02-08-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
UN weakness over Ukraine war, Iran-Israel conflict shows need for reform
History teaches us lessons, but it's still up to us to listen. The UN Charter was written as a result of the bloodiest conflict in modern history. The lesson is obvious: we should not wait until after wars end to build institutions that ensure peace.
Today, military policy is increasingly governed by the temperaments of individuals as opposed to a wider international framework. The world becomes a far less stable place when policy is based on mood instead of multilateral decision-making. Organisations such as the United Nations have traditionally helped limit the power of rogue actors. When the power of these organisations is reduced, dangerous unpredictability is to be expected.
The UN Security Council should be the cornerstone of peacekeeping policy, yet today it is increasingly sidelined by personality as power prevails over principle. More than an indictment of world leaders, this signals the failure of the UN
to update itself to reflect the modern balance of global power. Reforming the UN is necessary to restore predictability and legitimacy to international decision-making.
The UN was conceived in the ashes of a world war that left more than 60 million people dead. The Security Council was the pinnacle of a post-war vision – a forum where the most powerful nations could negotiate peace rather than prosecute war. That world no longer exists, yet the council remains unchanged.
The last meaningful update to the Security Council came in 1965, the same year The Beatles released Help!, their fifth studio album. Since then, the world has added billions of people and dozens of new countries. The UN Charter still reflects a geopolitical order that is more than half a century out of date.
