UN, an assembly of 193 nations, is the creation of five big powers (P5); the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and France. It was created to maintain peace and stability, prevent wars and escalations, build mutual trust, and protect human rights. At the time of its creation, P5 took the responsibility to implement UN decisions practically and to act as an executive body of the UN with final decision-making authority. Thus, actual power went into the hand of the Security Council consisting of P5; to maintain the balance of power in the world it was declared that everyone has veto power. Now, this UN Security Council is everything in itself; it acts as police, it acts as a judge, and it acts as a legislature too. Now, If the Security Council or any of its members commit any wrong, then who is the body to ask them or to make them accountable? The answer is nobody because everyone has veto power.
Now, it has been made clear that UN Security Council is everything, and it has the sole power either to maintain the peace or to destroy the peace. The question arises the UN Security Council is only an executive body, then how does it influence the UN General Assembly and International Court of Justice? The answer is simple, P5 have its own alliances in the UN General Assembly and in ICJ too and thus P5 give orders and directions to such alliances, and they move accordingly. Now, here, an important question is raised, if every act is done by or under the directions of P5 then what is the role of the UN General Assembly? What is the role of world nations excluding P5? The answer is quite tricky and this answer will decide whether the UN has failed to achieve peace or not.
Practically UN General Assembly is just a discussion body it discusses international issues within its competence and then passes a resolution in favor of or against a state. But such a resolution must be passed by the Security Council, and when the resolution comes before the Security Council, then, block politics get started. If it is in the favor of all members of the Security Council then there is no obstacle to passing such a resolution but if it is in favor of some and against the other members’ interests then it can never be passed. And here the question of the Failure of the UN starts.
It is seen that the world is ruled by five kings (P5) and every king acts according to his own interest and no one can stand against any of the kings. When there is more than one ruler of the world and every ruler considers himself or tries to become the only ruler of the world and such ruler is answerable to no one, then how one can assume that the world is moving toward peace? How one can say that the UN is a successful body? How one can presume that the UN acts according to its charter if the answer to every question is negative then one can presume that the UN was created to protect the interest of P5 and not to maintain peace and stability. And it is evident from many examples that the UN only protects the interest of P5 and not the interest of the world.
Starting from US interest, during Cold War when the TALIBAN were fighting against Russia in Afghanistan US supported them and invited them to the White House and compared them with the founding father of the USA but when Russia defeated and such Taliban became a threat to the US interest then US declared them as a terrorist organization and the US started a global war on terror against them. Similarly, Russia invaded Ukraine not to secure the peace of the world but to secure its own border even at the cost of millions of Ukrainian lives. On the other hand, the US supports Ukraine not on humanitarian grounds but to contain Russia. The interesting point here is that the US, on one hand, condemn Russia for attacking civilian in Ukraine, but it does not condemn itself for civilian loss in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Vietnam, and Syria. Furthermore, the US condemns Russia for invading Ukraine territory, but the US does not condemn Israel for invading Palestine territory. This shows that no big power is trying to maintain peace, but they try to protect their own interest at any cost. Moreover, the USA supports freedom fighters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and many other parts but when a similar organization fought for freedom in Palestine the USA declares them a terrorist organization. The reason is that in Taiwan and Hong Kong the freedom fighters support US interests, while in Palestine they are against US interests.
As discussed above, UN Security Council has the sole authority to decide on war and peace. Such authority is exercised by them according to their own self-interest. This shows that the UN is ruined by P5 according to their own interest which means that there is no universal law, no universal rules, no charter, and no mutual trust, but there is only one thing and that is P5 interest. Such interest is divided between democracy and communism/socialism. Both blocks along with their allies have different interests and to convince them on a single agenda is a far cry. In this block politics, small states suffer a lot and these states have no forum to discuss their issues because the available platform is UN Security Council and which revolves around its interest.
In the 21st century, when the world is moving toward multipolar order and the interest of nations is rapidly changing, an unbiased and impartial body is required to solve and handle the challenges of the 21st century. The need of the hour is to change the present structure of the UN and its security council and to formulate new rules and regulations according to the changing nature of the world. In this article, I will discuss some recommendations on how to change the present structure of the UN Security Council. There are at least three options: (a) Removal of the concept of ‘veto power’ and all decisions must be made by majority vote or; (b) Increasing the number of UN Security Council members but no state shall have veto power or; (c) abolition of the UN security body and replacing it with an executing body which shall have only one function to implement the decisions of the UN General Assembly and not to formulate policies. Any of the ways the UN can adapt to handle the challenges of the present day would be considered a failed organization that acted only as a spectator.
