Reform Of The United Nations

The United Nations is one of the most well-known international organizations in the world. It tries to serve the task of maintaining international order by promoting international collaboration throughout its 193 member states and various agencies. The United Nations facilitates order by the coordination of international security, international law, economic development, human rights, social progress, and trying to maintain world peace. Overall, the United Nations has failed to deliver on its main objectives which has resulted in the organization having little to no power. The United Nations’ shortcomings are evidently shown through the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) unsuccessful prevention of international conflicts, its organization’s ignorance towards human rights crimes, and the little to no authoritative power that the organization possesses in resolving conflicts as a mediator.

Since the end of the Cold War and the many failed attempts at peacekeeping, the United Nations has focused more on humanitarian efforts and defending human rights. After the Soviet Union fell, the mission of keeping peace between the

Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.

The process of reforming the United Nations (UN) has been a highly debatable issue among the international community. Since the initial signing of the UN Charter in 1945, the world has changed dramatically as the UN is trying to regulate a forum that assesses and deals with global issues while also struggling to unite all 193 member states of the UN when some states have been seen to have conflicting ideas and personal agendas (Teng, 2003, pp. 2-3). This essay is targeted to highlight what I feel are the most pressing arguments for UN reform amongst the international community. This will be done by highlighting the problems and ongoing issues surrounding the lack of representation and P5 power of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),

In this essay, I shall be discussing whether the UN Security Council (hereafter referred to as the Security Council) is fit for purpose in the 21st Century. The approach I will be taking is more of a generic outlook; examining which fragments of the Security Council requires reformation.

Even though, the original thought for the United Nations was to be a guarantee for the World’s peace, their role in today’s world seems to have changed. It is hard to believe that their founders had today’s United Nations on mind when discussed their creation sixty years ago.

Over the course of the 20th century a multitude of international organizations arose with the purpose of keeping international political, social, and economic peace. Organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations, and the World Bank are all products of a 20th century push to create a more connected international community. Political scientists such as Thomas Weiss, David Forsythe, Roger Coate, Kelly-Kate Pease and Eva Bertram in their publications The United Nations and Changing World Politics and Reinventing Governments: The Promise and Perils of United Nations Peace Buildings are scholars who have observed the history of these international organizations and analyze their purpose and effectiveness. According to the arguments made by these authors, the exact purpose and effectiveness of organizations such as NATO, the UN, and the World Bank is unclear and constantly changing. However these international organizations have been effective at providing a place of discussion for international relations.

Schlesinger utilizes this portion of his work to identify the ideological origins of the United Nations and to detail the intricacies of the organization’s foundation. He begins his discussion of the UN by outlining the political movements that led to its establishment. Schlesinger includes this analysis in order to illustrate the extent of humanity’s experimentation with international governance and law. The discussion attempts to determine key differences between the United Nations and its predecessors (Schlesinger 2003). Schlesinger then examines the negotiations which took place between the Allied Powers as World War II drew to a close (Schlesinger 2003). These negotiations resulted in the formation of the international organizations which structure global society today.

The UN was form after World War II ended. The organization was represented by the number of twenty six nation countries to fight the Axis Power. The UN and its system consisted of six main basic organs that operate the system and other subsidiary agencies. The GA, the Secretariat, the International Council and Justice, the EOCSOC, the Security Council and the Trusteeship are the main basic organs that operate the system. The UN also consist a document of constitution, which is called Charter. This document constitution held the responsible of each of the body organ that are operating within the organization. In this paper, I will talk about the structure of the UN, the system power, and the pathology of the system. With the amount of mini-UN throughout the regional, people often confuse this subsidiary agency with the major organization.

The League of Nations and the United Nations were both developed with the same intention to bring peace to the world through collaboration among member countries and the idea of combined security at international level. Today, the noticeable difference between both organizations is that the UN is currently up and running effectively while the League of Nations failed explicitly and came to an end in 1946. However, the motivation behind the development of the UN was the failure of the League of Nations. The UN was founded after World War II and the failure of the League of Nations has provided some valuable lessons over the years which have been deemed beneficial for the success of the UN. Therefore, in this essay I will discuss the causes of failure of the League of Nations and how it led to the creation of the United Nations in order to determine whether the United Nations should be held to the standard of League of Nations.

