The world that the United Nations was born into no longer exists. So why do the diplomats and politicians gathered for the UN General Assembly this year, during its 80th anniversary, pretend that it does?
The founding of the UN
At the time of the UN’s founding, the post-World War II world order was dominated by a handful of victorious, allied nations that affirmed their status by fashioning a world order with themselves at the helm.
The UN Security Council, established in 1946, created a structured, formal mechanism to promote peace. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) provided the means to settle international disputes. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund offered the infrastructure to fund global development.
The UN has since expanded its mandate to include things like sustainable development, gender equality and inclusive governance to keep pace with global shifts in priorities. Despite this, the institution is not moving fast enough. And now, a mere 80 years later, it is time for a new structure.
The fractures and moral failings of the UN
Among international institutions, the UN’s name has near-mythic resonance. Yet, its ideals of global governance seldom translate into action, and the global superpowers at its helm are now beset by challenges.
US democracy is being dismantled at record speed. Hours after naming a new government, the French Prime Minister resigned after less than a month on the job. By mid-October 2025, France has had six Prime Ministers in two years, while the United Kingdom, still reeling from the fallout from Brexit, has seen five Prime Ministers since it voted to leave the European Union.
The international structures were built on the assumption that a few leading nations would maintain order and stability, and are now, ironically, cracking under the weight of these same nations’ governance failures.
The UN Security Council’s veto power is a perfect manifestation of this. The UN instituted this mechanism to ensure the world’s superpowers refrained from warring with one another. But instead, it has become a legal contrivance that enables more powerful states to deny less powerful nations their sovereignty.
This imbalance of power is playing out in real time. For nearly two years now, we have watched as the United States vetoed measures to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. These actions are part of a larger historical pattern. Over the past five decades, the United States has vetoed over 50 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel. South Africa, on the other hand, has stepped up and led the charge, bringing a case against Israel’s actions in Gaza to the ICJ.
The United States’ moral failing extends beyond the Security Council. In 2010, the United States abstained from voting on a UN resolution declaring water a human right — an act that evidenced an all-too-poignant truth: the current paradigm of the UN Security Council exists to buoy the material interests of the few and powerful. It is past time for the Security Council to reflect the true composition of all its 193 UN Member States.
Is the Global South the new future for the UN?
Earlier this year, the UN announced that, by 2026, major UN agencies like the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women may move to Nairobi, Kenya, signaling an end to the 80-year-long reign that the Global North has had over international institutions. And, as the veneer of Western liberalism begins to crumble under democratic backsliding, corruption, inequality and autocracy, maybe it is time.
Small Island Developing States have been on the frontlines of committing to a world with net-zero carbon. Meanwhile, the United States is reneging on climate agreements, withdrawing grants and now refusing to acknowledge the existence of global warming. Our institutions’ constant capitulation to the short-termism of Western interests leaves us with systems so at odds with the values they purport to hold that the global order is now adrift.
The world is in the midst of the most violent conflicts since World War II, with a rudderless United States ceding its position of global leadership more each day. As the V-Dem Institute has asked so poignantly, has democracy been trumped? If the measuring stick is the inability to act consequentially on climate change, gender equality and conflict, the answer is yes.
If the world’s major powers, with all their resources and might, cannot stand up and meet the myriad of crises befalling us, who will? The limited capacity of the UN and its Security Council impairs us all. A radical new architecture — whether inside the UN or beyond — will be needed for the future; let the Global South lead us into it.
[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
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