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Basic Course 5: Which Problems is the United Nations
Confronted with?
After
sketching out the tasks and
aims of the United Nations
in Basic Course 1, and after retracing the development
of the world organisation
in Basic Course 2, and following the description of
the instruments available for fulfilling the aims, namely the principal
organs
on the one hand, and the special
organs and specialist institutions
on the other in Basic Courses 3 and 4, Basic Course
5 provides a problem-oriented account: is the United Nations capable of living
up to what is expected of it? In what areas does it fail to live up to these
expectations?
Individual problems have already been addressed in
the various sequences in the basic courses: the description of the history
of the United Nations in Basic Course 2 has shown that grave crises have
occurred continually in fulfilling the central task of securing peace. It
has also been shown that although the United Nations has been the most
important forum for addressing the North-South Conflict since the 1960s,
progress in alleviating the disputes between the industrial and developing
nations has been moderate.
The frequently mentioned point of criticism linked
to the widely branching system of the United Nations concerning the
failure to coordinate activities and the resultant poor working efficiency
has surfaced at several times. As the largest subscription payer, the USA
has continually attempted to exercise pressure by not paying its
subscriptions, not least because of this, which draws our attention to a
further difficult problem of the United Nations: the notorious financial
scarcity. |
Contributions
to the Ordinary UN Budget (in
percent) |
|
|
1998 |
2000 |
|
USA |
25.00 |
25.00 |
|
Japan |
17.98 |
20.57 |
|
Germany |
9.63 |
9.86 |
|
France |
6.49 |
6.55 |
Italy |
5.39 |
5.44 |
Great
Britain |
5.08 |
5.09 |
Russia |
2.87 |
1.08 |
|
Canada |
2.83 |
2.73 |
Spain |
2.57 |
2.59 |
Netherlands |
1.62 |
1.63 |
Brazil |
1.51 |
1.47 |
Australia |
1.47 |
1.48 |
|
Sweden |
1.10 |
1.08 |
Belgium |
1.10 |
1.10 |
Other
nations |
15.36 |
14.33 |
|
In total, an enormous chasm opens up between the aims
and the principals of the UN
Charter
and political reality, as the pointed comparison by
Gareis and Varwick demonstrates in the following table. To burden the UNO with
the responsibility for these deficits alone would be missing the real point. The
United Nations is a classical international organisation, with a membership made
up of states. Like any international organisation, the United Nations is only as
strong as its members allow. The will towards multilateral problem-solving on
the part of its member states - and in particular the most powerful of them -
decides on the success or failure of its work.
This needs to be considered when a suitable image of
the United Nations is to be formed. Part of the criticism of the world
organisation is actually due to the supporting states. Another aspect needs to
be added here, which is also suited to relativising the exaggerated criticism,
namely that of the unrealistic expectations of the United Nations. Some critics
of the work of the organisation appear to assume falsely that the United nations
is a type of world government.
Aims
and Principals of the Charter |
Political
Reality |
|
Sovereign equality of all member states |
Strong division of power between states and regions |
|
Realisation of the obligations entered into in the
UN Charter |
Refusal to pay contributions or subscriptions
depending on national position of interest |
Commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes |
Omnipresent violence in the international system |
|
General ban on violence |
Practiced right of individual states to the
unilateral use of violence |
|
World peace and international security as the
collective duty of all member states |
Dominance of interest of the industrial states and
forgotten conflicts in developing countries |
|
Ban on interfering in the internal affairs of member
states |
Globalisation of fundamental problems forces the
erosion of national sovereignty |
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
302]
Following a short essay on the history of the world
organisation, Volger comes to the conclusion that, "If the United Nations
had and has problems in securing peace and providing solutions to other global
problems, this did and does not lie in the structure of the United Nations - it
has proven itself to be flexible and effective enough -, but in the disunity of
the member states and their lacking readiness to implement the appropriate
political and economic measures."
[taken from: Helmut Volger, Zur Geschichte der
Vereinten Nationen; in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 42/1995, Bundeszentrale
für politische Bildung Bonn, P. 12]
Despite this, - and this is a further problem with
which the United Nations has to contend - it also needs to be stated that the
world organisation has nearly quadrupled its membership and its range of duties
since its foundation without fundamental amendments to the
Charter
being made. As before, it reflects the
world-political (emergency) state at the end of the Second World War and appears
increasingly anachronistic
The UNO has moved "from being an organisation,
which should principally outlaw war as a means of politics ... to a global forum
where all fundamental world problems are discussed and brought some way towards
a solution. In international politics ... broad consensus exists on the United Nations being reformed, because structures and procedures no longer correspond
to the world political reality of the 21st Century. At the same time, it is
expected increasingly from the United Nations, that it fill the regulatory gap
in the globalised world, and this contradiction between the real opportunities
and the high expectations creates a climate of excessive pressure and often
results in unfair evaluations of the important work of the United Nations."
[taken from: Johannes Varwick, Vereinte Nationen;
in: Wichard Woyke (Hg.), Handwörterbuch Internationale Politik, 8. Auflage,
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 404,
Bonn 2000, P.
496]
More sections within the framework of Basic Course 5
Of course, it is not possible to go into detail on
all the problems and reforms addressed here. We want to limit ourselves to
comments on the following important aspects, all of which are linked closely to
one another:
 | FINANCES:
The United Nations' Financial Crisis
|
|
PEACE: The Crisis of
Securing Peace through the United Nations
|
| EFFICIENCY:
Problems with Coordination and Work Efficiency
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|
REFORMS: Fundamental
Reform Plans and the Problems Associated with their Implementation |
[Author: Ragnar Müller]
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