Before we try to find out what the future of the United Nations is going to be, we need to figure out where it is and its genesis.
The United Nations is a product of World War 2. It’s Franklin Roosevelt’s brainchild. The very expression “the United Nations,” coined by President Franklin Roosevelt, was first used in a document by the 26 states, at war with the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, and Italy), when they met in Washington on January 1, 1942. In short, it was the states united in the war against the Axis powers. Earlier, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill had proclaimed the Atlantic Charter (August 14, 1941) which contained a set of principles for international collaboration for maintaining peace and security. In short, the UN was, to start with, the organisation established by the victors of the war. The losers came in much later.
The charter was drafted by the State Department headed by Cordell Hull who was not regularly consulted by his President on diplomatic moves during the war. The United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent the U.S.S.R., contributed to the drafting. Roosevelt’s initial idea was to have four ‘policemen’ (U.S., U.S.S.R., U.K., and China) to keep peace in the global village. France was added at Churchill’s insistence. Stalin was scandalised by the inclusion of China as it meant the Asians ‘sitting in judgement over us the Europeans.’ He gave in eventually.
Roosevelt was rather naïve if he thought that the five policemen would keep peace and provide security. Roosevelt had wanted to disarm the rest of the village, with the policemen alone to have arms. Looking back, one or more of the five have been the peace-breakers either by starting a war or by fueling the war already started by others.
We need to raise another question. Is the U.N. merely a forum for member-states to consult with each other, or is it an independent actor? To be an independent actor one needs armed power. Articles 45 to 48 require the member-states to make available to the Security Council armed forces to act under the direction of a Military Staff Committee that reports to the Security Council. As a matter of fact, no such Committee has ever been established, even though in the Korean War there was, technically, a United Nations Command that fought North Korea. It was led by General MacArthur who reported only to the U.S. President. We conclude that once again Roosevelt’s intentions have proved to be unworkable, to put it mildly.
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