Richard Haass at Project Syndicate:
Five years ago, I wrote a commentary about the United Nations as it turned 75. The title, “The UN’s Unhappy Birthday,” said it all. The UN is now 80, but my critique back then remains all too valid today. The UN’s slide into near-irrelevance continues unabated.
The annual September gathering of world leaders in New York, which has just ended, is less important for what the UN does (which is little in the realm of preventing or ending wars) than for what it provides, namely a venue for all sorts of bilateral and multilateral meetings among the high-level visitors. Think of it as Davos for diplomats.
But the UN itself is a victim of chronic malaise, owing above all to the resurgence of great-power rivalry. The state of international affairs today is a far cry from what it was in 1990 when the world came together through the UN in the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
More here.
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