The Legitimacy of the United Nation.

Ka’Neda Ellison

GOV 241: International Politics
Prof. T. Nkiwane

The Legitimacy of the United Nation

1. "In its unique universality, the United Nations possesses the trust and credibility essential to the process through which nations can agree on universal norms and standards. And it is the United Nations that can provide the legitimacy for the promotion and enforcement of these standards." Support or refute.

The presence of the United Nations in the international community has attempted to embark upon different issues concerning global community. While some nations feel that the organization is successful implementing international law, the history of effective UN policy suggests otherwise. The collation of global leaders within the United Nations recognize that the United Nations with its current representative structure does not embody the concerns of the entire global community; therefore, is not seen as a credible global organization. The leading body of the UN, the Security Counsel, has failed to present its self as acting in favor of the entire global community and not only those who form the Counsel. This lack of trust towards the supreme ruling body of the UN greatly hinders the organizations ability to create universal norms of which nations can agree. The authority of certain dominant nations within the UN and their lack of obedience to some international law reduce the legitimacy of the UN’s promotion of norms.

The formation of the United Nations, as a universal organization has, been diluted due to the United Nation’s financial reliance on wealthy Western countries. The weakening of the organization is also attributed to its fundamental formation. The structure of the UN as a body, created to benefit states, does not contain the power to punish those who break international law. The General Assembly of the UN, which is its most representative body does not hold the power to create and implement universal norms; consequently, the universal norms presented by the UN is not essentially representative of the entire global community. The United Nations, with its historical and financial connections to Western countries, is not globally perceived as an International Organization that possesses trust and creditability to initiate or enforce universal norms and standards.

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The United Nations, acting as a universal collective body, is often criticized about its influence by American politics, even from its origin. The idea of the United Nations initially began with significant American influence during the Cold War by a meeting between US President FD Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Soon after this meeting, America joined World War II in December 1941, and the title “United Nations” was adopted on January 1st 1942. Due to this immediate association with such a globally dominant country, the United Nations has been rarely seen as separate. Through times of global discussion and disagreement, the UN’s trust and creditability has constantly been associated with American control and fails to be seen as a neutral organization. The United Nations Security Counsel was established in 1942, when Britain, America, Soviet Russia and China became referred to, as the “Big Four,” symbolizing their power and significance in the formation of the UN. As the importance of the United Nations grew, so did the power of the “Big Four” and more specifically, the power of American pressure. As a result of America’s influential position in the United Nations, other nations inevitably view UN’s actions as those coupled with American influence. The UN, as an international organization, in theory is representative of the global world. However, the voting structure and division of committees within the UN clearly allows certain nations to dominate decisions made on behalf of the global community.

The lack of trust and legitimacy within the UN is attributed to both American dominance and the unequal voting structure of the organization. In the main representative body of the UN, the General Assembly, every recognized state is represented as a member and has one vote. As a body, the General Assembly can make recommendations to promote peace, development, and international economic cooperation, but the five permanent members of the Security Council has the power to veto any proposal presented by the General Assembly. The power of the Security Counsel clearly reduces the importance of the UN’s universality. There has been great controversy over the veto power of the Security Counsel, but the states that hold the power to change the veto, are those who possess it. As shown, the trust and credibility of the UN can never be disassociated from those who possess the most power within the organization, the members of the Security Counsel. The UN’s reliance on the financial contributions of certain states weakens its ability to enforce controversial international proposals.

States’ ability to control decisions of the UN by using their financial power significantly demises the legitimacy of the United Nations. America for example currently has the largest financial contribution to the UN; this power has been used to shape the agenda of the United Nations. Goldstein explains that, “As Third World states also used the UN as a forum to criticize rich countries in general and the United States in particular. By the 1980’s, the US government showed its displeasure with this trend by withholding US dues to the UN and by withdrawing from one UN agency, UNESCO (Goldstein p. 269).” If states are allowed to remove themselves from UN agencies and not pay their dues; what power does the UN as a body actually hold? America’s significant financial contributions have become a source of leverage for the US to control UN actions. The US has on several occasions hindered peacekeeping operations by withholding dues that would pay for troops. In 1995-1997, the UN reduced the amount of troops from 78,000 to 19,000 and carried out reductions in other UN programs due to the loss of US financial support. (Goldstein p.271)

Without the support of a legitimized judicial structure within the United Nations, the organization unable to effectively promote and enforce universal standards. As Goldstein explains, “The UN does not exist because it has power to force its will on the world’s states; it exists because states have created it to serve their needs (Goldstein p.266),” the UN is only as strong as the states allow it to be. There are no binding factors to UN agreements made between states allowing them to ignore decisions made by the UN. In The Global People’s Forum Programme of Action, nations address the fact that some states are not held responsible for the contributions and changes they declare to make; therefore, limiting the ability of delegates to promote sustainable development. States that heavily depend on trade with economically powerful nations are forced to abide by UN norms due to their dependence of the global market. The implementation of trade sanctions and the reduction of UN funding are used against weak countries as leverage to enforce international law, but powerful nations who do not rely on UN aid are not forced to abide by UN law. In 13.3 of the Global Peoples Forum Programme, the UN and financial influential members of the Security Counsel are directly addressed. The programme states, “The United Nations and other intergovernmental agencies should be transformed into accountable and transparent bodies. Therefore, the veto power of the UN Security Counsel should be abolished” (Global Peoples Forum p. 42)

Overall, the United Nations, as a creditable international organization, has lost its ability to influence the international community due to financial and historical influence by dominant Western Nations. The formation the United Nations governing body also adds to its loss of trust and legitimacy. The most representative body of the United Nation, the General Assembly, has the least power within the organization. The Assemblies main function is to propose ideas to the Security Counsel, which is made up of only five permanent members and ten rotating members. The voices of the global leaders are limited to the Assembly, but the Security Counsel has the power to veto any decision made by the General Asssembly. By granting the Security Counsel this power, the UN’s ability to create and enforce international law will depend on the perception of the dominant leaders within the Security Counsel. The United Nations perception by many global leaders is skewed by its association with Western Nations and its difficulty implementing international law.

Works Cited