The UN at 80: A Critical Crossroads at a Time of Global Crisis

TaiwanPlus News

Oct. 24 marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Born from the ashes of World War II, the global body’s future now hangs in the balance as it navigates wars, governance issues and a funding crisis.

Transcript

00:00The world's largest international organization is turning 80.

00:04Founded in 1945, at the end of World War II,

00:07the United Nations' stated mission was to ensure global peace and security.

00:12Since then, it has overseen peace-given missions,

00:15delivered humanitarian aid, and mediated conflicts worldwide.

00:19But the world the UN was created to serve has changed dramatically.

00:24It now faces complex challenges from the Russian-Ukraine war.

00:28None of this would have happened if Putin had not started this full-scale aggression, full-scale war.

00:38As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized,

00:41from the very beginning, Russia has been and remains open to negotiations

00:45to address the root causes of the conflict.

00:48To the devastating conflict in Gaza.

00:50No, we are not part of a cease-fire monitoring mechanism.

01:00Our focus in Gaza currently is on humanitarian assistance.

01:05These conflicts have tested the UN's role in global peace governance

01:10and raised doubts about how much it can really do.

01:13Uncertainty deaths pushed countries to look after their own interests

01:17by striking deals outside the UN and looking for quick workarounds.

01:22If we get this contagion effect where countries follow each other

01:27outside of the United Nations and create ad hoc processes where they're going to agree,

01:33then we've really sort of taken apart the international community

01:39that we developed and established in 1945.

01:43The organization is also facing a founding crisis

01:46that's making it harder to operate at full capacity.

01:49That's due to the way it gets money to operate.

01:52So the United Nations entirely depends on its functioning on its member states.

01:57So states have to essentially give, contribute a part of their GDP to the United Nations.

02:06This is what they've committed to doing and this is what is expected of them every year.

02:12But its biggest contributor, the U.S., has cut founding on the President Donald Trump,

02:17who has called the UN ineffective and criticized its stance on immigration.

02:22What is the purpose of the United Nations?

02:25The UN has such tremendous potential.

02:28I've always said it.

02:29It has such tremendous, tremendous potential.

02:33But it's not even coming close to living up to that potential.

02:37The U.S. now owes over $2.8 billion in unpaid contributions.

02:43And with budget cuts looming,

02:45the UN is already planning to reduce its peacekeeping force by 25%.

02:49The UN's problems don't stop there.

02:53Demands to address long-standing power imbalances within the organization

02:57are another source of pressure.

02:59Top-level decision-making, including at the Security Council,

03:03is dominated by five major powers, the U.S., U.K., France, China and Russia.

03:10This has prompted smaller, less powerful countries to speak out.

03:15A comprehensive reform is needed in the United Nations, especially in the Security Council.

03:21In fact, the world is bigger than five.

03:26We need to democratize the decision-making procedure at the UN.

03:31Calls for reforms include those around Taiwan's role in the UN.

03:36The country has been excluded from all UN buddies that require recognized statehood since 1971.

03:43That year, the seat for China changed hands from the Republic of China,

03:47Taiwan's official name, to the People's Republic of China.

03:50But over the past three decades, a movement has grown to bring Taiwan back into the fold.

03:56It includes everything from measures of support from diplomatic allies

04:00to rallies held at the UN General Assembly each year.

04:03Amid these pressures, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called reform crucial

04:13and launched an initiative to modernize the organization.

04:17But while there is hope that the UN's role in maintaining world order can endure,

04:22the road to meaningful change could be long and difficult.

04:26Patrick Chen and I Chi for Taiwan Plus.

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