UN FAILS

UN is an international organization that was established in 1945 AD right after the Second World War with the objective of maintaining peace and security in the world. Initially, It was considered a powerful and effective organization but in recent years it has been criticized saying that it is unable to stop the war and maintain peace. This article aims to justify or discuss the reason why the UN fails. The actions of the UN against Iraq and not doing any action against the genocide in Bosnia are representative events that show the failure of the UN. UN fails due to political pressure from its powerful nations, abuse of veto power, limited military resources, lack of funding, etc. Another cause is that the UN usually responds to the war when it begins rather than preventing war through negotiations before they start. To support the idea that 'UN fails to maintain peace in the world', I had five main arguments and these arguments are discussed below:

A)  The UN is subjected to political pressure from its powerful member states, which can influence its decision and actions, making it difficult for the organization to remain impartial.

There are many events that show how powerful member states imposed political pressure on the UN. I am starting with the example of the Iraq invasion by the United States and other allied powers on 20 March 2003. The conflict between the US and Iraq rose when Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug 2, 1990 AD. Right after the invasion, the UN security council passed resolution 678 on 29 November 1990 which gave an ultimatum to withdraw the military troops from Kuwait until 15 January 1991 and empowered all states to use the necessary means to force Iraq out of Kuwait. Iraq didn't withdraw by the deadline. Then US-led military operation was carried out to retake Kuwait from Iraq between 24 and 28 February 1991 and at last all Iraqi troops were expelled from Kuwait. But after 11 years the US claimed that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction and had helped terrorist groups and set the connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. By claiming this, the US along with its allies attacked Iraq on 20 March 2003 and successfully invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein.

Kofi Hussein, then the Secretary-General of the UN called this invasion illegal under international law, as it violated the UN charter. Then UN conducted an inspection program in Iraq but didn't get the Weapons Of Mass Destruction. But the UN didn't take any actions against the US and its allied members. Noam Chomsky claimed in his book that the invasion of Iraq was driven by the US's desire for controlling Iraq's oil reserves and make a strategic position in the middle east.
Likewise, David Kay, head of Iraq Survey Group(ISG) which had a mission to find and disable WMD in Iraq told the US Senate on Jan 29, 2004 that "Let me begin by saying, we were almost also wrong, and I certainly include Myself here". in this case, the UN was unable to take action against US and UK because they are the powerful member state of the UN.

B)  UN usually respond to conflicts when they are completely begun rather than preventing them from being in this situation.

The UN, which has the responsibility of maintaining peace in the world sometimes gets away from its responsibility. Taking the example of the Syrian war which began on 11 March 2011 and is ongoing to this date, the UN response to this war is insufficient and late. Syria's civil war began as a protest against President Bashar al-Assad and his government. He was an autocratic ruler and was very close to Russia. Firstly, it was the war between the government represented by Bashar al-Assad and those who are against the regime. The president was supported by Russia, China and Iran. On 30 Sep 2015, Russia launched airstrikes against anti-governmental forces which was opposed by the US and its regional allies. On this point, the US also joined in this war by supporting anti-governmental forces. It became a proxy war as this war was played between US and Russia. Here both parties were being supported by foreign powers i.e., the president had been getting logistics and military support from Russia and Iran whereas anti-governmental had been getting the support from the US and other countries from NATO. This war gave birth to many Militant groups like ISIL(Islamic State Of Iraq and Levant) which were also involved in this war. ISIL wanted its rule in Syria and was fighting against both parties i.e. the president and anti-governmental forces. Until 2017, ISIL, which is considered a terrorist group by Western countries controlled most of the part of Syria which further took Syria to another war as the US along with Russia had participated against ISIL. Here talking about the efforts of the UN, the UN security council has called for the implementation of the 2012 Geneva Program, which had to make a transitional governing body with full executive powers but it didn't work due to the Syrian government's refusal to discuss opposition demands. From this date, the UN is only working in the field of providing humanitarian issues. The UN is unable to address the Syrian crisis because of Veto used by China and Russia 8 times on the resolution for sanctioning President Bashar al-Assad.

C)  The countries with veto power blocks any actions on which they disagree, which makes the UN difficulties to take decisive action in conflict.

