In order to have full access of this Article, please email us on thedocumentco@hotmail.co.uk

Established after the Second World War

 

Established after the Second World War, United Nations has become one of the pillars of the post-world war politics and the international system. If compared to the United Nations; no other organisation can parallel United Nations; size, United Nations as a Representation of World legitimacy, and ambitions. United Nations can be considered as a catalyst for peace in the contemporary world. United Nations was created in 1945, after the world war,

and currently has 193 member states. The purpose of the organisation is to maintain and safeguard peace and security of the world. United Nation’s former Secretary once stated, United Nations as a Representation of World “Sitting in this room all of us can find examples of the United Nations’ failures and setbacks. But the United Nations at its best and worst is a mirror of our world. It reflects our divisions and disagreements as well as our hopes and convictions”. (Tharoor, 2005)

The question is how the United Nations represents the image of our world. United Nation’s mirror of today’s world, because it represents the opportunities and challenges faced by the nations, and how different members i.e. countries respond to the different situations.

In order to analyse whether the United Nations represent the realities of today’s world, it is important to understand the functionalities first. The objective of the United Nations is to promote and safeguard the world’s peace and security. Moreover, to work on humanitarian grounds and help the developing and less developed nations.

Thus, there are separate council such as Security Council for security, UNHCR for refugees, UNICEF for education, similarly there are other council’s working on poverty and health etc. United Nations is not the world government, it does not regulate the world, it facilitates the contemporary international system, but providing regulations and objectives that can help to improve the contemporary systems. United Nations as a Representation of World The purpose of this essay is not to discuss the weaknesses or strengths of the organisation but to understand if it mirror’s the realities of the world.

In order to understand that it is important to evaluate the work done by different councils of the United Nations globally and what they are trying to achieve. Humanitarian councils of the United Nations are working to achieve humanitarian goals, such as better education, health care, eradicating poverty and facilitating refugees. United Nations as a Representation of World One of the examples can be UNHCRs plan to safely repatriate or shift Afghan refugees from Pakistan, United Nations as a Representation of World  in order to settle refugees and also to help Pakistan in settling the refugees. (UNHCR, 2012)

This can be an example of how the United Nation’s mirror the good in the world. Different nations working in collaboration on humanitarian grounds, and facilitating settlement of citizens of a different country and providing them security and protection shows the good will of countries and their ability to work together. Moreover, an organisation that has 193 member countries shows the reality and the willingness of the countries to work together.

According to realist theory, a nation should be strong in defence in order to protect its sovereignty and rights, and should not depend only on alliances to protect her national security. United Nations as a Representation of World Establishment of the United Nations is essentially to discard that idea, and bring nations together to work together instead of against each other.  United Nations as a Representation of World United Nations as a Representation of World United Nation’s Security Council’s objective is to stabilise countries situation in time of war, to ensure that stronger nations do not breach the sovereignty of smaller nations i.e. to maintain peace and security. UNSC works with variety of methods and procedures available to the council, and the procedures and methods are created according to the Charter of the United Nations (Max, 2006).

As mentioned earlier the objective of the Security Council is to ensure quick and effective actions towards the safeguarding international peace and security. The purpose of the rules and regulations is to ensure the support of the wider membership of the United Nations. United Nations as a Representation of United Nations as a Representation of World A major threat faced by the weaker nations is the threat of invasion and attack by stronger nations, and United Nations have laws to prevent that. However, there are loopholes in the laws that can cause nations to easily breach the laws and not face any consequences.

The loopholes in the laws reflect how “Big Nations” can simply escape after breaching the laws. Israel’s invasion of Palestine and United States attack on Iran and Afghanistan can be considered as one of the examples of how stronger nations breach laws and laws are not enforced on them. United Nations as a Representation of World United Nations as a Representation of World There is no ways to impose laws on stronger nations with veto power such as United States who have a larger stake in the United Nations.

The lack of military in United Nations and lack of imposition of laws on stronger nations mirror how in contemporary world, the sovereignty of weaker states can easily be breached and no action will be taken against them. Harsh reality of today’s world is the dominance of stronger nations in every respect and the use of force by stronger nations against weaker nations. (Rabougi, 2009)

As mentioned earlier United Nations can be considered as one of the pillars of the world. United Nations as a Representation of World It plays a crucial role in regulating and facilitating contemporary international politics. The lack of ability of law enforcement on strong nations i.e. nations with veto power represent the reality of the world, that stronger nations always have dominant power and ability to breach laws without facing any consequences. Whereas,

the work on eradication of poverty, improvement in health care, education and human rights movement represent the good that exists in today’s world. The willingness of nations to collaborate with each other in an international organisation represent the willingness of nations to collaborate with each other in general. United Nations as a Representation of World  Failure to resolve issues i.e. Israel- Palestine issue, Kashmir issue and inability of law enforcement in case of United Nations attack on Iraq and Afghanistan represents the bad in world.

If the nations are not willing to negotiate in case of war or because they want to preserve their dominance that reflects the unwillingness of nations to collaborate with each other. The unwillingness to collaborate with each other, and attacks on weaker nations show the bad in world, and United Nations failure to tackle such situation shows how the United Nations reflect bad in the world.

“We need reform, not because the institution has failed, but because it has succeeded enough to be worth investing in future” (Tahoor, 2006). United Nations is considered as a success by some and failure by others. It is hard to analyse which one is a more accurate analysis, however even if it is considered as a failure by some,

it cannot be considered as a failure of the organisation, but it can be considered as the failure of member nations because the laws and regulations are made by the member nations and imposed by the member nations. If there are successes those are because of the ability of the nations to work together for the same cause, and if there are failures that can be because of inability and unwillingness of the nations to collaborate. Thus, United Nations is a reflection of good and bad present in the world, because it is a reflection of the desires, goals and work of the member nations.

“People forget. We are here to act; we are here to deliver results. We are agents of change. Our job is to change the UN, and through it the world” (Ban Ki-moon, 2008). United Nations is the reflection of the realities of the world and change in the world, because the work done by United Nations is done by the nations of the world, and the work done by them, good or bad, represent the good or bad present in the world. As countries develop, the word is changing, so does their goal, so does their representation in the United Nations. If the nations change for better,

they have the chance to serve the changing world better, and United Nations can facilitate in that change, if there is willingness to bring change for better, then United Nations mirrors that through its work. However, countries are still bureaucratic and feudal and that is also mirrored by the United Nations because if the laws and regulations are not imposed it shows the mind-set of the member states…