Can the war in Ukraine destroy the United Nations? “The situation is critical.”

NEW YORK/OSLO (Aftenposten): Norway’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Jol, acknowledges that there is a tight grip on the Security Council at the moment, but rejects the United Nations being a deep crisis.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the UN Security Council has been paralyzed.

All attempts to pass resolutions critical of Russia or put pressure on Vladimir Putin were effectively prevented. The veto allows the Russians to block any proposal they do not like.

Meanwhile, Russia has used the meetings for what UN diplomats in the back room refer to as “pure propaganda shows.” Among other things, the country has published unsubstantiated allegations that Ukraine is developing biological weapons with the support of the United States.

In this way, the Russians exposed to the whole world the weaknesses of the UN system.

Victim of the war

“The United Nations is yet another casualty of the war in Ukraine,” