| C |
Currently two sets of world order are counterposed: the UN system and the “rules based” system, correlating closely with multipolarity and unipolarity, the latter meaning US dominance.
–– Noam Chomsky
The United Nations came into being 80 years ago according to its charter “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war;” “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights for men and women and of nations large and small;” “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for… international law can be maintained;” and “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
Accordingly, the “three pillars of the UN” are peace and security, human rights and development. In order to assist it in progressing towards these aspirational goals, the UN has a family of 15 specialised agencies plus two organisations of the World Bank group. To realise its charter goals, the UN comprises a General Assembly, a Security Council, an economic and social council, an International Court of Justice and a secretariat.
Despite its vision of enduring peace, justice and development, the UN has to contend with the realities and imperatives of realpolitik. It was established by the main victor of the WWII—the US. The other victors comprised the permanent members of the Security Council with veto wielding powers. While the General Assembly represented the aspirational aspect of the UN, the Security Council represented the power reality in which the organisation had to operate and cooperate in order to make progress towards a better and safer world.
This reality is reflected in the fact that the resolutions of the General Assembly are considered recommendations to the Security Council and member states and, as such, are not considered binding. The resolutions of the Security Council, especially if adopted under Chapter 7, are binding in law and enforceable.
There is, however, a degree of ambiguity with regard to Security Council resolutions adopted under Chapter 6 as to whether they are binding and enforceable or in the nature of recommendations for the peaceful resolution of disputes. The UN Security Council Resolutions on the Kashmir dispute were adopted under Chapter 6. This is why the statements of UN secretary generals on Kashmir have often appeared to us as weak and unhelpful.
Despite its inescapable shortcomings, the UN system has been a boon for the world. In the years ahead, it will be of critical importance in enabling the survival of human civilisation in view of a whole range of natural and man-made global challenges. These challenges do not just threaten us; they have descended upon us.
While the General Assembly represented the aspirational aspect of the UN, the Security Council represented the power reality in which the organisation had to operate and cooperate in order to make progress towards a better and safer world.
The League of Nations, the predecessor of today’s UN, lasted a mere 26 years from the end of WWI to the end of WWII. The UN has been around for almost three times that period. There has been no WWIII and there have been no more Hiroshimas and Nagasakis. Nevertheless, the Cold War era was marked by almost continuous wars that had devastating consequences for the countries of the Global South, especially the Muslim world.
Global peace has eluded the UN, arguably because of circumstances beyond its control. Even so, the UN and its family have won 13 Nobel Peace Prizes—a remarkable testimony to its services to mankind over a whole range of critical fields, including protections for children, women, refugees, internally displaced persons, etc as well as nuclear non-proliferation, peace-keeping and peace-building, disaster relief, disease control and eradication, etc.
Despite these services by the UN and its specialised agencies, the notional Doomsday Clock which was established at the start of the Cold War in 1947 and was set at 17 minutes to ‘midnight’—when the human civilisation would end—is today a mere 89 seconds away from midnight. In January 2026, the DDC will almost certainly be set even closer to midnight. We are, accordingly, living through the most dangerous moment in all of human civilisation’s ten thousand years—in fact, in all of human history extending over almost a million years.
This cataclysmic state of affairs is almost entirely due to technological progress whereby humankind has for the first time acquired the capacity to destroy itself. Recently so, with the prevalence of the so-called Rules-based World Order over the world order envisaged by the UN Charter. These have contributed to or exacerbated a whole range of existential global threats such as irreversible climate change, the threat of nuclear war, genocidal warfare, uncontrollable pandemics, artificial super-intelligence which could render humanity dispensable, democratic deficits and bad governance leading to extreme social instabilities, etc. In combination with the pursuit of global hegemony, these developments have spawned domestic, regional and international terrorism of which the state version is the most lethal because it is the most powerful and describes itself as ‘counterterrorism.’
The UN will need to reform itself not just to be more efficient in its delivery of services to mankind but in order to save mankind. The UNSG’s UN80 Initiative is a critical first step. Unsurprisingly, its biggest obstacle will be Trump’s Project 2025 designed to keep humanity on its trajectory towards self-annihilation. China and the Global South will need to help the UN save the world.
The writer is a former ambassador and UN secretary general’s special representative.