The United Nations

Back in World War 1, aka "the war to end all wars", it was up to the World's leaders to prevent a tragedy like that from happening every again. And in 1920, the League of Nations was founded, in order to maintain world peace and order.  

It did not succeed in maintaining world peace and order, or prevent a future war from occuring. 

The Allies decided to give it a second try. And so in 1944, representatives of the Allies met near Washington, DC to develop the structure of the United Nations. The goals of this new and improved version of the League of Nations were as follows:

1. To maintain international peace and security...
2. To develop friendly relations and take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace
3. To achieve international cooperation in the solution of international economic, social, and other humanitarian problems
4. To afford a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the achievement of these common ends

Afterwards on June 1945, another meeting was held right here in San Francisco, and included the representatives of 51 countries. It was concluded on June 26, 1945 with the signing of the official UN charter.Unlike the League of Nations, there was no dispute or argument on whether the U.S should be part of it - only 2 Senators voted against joining it.

The main government of the UN is composed a 15 member security council. This council has 5 permanent members: China, France, Russia, U.K, and the U.SA (the Allies). They each have the power to veto resolutions proposed by other countries. There are also 10 non permanent members that are elected for 2 year terms. The main power of the members of the security council, is that they get to decide how to respond to crises around the world. The other members of the UN must accept and carry out the decisions of the security council. 

The UN has done a lot over the years. The very first and one of the most significant resolutions was in 1946, when it called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. They also stepped in when North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950. And in 1987, members signed the Montréal Protocol, where countries agreed to phase out the use of dangerous chemicals such as CFCs which created a massive hole in the Ozone layer. The Ozone layer is important, because it shields us from dangerous U.V rays that damage the skin, as well as some crops. Due to this agreement, crop yields remain stable, and it's estimated that over 280 million cases of skin cancer were averted.

The UN created other organizations under its name, such as the WHO (World Health Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund).
These organizations were created initially to help people and children in war-torn Europe, but now they have a global reach. 

Though UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, in recent years it has been criticized for inaction. They were under fire for not stepping in during events such as the Rwandan Genocide, or the Iraq war. This might be because of economic reasons. A crisis in Rwanda wouldn't really cause economic shockwaves across the world. Why would we care if it doesn't affect us? And the U.S was obviously very interested in Iraqi Oil. One of the justifications the U.S gave for the invasion of Iraq, writes Greg Muttitt, was in "expanding global energy supplies through foreign investment." It would make sense that the U.S and other countries would want to instill a new government that would be more stable, and more willing to trade oil. People have called out the Iraq war as unjust, and a violation of the UN charter.


In my opinion, the UN is doing a decent job about the refugee problem in Syria, given the circumstances. This post would get very long if I went in depth on this issue, as it is very complex. There's no benefit in taking refugees, unless you count the fact that it is morally right to help people in times of need. However, there are also people who aren't refugees who take advantage of this kindness. The good news is that some Syrians are finally returning home (~600,000 in 2017). The next step for the UN and the World Bank would be to help rebuild and restabilize the Syrian economy.

What do you think? Is the UN doing a good job of maintaining world peace? Is it their sole duty to stop conflict and famine in developing countries, or does it fall to the responsibility of the people their own countries? 

Sources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/11/542828513/u-n-more-than-600-000-syrians-have-returned-home-in-2017
https://www.state.gov/e/oes/eqt/chemicalpollution/83007.htm
https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/role-of-security-council
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/20/iraq-war-oil-resources-energy-peak-scarcity-economy

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