Veto is the power to refuse any decision made by the UN security council. Before talking about Veto, we have to know about the security council. The security council is one of the most powerful organs of the UN which consists of 15 members where any decision can be made with a majority of 9 votes. But the problem is that among 15 members there are five permanent members as the USA, the UK, France, Russia, and China and they have the power to refuse any decision i.e., if one permanent member uses the veto, then the decision would be rejected. This is the main problem due to which the UN fails. The veto is the absolute and unaccountable power of the five permanent members of the security council that ensures control over it and can be used liberally to protect their interests. The Syria issue and destruction are the outcomes of this Veto power. Against the act of Bashar al-Assad, using chemical weapons against anti-governmental forces, the UN security council proposed a resolution on sanctioning President Bashar al-Assad. But China and Russia had used veto power 16 times in favor of the Syrian regime due to which Syria suffered badly as millions of people gave up their lives. As also talking about the recent Russia-Ukraine war, the US circulated the draft resolution to the security council which describes the attempt to unlawfully annex four regions of Ukraine by Russia and define the act of Russia as illegal and an attempt to modify Ukraine's internationally recognized borders. 10 out of 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of this resolution but Russia used the veto on it which directly reject this decision. From these incidents, we can easily say that if 14 members of the security council supported any decision and 1 permanent member opposed the decision, then it won't be passed. So, if 5 permanent do any illegal act within the world, they couldn't be sanctioned and they are freed, which is the main problem due to which the UN fails.

D)  The military power of the UN depends on its member states due to which limited military resources are there to contribute to peacekeeping missions.

Peacekeeping force commonly known, as UN peacekeeping is an international organization that aims to maintain peace and security around the world. UN peacekeeping forces are recruited from the armed forces of its member countries as these forces are contributed by its member states. The UN doesn't have its own military forces and it should depend upon its member states for the forces. This is the limitation of the UN peacekeeping force. There are events in which millions of people lost their lives due to the limited peacekeeping forces of the UN. At the time of the second world war, There was a country called Bosnia and Herzegovina which consists of five states including Serbia. At one time, there was a president from Serbia state and Bosnia was trying to get independent. At that time, the Serbian forces called Serbs attacked the Bosnian people and attack their culture by burning their institutions and books. This was called Ethnically cleansing. At that time, UN peacekeeping forces(UNPROFOR) had protected the city called Srebrenica for the protection of the Bosnian people. Suddenly, Serbs seized this area and carried out ethnic cleansing by killing 8000 Bosnian Muslims. UN peacekeeping forces were unable to stop them due to their limited number as there were only 400 Dutch soldiers. They had also requested with the UN for more soldiers but the UN was unable to provide them. The Bosnian Genocide happened and the UN couldn't take any action because no vital interest of either the sole superpower USA or its European cohorts was involved in Bosnia. There are also other incidents like this where UN peacekeeping forces failed due to their limited numbers. UN peacekeeping forces have allegations of being unable to maintain peace in Rwanda, Haiti, Mali, Congo and many more. So, a limited number of peacekeeping forces is also another factor due to which the UN fails.

E)  The UN depends on member state's voluntary contributions which results in a lack of resources and funding for peacekeeping missions.

UN is an inter-governmental organization that depends on its member states for funding and resources to carry out its program. The UN does not have its own source of revenue or any other entity due to which its budget is mainly financed by aid from member states. This dependence of the UN on its member states has both advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, it promotes the global and shared responsibility of its member states. On the other hand, there exists the political influence and manipulation of certain states. The US contributes 27.89 %, China contributes 15.21 % and Japan contributes 8.56 % of the total budget of the UN. UN's budget is often subjected to political pressures and disagreement among member states, which can lead to delays or cuts in funding for important programs. This leads to the failure of the UN to address global challenges such as poverty, climate change, and conflict prevention. As the UN depends on its member states for funding, some countries are very generous in their contributions, others may be reluctant to contribute to programs or initiatives that they do not see as aligned with their interests or priorities. For example, When Donald Trump was president of the US, he pulled out funds from the core budget of the UN as well as its agencies which invited a financial crisis in the UN and it was unable to spend adequate funding to fight against Coronavirus. So, dependency on member states for funding is the main challenge for the UN to implement its scheduled and essential programs.

It is complex and difficult to say that the international organization of 193 members has failed to maintain peace in the world. But, there are many instances where the UN's efforts to maintain peace are not enough or have fallen short. The unacceptable and irrational provisions of the UN charter related to veto are the main reasons for the UN's failure. As we know after and during World War II, the world was in two fractions. One country didn't accept other countries' resolutions and vetoed them. To pass any resolutions in the UN, both fractions must come together, but it looks complicated. So the UN should think about it and should reform its charter's provision for the sake of peace in the world. UN shouldn't be subjected to political or economic influences from any country and should pave the independent and impartial way. There is a huge need for the reformation of the UN and its agencies in the way that it could succeed in conflict management and maintain peace in the near future. All the member states should be serious about this issue and should be engaged in making the UN a trustworthy and reliable peace-maintaining organization.