If words alone could end war, the United Nations might have fulfilled the hope of its charter, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Russia’s seventh-month-old invasion of Ukraine is reminding the world of an inherent weakness in the U.N. foundation: as long as major powers such as Russia have veto power on the Security Council, they can block the will of other countries for peace.
The war in Ukraine is one in an array of crises facing the world body at a time when cooperation among major powers is lacking. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the dismal global climate in his remarks to the General Assembly, saying “The United Nations charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy and we have a duty to act.”
In this episode of History As It Happens, Karen Mingst, an expert on international diplomacy and global governance, discusses the successes and failures of the United Nations since its inception after World War II. The U.N. is not an abstract body with magical powers; it is no better or worse than the governments of the nation-states that make up the General Assembly and Security Council. Thus, the U.N. cannot stop the war in Ukraine any more than it could have prevented the U.S. from waging war in Vietnam for a decade.
“When the U.N. charter was formed, the great powers at that time, which included Taiwan and not the People’s Republic [of China], wanted to keep that power for themselves,” said Ms. Mingst, a professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky who has taught international relations across Asia and Africa as well.
“That’s obviously a problem, but what they did was innovate to get around that, to solve issues that didn’t directly involve the great powers,” she added.
SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: The problem of war crimes
Listen to Ms. Mingst talk about the U.N.’s decidedly mixed record of preventing war and human misery in this episode of History As It Happens.
