The
United Nations May Soon Go the Way of its Predecessor
"When any large multinational has a higher budget than many states,
and when such firms have a greater capacity to function on a global scale than
the U.N. - it is a sign that the global political space has become something
else: a market prepared to preserve profits at any cost, regardless of whether
it involves the environment or condemns millions to poverty."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the driving force behind the United Nations, which was an improvement on the League of Nations, but now appears a spent force to much of the global public.
During the 20th
Century, the world witnessed the emergence of two major organizations international
in scope. The first was The League of Nations,
born out of the Treaty
of Versailles that put an end to the First World War in
June, 1919. It was dissolved in April of 1946 when confronted with its obvious
failure. Although its explicit purpose was to promote cooperation among nations
and secure peace, enforce international law and scrupulously respect treaties,
the truth is that it never even approximated such noble intentions. We could
even say that its epitaph was the Second World War.
If U.S. President Woodrow Wilson inspired
the League of Nations, it would be President Franklin D. Roosevelt
who inspired the United
Nations, a new organization that after the horror of World War II would be
the global organization charged with promoting peace and friendship among
nations. Born in October 1945 with 50 representatives, today it boasts the
accession of 192 member states.
The U.N. was conceived
of as a great forum for addressing issues of concern to all humanity, not the
least of which are: to protect future generations from the scourge of war; reaffirm
peoples' faith in fundamental human rights; create the conditions for upholding
justice and respect for international treaties; and promote social progress and
better standards of living. Confronted with the current state of the world, one
might easily think that as the League of Nations failed to prevent the world
from descending into barbarism, the United Nations has become little more than
a politically inept and ineffective bureaucracy that provides demagogic speeches
on behalf of the world's powerful.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
If the figure of U.N.
secretary general once commanded influence, its current role in world politics
is almost nil. Its ability to mediate global conflicts of every kind is effectively
void, and it has shown again and again its incapacity to save future
generations from the scourge of war. The lamentable events in the Persian Gulf
and North Africa show the limits of today's strongest. The same can be said of the
U.N.'s promise to promote social progress and better standards of living - a commitment
never kept with the abandoned villages of sub-Saharan Africa and many countries
in Latin America.
Wilson: Hero to some, misguided
dreamer to others.
The diluted role
of the U.N. in world affairs is one of the symptoms showing a crisis of global
institutions in this century. When any large multinational corporation has a
higher budget than many states, and when such firms have a greater capacity to
function on a global scale than the United Nations - it is a sign that the global
political space within which the U.N. sought to preserve peace and justice has
become something else: a market prepared to preserve profits at any cost,
regardless of whether it involves the environment or condemns millions to poverty
- and without the slightest concern for the flag of some small country
clamoring for its sovereignty.
*Álvaro Cuadra is a researcher and lecturer at ELAP, Universidad
ARCIS (The Latin American Postgraduate School at the University of Art and
Social Sciences, Chile)
