How self-absorbed leaders and a broken United Nations threaten global peace
Simon Hobson
In 1997, as a 17-year-old A-level politics student, I stood at a model United Nations general assembly and launched a clumsy attack on the German delegation. My speech, poorly researched and pompous, was less about policy and more about teenage bravado.
But even then, my performance was more statesmanlike than the most recent ramblings delivered by the President of the United States at the real UN.
The United Nations was founded in 1945 to save future generations from war, uphold human rights, and provide a forum for peaceful dialogue. Yet from the start, the UN was shackled by the veto powers granted to the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom.
Designed to reflect post-war geopolitical realities, the veto has long outlived its purpose.
Today, it obstructs consensus and allows powerful nations to paralyze the institution. If the UN is to survive, the veto must go.
Rebuke and reform
Donald Trump’s contempt for international cooperation has laid bare a deeper truth: the UN must be reformed if it is to remain meaningful. The United States has always held the organisation at arm’s length, ensuring it could not act without American consent and its cash.
But Trump’s presidency is pushing that cynicism into outright aggression. To preserve its credibility, the UN must be a place where all nations’ voices carry equal weight, where the powerful are rebuked when necessary, and where votes on resolutions are not held hostage by the self-interest of five countries.
Reform is not optional. If the UN remains stuck in 1945, it will become irrelevant. Its charter, its purpose, and even its headquarters in New York require rethinking.
The world needs a 21st century UN: one where democracy, not vetoes, decides outcomes; one where governments, organisations, and citizens alike can turn for justice, peace, and dialogue.
There’s a hole in the roof
The case for reform is not abstract. After the Cold War, between 1989 and 2008, national leaders squandered a rare moment of calm.
Instead of rebuilding societies to meet people’s needs for housing, food, energy, and education, they pursued a neoliberal economic model that enriched a few while leaving most people to cope with stagnation and insecurity. The refusal of UK governments to embrace electoral reform and devolve real power has only deepened this disillusionment. Into this void step the demagogues.
Narcissistic worship
History shows what happens when people, searching for meaning in hard times, fall for scapegoats and easy fixes.
In the Weimar Republic, economic turmoil and weak leadership opened the door to the Nazis. Today, the same dynamics give rise to Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, Xi Jinping, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Nigel Farage. These figures, like the authoritarians of the past, target migrants, minorities, and dissenters. Their narcissistic grip on populations is broken only at great cost.
My grandfather knew this well. At 20, he fought in the Second World War as a dispatch rider with the 1st Battalion, The Welch Regiment.
He rarely spoke of it, but when I told him about my participation in the model UN, he opened up. He recalled racing across the Egyptian desert on a Norton motorbike under fire, and the terror of parachuting into Sicily at night.
He looked at me, pale, and said simply: “It is good that you are learning about the UN. We must never let that happen again”.
Lest we forget
Today, as war consumes our European neighbours in Ukraine, genocide is executed in Palestine, and as China threatens Taiwan, my grandad’s words feel urgent. The UN was created to prevent humanity from repeating its worst mistakes. Yet unless we reform it, unless we strengthen its democratic core and strip away the veto, we risk the UN becoming an ineffectual talking shop. The result of which could be that we are sleepwalking into the global war to which my grandfather hoped humanity would never again subject itself.
We must decide, before others decide for us. We can allow narcissistic leaders to blame migrants, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ people, and anyone who challenges them. Or we can resist. We can reject them at the ballot box. We can take the time to understand the other. We can demand that the UN fulfils its original promise: a safe space where nations resolve conflict, defend human dignity, and act in the interests of all humanity.
The penny must drop now. We must act now for change to happen now. If it doesn’t, the next generation may be left telling their own war stories from the global conflict of the 2030s. That is a future we cannot afford.
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The penny dropped for lots of people after World War Two when New Yorks the World Bank let Cubas International Air Transport Association take too much control of economics / policy setting / letting them control air routes / self-regulated / focuses on making rich countries richer.
UN should be campaigning for Africas / developing worlds requests for global fair taxes – yet does nothing.
Some people believe https://www.francophonie.org/ has a good focus – economic alliance / sharing best practice forums / joiners must have high transparency international scores.
Je vais me renseigner davantage sur l’OIF.
Simon I worked in 1990s for Rolls-Royce plc and they seconded me to Aeroports de Montreal (joint project team with Air Canada, Air Transat, United Technologies etc). OIF entered an unprecedented crisis on 1 Feb 1999 when Air France started negotiating Skyteam alliance – France abandoned Quebec in 17th Century and Britain moved the capital of Canada to Ottawa, Ontario. 2 Feb 1999 an economic alliance was created of all the French speaking regions throughout the world, except France and Ontario led by the Chief Economist of Swissair. I was at the meeting and they aligned their economies through a… Read more »
Given that I live on the south shore of Montréal, I should certainly be more aware of this history than I was until you kindly pointed me towards it. Diolch!
The veto must absolutely go and I also think that the permanent members of the security council must be made non-permanent. Instead they should be grouped and offered a quota… i.e. a couple of them draw a short straw and get benched and take it in turns.
Unfortunately the way the UN is set up is geared to maintain a balance of power that frankly does not exist nowadays.
Organisations do not change if they fundamentally do not work effectively. UN should be criticizing USA for pulling out of Paris Climate Agreement – but has not. We will not change how UN behaves, but should be wary and ensure that as a nation we support less developed regions. In 2007 i worked at Network Rail and led the creation of India’s design sub-contract supply-chain. I still network with the Indian suppliers and we discuss how the Indian manufacturers can grow their exports based on digital rail equipment – creating well-paid roles in India. Canada in 1990s mentored Chile to… Read more »
Isn’t that the mistake which the UK made in leaving the EU?
The analogy I use is this; ‘If you love the person to whom you are married, when the rocky times come you put the time in to understand the other person, grow yourself, help them grow, reach an understanding and ensure that the relationship survives.’
That is my vision for how we change international organisations.
The U.N. is toast already and going the way of the League of Nations.
Is that something you’d celebrate?
Worth remembering, perhaps, that from the start the USA refused to join the old League of Nations. I suspect that precedent was the reason why there was no real and significant push-back against granting to the victorious powers after WW2 their permanent seats on the new UN’s security council plus the power to veto any resolution which the UN might make. The fear being that if those concessions weren’t made at the time when the UN was first set up, at least some of the world’s then most powerful nations would simply decline to be part of it.
Lots of these organisations are glorified talking shops, most people ignore them as make no decisions. Republic of Ireland had a crash about 20 years ago and since then has focused on growing its economy. Their purchasing power parity is over twice UKs and Dublin has lots of global organisations based there. Scotland’s economy is growing well https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/14243/edinburgh-s-economy-outperforms-london-s and Wales needs to understand how – it is my view that both regions network effectively / focus on well paid jobs. We need to stop complaining and focus on growth, develop relationships with India’s Tata and Spains CAF (train manufacturer) to… Read more »
I am interested in your thoughts and knowledge on CAF. Given the speed (pun intended) at which Spain’s HS Rail network expanded and, importantly, that their per kilometre of track laid was so much lower than HS2; EUR 18 million/km (including stations) compared to GBP 200 million/km.
Wales needs a HSR north to south.
The UK can do it’s bit by delivering all international aid in partnership with the UN. All unilateral activities, usually linked to colonial era relationships, undermine the institution.
An interesting point. Diolch!