Notes for World History
VERDICT ON UN
The UN has been in existence for over 70 years, but it still has not achieved its basic aims. The world is still full of economic and social problems; acts of aggression and wars continue. The UN’s failures were caused to some extent by following weaknesses in its system:
- Lack of a permanent UN army: This means that it is difficult prevail upon powerful states to accept its decisions if they choose to put self-interest first. For example, USSR was able to ignore UN demands for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Hungary and Afghanistan; USA and Britain attacked Iraq in 2003 and UN could do nothing about it.
- When should the UN become involved?: There is a problem about exactly when the UN should become involved during the course of a dispute. Sometimes it hangs back too long, for example, during the Vietnam war.
- Increasing membership of UN: Increasing membership of UN from 19703 led to majority of the Third World nations [Asia and Africa]. Only they could be certain of having their resolutions passed, and it became difficult for both western and communist blocs to get their resolutions passed. For example, in 1979, when the Western bloc introduced a motion condemning terrorism, it was defeated by the Arab states and their supporters.
- Waste of effort and resources of UN agencies: Some of the UN agencies sometimes seem to duplicate each other’s work. For example, WHO and FAQ overlap too much; WTO and UNCTAD even seem to be working against each other.
- Shortage of funds: Throughout its history, the UN has always been short of funds. It needs incredibly large sums of money to finance its operations. However, it is entirely dependent on contributions from member states. Many member states refused to pay from time to time.
In spite of all these criticisms, it would be wrong to write the UN off as failure which is evident from the below facts :
- In General Assembly, representatives of around 190 nations can come together to talk to each other. Even the smallest nation has a chance to make itself heard in a world forum.
- It has been successful in bringing some wars to an end more quickly, and has prevented further conflict.
- A great deal of human suffering and bloodshed have been prevented by the actions of the UN peacekeeping forces and refugee agencies.
- The UN has done valuable work in investigating and publicizing human rights Violations under repressive regimes.
- Its most important achievement has been to stimulate international cooperation on economic, social and technical matters.