In 1945, The Second World War (WW2) that was a largest one in human history was finished. In the same year, the United Nations (UN) was established on the initiative of the United States and the Allied Powers as a place that all countries in the world can assemble with the reflection and the hope for the future not to repeat the tragedy of WW2. The UN is in its 70th year since it was established and it signifying no major war have not occurred for the past 70 years. Since the establishment, the UN has lasted as the largest international organization and the member states increased from 51 to 193 and most of all nations are studded. The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding

World War II was the largest and deadliest war in history. Some sources estimate the total number of casualties to be as high as eighty million people. With over thirty countries involved, the after effects of WWII were felt around the globe. Entire cities had been destroyed. The economies of Britain, France, Germany and Japan were left in shambles. Food shortages were critical and wide-spread. Large portions of Europe and Asia were left in ruins after years of fighting and bombing. Millions of people were homeless as new territorial borders were drawn. Of all the countries involved, only two survived the war economically sound, the United States and the Soviet Union. In an effort to prevent another world war from happening and “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the United Nations was formed ("Charter of the United Nations"). It has been over seventy years since the United Nations took on the role of international peacekeepers and the world has experienced dramatic changes. However, today’s world is much different than it was in the postwar era of World War II and the United Nations has come under scrutiny for being biased and antiquated. In order to preserve and promote international peace and security, the United Nations should be reformed to reflect a more neutral role when addressing global issues by creating unity amongst its member.

At the end of the Second World War the body count added up to sixty million people dead and an unknown number of wounded dwarfing the causality count of the First World War. So again, the victorious nations decided that the world needed a place where the nations of the world could assemble and discuss their issues peacefully. On October 24, 1945 the United Nations was formed. The United Nations, like the League of Nations before it, allowed the nations of the world to talk to each other out in the open. The U.N. has many of the same attributes as the L.O.N. including the same basic layout, with a single main assembly and a smaller “security council” that consists of five permanent nations and a number of rotating ones. One could say that the United Nations is like a League of Nations 2.0. Of course the United Nations has failed many times in its mission to protect its member nations; however it has also succeeded in quite a few areas where the league failed such as attempting to protect its member nations, holding international criminals accountable, and helping influence international policy. However, going over all of those topics would take too long so we will focus on one aspect of the United Nations mission, protection. At this point in time has the United Nations been a success or a failure in its goal of protecting the member nations?

“ Here is a task truly of, by and for the world, one that should rally nations. The nature of this task however, must be clearly understood; only then can suitable means for accomplishing it be formulated, only then can the role that the United Nations could and should play be appreciated” ( Wilcox/Haviland, 29). There are many international organizations that have been talked about throughout this semester. One of the most important ones is The United Nations. The United Nations was established October 24, 1945, and has since then been impacting the country. The United Nations main purpose according to the lecture notes is “ to provide a global additional structure through which states can sometimes settle conflicts with less reliance on the use of force , for whole purpose of the United Nations is to provide the globe a forum by which countries may settle disputes through this forum peacefully as opposed to relying on a force which has been the case historically” ( Kopalyan, Module 8). Thus meaning The United Nations was set up to handle problems peacefully rather than going to war to try and solve problems. “Powerful economic as well as political forces are at work to bring about a growing integration of the world community, and the United Nations and its related agencies are uniquely fitted to assist in the task” (Wilcox/Haviland,45). This was some of the reason that the United Nations was created.

Japan firmly believes we need to take action to reform the Security Council before it loses its legitimacy and efficiency as an essential tool for the maintenance of peace and security. Japan is ready to discuss, with a flexible and realistic viewpoint, different options, which will lead the way for the expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories. Japan is working proactively to increase both the permanent and non-permanent membership of the council. Japan is the second largest contributor to the UN, behind the United States and is the world's largest donor of official development assistance. Japan's commitment to the United Nations, supported by its national strength should allow the nation to assume greater global responsibility through the efforts of the Security Council.