were the most powerful
countries then, but not all of them still are now – France and Russia are not among the
top five economies, while Germany, and Japan contribute more to the UN budget than
France, Russia, and United Kingdom. This supports how static the United Nations is.
Rising powers – Japan, Germany, India, Brazil (G4) – may feel insufficient
representation and may stir up conflict and increasingly contest the system. However, to
take away the veto power altogether means to follow the path the League of Nations
took, ultimately leading to failure. This veto power exists as some kind of incentive to
keep the most powerful countries engaged in the world affairs, and prevent them from
going into conflict at the expense of smaller states. It is one of the reasons why a third
World War didn’t happen in the years that the United Nations stood.

We often discuss about the UN’s flaws but we fail to see the several
achievements and successes it had accomplished. It is important to remember that the
United Nations is more than just its principal organs. It has specialized agencies which
has its own duties and has fulfilled many of these. Among these agencies are the World
Health Organization (WHO) which aims and ensures that all people attain the highest
possible level of health and UNHRC which promotes and protects human rights. In
2017, the WHO successfully reduced deaths due to Measles by 80% worldwide by
improving vaccine coverage up to the community-level. On the other hand, one of the
major accomplishments of the UNHRC is the acknowledgement of women’s rights as
human rights and acts of violence and discrimination against them are subject to
sanctions. The times have changed now, as a matter of fact, more people die from
diseases like cancer than in war crimes. The United Nations may have failed in some
security resolutions but they have accomplished enough in fields like health for it, in
general, to be considered effective.

The United Nations is still relevant in the modern times yet it needs to change as
the world changes. It has to keep up with the global dynamics by improving the way
they respond to the needs of the member-states and the way they deliver whatever they
can offer in order to serve a wider community. Meanwhile, the current power over
security resolutions is in the hands of the permanent members of the Security Council. If
global governance is an aim of the United Nations, then it is best to expand the Security
Council to make room for emerging powers and make the organ more representative.
Along with the permanent seat in the council is the power of veto. Permanent members
must use this power only in decisions that represent a larger group of states rather than
its own country, not only protecting their own interests. After all, the United Nations may
have had shortcomings but its achievements and successes in the past years outweigh
its flaws. In conclusion, the United Nations may have problems but it is not heading into
a complete disorder.
References:
Global Issues Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/global-
issues-overview/index.html

How Effective Is The United Nations? (2015). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ATkJe8iADhc

Human Rights Achievements. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://at20.ohchr.org/achievements.html

Morello, C. (2018, June 19). U.S. withdraws from U.N. Human Rights Council over perceived bias
against Israel. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-
expected-to-back-away-from-un-human-rights-council/2018/06/19/a49c2d0c-733c-11e8-b4b7-
308400242c2e_story.html

New World Disorder: Challenges for the Un in the 21st Century with Kofi Annan. (2014). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02O7_oePKFo

The Problem With the Un Veto Power | NowThis World. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPAONq36HKg

The United Nations Explained | Casual Historian. (2016). Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWFiUX1wz9Q&t=129s

World Health Organization: Measles. (2019, May 9). Retrieved from

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles
Poochus LC