politics
foreign policy
Will the United Nations Survive to See Its 100th Birthday?
United Nations (1980-2015)
New York University
0
0
Genesis
Response
Penultimate
Finale
September 14th, 2020
History is filled with a litany of memorable dates, and multilateralists have lists of their own. Each year October 24 is celebrated as ‘UN Day’, commemorating the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of its Charter.
A date not commemorated, though, is April 20, 1946, the day the League of Nations officially ceased to be. After being placed into a state of ‘reduced operations’—a euphemism is ever there was one—in December 1939, the League was finally put out of its misery a full four months after the first session of the UN General Assembly. Despite the date on the death certificate, the League of Nations had ceased to play any meaningful role since at least 1933, a year that saw both Germany and Japan head for the exits. The following thirteen years of the League’s existence were very much de jure rather than de facto.
The life of the UN that Franz describes would make Monty Python’s parrot merchant blush. While it may be possible for the UN to carry on for several more years, that is only because it has been nailed to its perch.
Indeed, what we are likely to see moving forward is the suspended animation of a Zombie institution: not fully alive, but not yet actually dead. We will see a UN limping along, ‘going through the motions’, but not getting much done. Already we can detect in the faltering 2030 Agenda, the centre-piece of which are the Sustainable Development Goals, the guttural moans of one undead: without serious effort, we are not going to meet the 17 ambitious objectives set out in 2015. The other global project, an attempt to limit the effects of climate change, also betrays the lack of life in the UN. While valiant attempts were made (the deliberations were extended by two days) the results were disappointing. If the patient didn’t die on the table, it certainly didn’t dance a jig, either.
These two examples (the lifeless response to Covid-19 could easily be added to the list) illustrate that the ultimate cause of death for the UN will be the same as that of its forebear: a lack of commitment by its member states, especially those with the most economic, political, and normative power. Make no mistake: the UN’s passing will be a tragedy. Its demise will leave billions of people grappling with real hardships caused by impoverishment, disease, insecurity, and inequality.
Some may believe that the UN is entering what Gersham Scholem calls a ‘plastic hour’, a time of possibility and renewal. Indeed, some functional agencies may yet survive. But, while some modest recovery may be possible in the short term, time is running out. As the Organization becomes less and less effective, it will first lose its legitimacy, followed by the support of more and more of its constituent countries, and eventually, the people of the world. When that happens, it will take an encore performance of Billy Chrystal’s Miracle Max to fully revive the UN.
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