Peace Will End With Unipolarity’s, and So Will The UN

The chicken or the egg? When asked about the effectiveness of the United Nations, one tends to blame the United States for its powerful influence in most decision-making. But how true has the popularized claim of the UN’s submissive relations to US interests been? Although it seems controversial, it is important to understand another point of view. The case of the current global climate has turned out to be plagued by the escalating number of conflicts across the globe, further promoting the ever-growing irrelevance of the effectiveness of the UN alone in doing its simple tasks and mandates as an international institution.

The League of Nations, a precursor to the UN project, was established following the conclusion of the Great War, a war that had caused a devastating impact, most relevantly in mainland Europe, as well as various other continents across the globe. Drawn out of the vision of then US President Woodrow Wilson, the organization consisted of 42 founding member-states, with 6 more following suit to join this new international organization, with the US, on the other hand, staying clear of it. As history shows, from crisis to crisis, the organization has done nothing effective to address the events leading up to the eventual start of the Second World War. Member-states have no issue with overstepping the authority and agreement of the organization and would rather let themselves out of the door the moment they find its usefulness fading.

Unlike the league, which grew out of the multipolar political constellation, the UN was heavily established and lived off the growing power of the US and the waning influence of the old order. While the Cold War oversaw the relatively bipolar political situation, there is without doubt that even the Soviet Union must play by the rules of the game established through the UN or face the full might of the American empire. But how has it been since? The end of the Cold War has surely placated the US as the sole leader of the world. The world shall no longer fear the looming threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation. The Russians have now fallen into a failing state, China has been ideologically domesticated, and North Korea has been isolated for some time. The US is unmatched.

It is interesting to think that the gravitas of the UN only came at an all-time high following the turn of the 2000s, after all the impending doom of war finally subsided and a unipolar system could finally be put into place. The UN has not been an important tool to the US; it has been the other way around. The existence of another superpower to make its vision upon the world has always been a threat to the effectiveness of the UN as an international organization. A law can only be implemented if there is power to enforce it. The UN has been hiding under the cloak of the US for far too long, and it forgets the hand that legitimizes it. With the decreasing influence of the US in the world, the organization faltered into the hands of the squabbling nations with daggers in hand, ready to stab the once mighty Caesar who kept them from ravaging one another since the conclusion of WWII.

I have neither love nor agreement with an international organization. I found the sovereignty of countries to be sacred and must not be bound by some circle of self-proclaimed councils of the world. However, when I see people cheering the subsiding power of the US and the dire end of the unipolar world, I find it baffling to see them confused by the consequences of growing multipolarity flashing right in front of their eyes. The UN can only remain relevant as long as countries believe it is relevant.

Similar to its chaotic and neutered precursor, the current global situation has seemingly come to a parallel state of decay. With inter-state war returning to mainland Europe, politically unstable entities crumbling to their demise, and old hatreds materializing into raging bloodshed, only God could tell the future of the global internationalist dream of an institution. When everyone is a king, no one is.