UN Security Council: Moral Catastrophe
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The United Nations is dysfunctional and no longer fit for purpose in today's divided world.
Paralysis by Veto Power - The UN Security Council's structure—dominated by five permanent members with veto rights—has paralysed
its ability to respond to global crises. Over 293 resolutions have been blocked, often to protect national or allied interests rather than uphold peace, turning a safeguard into an instrument of geopolitical self-interest.
Erosion of Moral Authority - The continued misuse of vetoes, especially by the US, Russia, and China, has led to moral decay.
The Council is increasingly seen as complicit in conflict, shielding allies and enabling impunity—whether through US support for Israel, Russian obstruction on Ukraine, or Chinese suppression of human rights scrutiny.
Crisis of Legitimacy and Trust - The UN is widely perceived—particularly in the Global South—as dominated by Northern powers, riddled with double standards, and failing in its promises of equity, justice, and humanitarian action.
Public faith is declining, and former UN officials themselves acknowledge its systemic failures.
Role of Middle Powers and Reform Prospects - While the Security Council remains gridlocked, progress has emerged through middle-power coalitions and the General Assembly.
Initiatives like the Pandemic Agreement and the Pact for the Future show that constructive multilateralism is possible. Reform proposals include expanding Council membership and abolishing or limiting the veto.
The Urgent Need for Structural Overhaul - Beyond the Security Council, the UN Secretariat must be empowered to mediate impartially,
led perhaps by a woman for the first time. Broader reforms—such as fair global taxation, debt relief, and funding for public goods—are essential to restore credibility and enable the UN to meet 21st-century challenges.
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Tags: UN, Veto, Global Governance, Security Council, Crisis
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JULY 2025
When the Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945, mere months after the conclusion of the Second World War, it was applauded as both a moral and institutional triumph.
US President Harry S. Truman remarked that the true strength of the Charter lay not in its text but in the moral fibre of the governments that would uphold it.
Eight decades on, that moral fibre is now threadbare, if not entirely severed.
The UN, originally conceived to foster peace, justice, and human dignity, has in recent decades devolved into a theatre of geopolitical posturing.
It is increasingly paralysed by self-interest, hypocrisy, and the ossified structure of the very council meant to safeguard its founding ideals.
It is now patently clear that the United Nations is not only dysfunctional; it is no longer fit for the purpose for which it was created.
Present Paralysis
The optimism that emerged from the ashes of global warfare was grounded in the resolve never again to permit such devastation.
This spirit catalysed a multilateral consensus rooted in peace, human rights, and international cooperation.
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Eight decades on, that moral fibre is now threadbare, if not entirely severed
In its formative decades, the United Nations marked real progress: the eradication of smallpox, the Montreal Protocol's reversal of ozone depletion, the reduction in global child
mortality, and notable strides in women's rights. And yet, to date, not a single woman has served as the Secretary-General of the organisation.
Even amid the polarised climate of the Cold War, cooperation on health and development affirmed that the UN could be more than a mere talking forum.
However, such successes now seem relics of a bygone era. In our time, the UN is beset by inertia, symbolic resolutions, and repeated failures to respond effectively to humanitarian crises.
The Security Council, supposedly the pivot of peace and security, has become a battleground for the world’s major powers to advance parochial interests and obstruct action incompatible with their own agendas.
Paralysis by Veto
At the core of the UN’s malaise lies the Security Council, where five permanent members, the
United States, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, the French Republic, and the United Kingdom, wield disproportionate power via their veto rights.
Originally intended as a safeguard against unilateralism and global conflict, the veto has become a mechanism of gridlock.
As of June 2025, the Security Council has passed 2,783 resolutions since 1946.
Yet this figure belies the deeper malaise: over 293 times, a single permanent member has
blocked a resolution, often not to protect international peace, but to shield its own geopolitical interests or those of strategic allies.
The result is a hollowed-out institution, stripped of efficacy.
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As of June 2025, the Security Council has passed 2,783 resolutions since 1946
Russia, for instance, has exercised its veto over 129 times, frequently to forestall accountability for its actions in Syria, Ukraine, and Crimea.
China, while historically more reserved, has increasingly aligned with Russia in obstructing peacekeeping efforts and blocking scrutiny of human rights abuses.
The United States has employed its veto over 50 times to shield Israel from international censure, whether blocking a 2011 resolution, condemning settlements in the West Bank, a
2018 resolution criticising the use of force in Gaza, or most recently, no fewer than five vetoes from 2023 to 2025 amid Israel’s operations in Gaza.
These actions have repeatedly left Washington diplomatically isolated, with mounting criticism from both fellow Security Council members and the General Assembly.
A Moral Catastrophe
The continued misuse of the veto by the permanent five is the clearest indicator of the UN’s moral bankruptcy.
The United States’ unyielding support for Israel in the face of documented abuses, Russia’s
obstruction of justice for war crimes, and China’s defence of authoritarian repression render the Council not merely ineffective, but actively complicit.
