The Relations of the United States and the United Nations Essay

The Relations of the United States and the United Nations The history of the US’s relationship with the UN is complex, seeming to vacillate between warm cooperation and abject disdain as the national interests of the US and the rest of the world, and the short- and long-term interests of the US itself, align or oppose each other. The UN was originally the vision of US president Franklin Roosevelt and the product of US State Department planning and diplomacy. It was designed to forward the national interests of its strongest members, the P-5, to reflect and channel the geopolitical power structure rather than twist it into an unnatural and unsustainable hierarchy of weak nations trying to dominate strong. Because the Charter is based in a realist view of the world, during the Cold War, when the national interests of the two world powers diverged, the UN was paralyzed to deal with any of the world’s conflicts. When the Cold War ended it gave rise to the first war that should have been authorized by the Security Councilâ€⠀the Persian Gulf War from later 1990 to early 1991. Many hoped for a â€Å"new world order† after the success of the Gulf War, but the interests of the US and the rest of the world, primarily the rest of the members of the Security Council, soon divided again. Today, the world is still struggling to cope with the blow dealt to the UN by the US’s use of force in Iraq, including the US, which has not even begun to feel the long-term negative effects of its unilateralism. However, the war in Iraq could have been less detrimental to the UN and the US in particular, and by extension to the rest of the world, if the US had argued that it was acting to uphold resolution 1441 under the authorization of the Security Cou... ...Furthermore, by offering a little more of its power to the world, the US would appear to bind its hands and encourage cooperation in future operations. The US will not be the world’s strongest power forever, and it would be wise to invest some of its power today in strong norms and international laws that future countries, like China for example, would be bound to follow in the future. The UN is â€Å"a theatre of realpolitik where members (the powerful ones, in particular) pursue their own interests.† Over the past sixty years of its existence, it has remained the same picture of the world that it reflected in 1945, but the world has drifted away from this picture. For the UN to regain its effectiveness, especially after the war in Iraq, it must reform. The true test of President Roosevelt’s vision for global peace and security is whether change is possible today.