October 24 marks United Nations Day, which celebrates the entry into force of the United Nations Charter in 1945. Seventy-eight years later, the UN is struggling to carry out its main mandate: maintaining peace and international security. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and, very recently, the resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have demonstrated the inability of the UN to maintain a peaceful dialogue between the actors in order to avoid the use of armed violence.
Accumulation of failures
February 24, 2022: the world is in shock. Russia undertakes a military mission against Ukraine. Europe is, for the first time since the end of the Second World War, the victim of a war on its territory.
However, was it really unthinkable? Was this really a rash action by Putin? Or was it the outbreak of the build-up of Russian-Ukrainian tensions since the annexation of Crimea in 2014? But where was the UN to defuse tensions during these eight years?
October 7, 2023: horror scenes circulate in the media. Hamas undertakes the operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a terrorist attack against Israel. Bombings, hostage-taking, mutilations, the violence of the actions shocks the world. Israel’s retaliation is not long in coming. The bombings towards the Gaza Strip are almost automatic. The main victims: civilians.
Again, was it really unpredictable? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is decades old. But where was the UN to defuse the conflict during these decades? Why didn’t the UN intervene?
The answer: the right of veto! A single right of veto within the Security Council and the entire work of diplomats is forgotten.
Who benefits from this veto right? The five permanent members of the council: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. Why did you create this right of veto? This was a conditional prerogative required by the founding members for the creation of the organization.
At the dawn of the creation of the UN, States could not have suspected that a few years later, geopolitical rivalries between the great powers members of the Security Council would emerge. It was completely powerless until the end of the Cold War because of rivalries between the United States and Russia. It is ironic that this veto power was given to the victors of World War II, once considered the future leaders of international peacekeeping.
Russia obviously vetoed resolutions condemning its invasion of Ukraine. However, the most recent failure of the UN is the rejection of the draft resolution which provided, among other things, for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor between Gaza and Egypt. It was the United States that blocked this resolution.
The reason: the proposed resolution text, which nevertheless condemned the actions of Hamas perpetrated in Israel, did not mention the right to self-defense. “Israel has the inherent right to defend itself, as provided for in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter,” stressed US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Other reasons to block the resolution: pleasing the American electorate, who wants to see its government fight terrorism, pleasing the Jewish diaspora in the United States and strengthening diplomatic ties between Washington and Tel Aviv.
This failure of the UN to override the right of veto has direct consequences on the ground. Humanitarian aid had to wait more than two weeks to be granted to the Palestinian population, which has a failing health system and no electricity or access to food.
What to expect for the future? The UN is criticized for its slowness, lack of transparency and ineffective crisis management. It is necessary for it to reform if it wants to survive the evolution of international relations. It now faces new challenges: the evolution of communications, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, space exploitation, etc.
Faced with its inability to maintain peace, will the UN become obsolete? And if so, will another global conflict have to break out before the advent of a new peacekeeping entity?