France and the United Kingdom, though less frequent wielders of the veto, remain invested in a status quo that preserves their Cold War-era privileges.
The veto now serves not to prevent conflict, but to frustrate even the expression of moral outrage, let alone the implementation of peace.
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The United States has employed its veto over 50 times to shield Israel from international censure ...
The United Nations is dysfunctional and no longer fit for purpose in today's divided world.
The United States: From Architect to Arsonist
Once the chief architect and primary financier of the UN, the United States has increasingly treated the organisation as an instrument of convenience.
Of the 88 vetoes cast by Washington, more than half have been employed to shield Israel from global scrutiny, blocking resolutions on ceasefires, unlawful settlements, and human rights violations.
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The United Nations is dysfunctional and no longer fit for purpose in today's divided world
In 2025 alone, the United States cast its fifth such veto to quash a call for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.
Yet the dysfunction goes further. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. slashed funding for vital agencies such as the World Health Organisation and UNRWA.
Legal evasions, most notoriously the 2003 invasion of Iraq without Security Council endorsement, have set perilous precedents, undermining international norms.
The nation’s leadership, vacillating between overreach and retreat, has left allies disoriented and adversaries emboldened.
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Russia: Subverting Peace Through Obstruction
Russia, successor to the Soviet Union’s permanent seat, has turned obstruction into a diplomatic doctrine. Its repeated vetoes on Syria, interference in African affairs, and deployment of disinformation campaigns reflect a strategic agenda that prioritises disorder over cooperation.
Moscow’s actions in Ukraine constitute arguably the gravest breach of the UN Charter since its inception.
Yet the Security Council has been rendered ineffective by Russia’s own veto.
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Public trust in the United Nations is on the wane, particularly in the Global South
More recently, it has used the UN as a stage to project its influence in Africa, exemplified by its alliances with regimes such as Mali’s junta and the suspected deployment of private mercenaries under the camouflage of peacekeeping.
China: Master of Strategic Ambiguity
China’s posture at the UN is one of sophisticated subversion. It engages robustly with multilateral bodies, not to fortify global norms, but to reshape them in its own authoritarian image.
Beijing has installed Chinese nationals in influential UN posts, diluted language on human rights, and consistently shielded itself from criticism over Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China trades economic investment for diplomatic silence, using its clout to sway votes within the General Assembly.
While vociferously defending national sovereignty, Beijing routinely infringes upon it in the South China Sea.
Its goal is not to exit the UN system, but to dominate and reorient it.
A Crisis of Legitimacy and Trust
Public trust in the United Nations is on the wane, particularly in the Global South.
Many nations perceive the organisation as a forum dominated by Northern powers, where noble principles are preached but seldom practised.
Double standards, particularly concerning Palestine, nuclear disarmament, and selective interventions, have significantly eroded faith in the institution.
Former senior UN officials openly acknowledge these failings.
The organisation’s overreliance on great powers has left it unable to reform itself or act independently.
The very member states that decry the UN’s ineffectiveness are often the principal architects of its paralysis.
Middle Powers Rising
Nonetheless, not all is lost.
Certain sections of the UN continue to function, driven by coalitions of middle-power nations.
The 2024 Pandemic Agreement, the 2023 resolution on crimes against humanity, and the Pact for the Future are testament to what can be achieved when governance is not hostage to the Security Council.
These initiatives, frequently championed by the General Assembly, underscore the potential for multilateralism when not subordinated to the whims of the powerful.
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The veto, inherently undemocratic, has no place in a modern rules-based order
There is growing momentum behind Security Council reform, proposals include expanding permanent membership, limiting or abolishing the veto, and democratising its decision-making processes.
The veto, inherently undemocratic, has no place in a modern rules-based order.
The Case for Structural Reform
The UN’s problems extend beyond the Security Council. The Secretariat must reassert its role as a neutral mediator, untethered from national agendas.
A more autonomous Secretary-General is critical.
Furthermore, it is long past time for a woman to occupy the highest office in the UN, an organisation that claims to champion gender equality but continues to be led exclusively by men.
Beyond institutional reform, there is an urgent call for a fairer global economic architecture: equitable tax regimes, comprehensive debt relief, and sustainable financing for global public goods.
These measures are essential to redress the structural inequities that fuel instability and perpetuate poverty.
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Fit for Whose Purpose?
Dag Hammarskjöld famously said the United Nations “was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.” Yet today, the world inches closer to a reality of wild power, unrestrained authoritarianism, and systemic decay.
The UN, constrained by an antiquated architecture and held captive by its most powerful members, is ill-suited to confront the existential challenges of the 21st century.
Unless its foundational structure and purpose are revisited, it risks irrelevance.
Should reform continue to be deferred by those who benefit most from the current dysfunction, the institution may be remembered less as the custodian of peace, and more as the relic of a failed dream.
The choice before the world is stark: either reimagine and revitalise the United Nations to serve the common good, or allow it to remain a monument to aspirations unfulfilled.
The hour demands precisely the kind of moral resolve that President Truman envisaged in 1945.
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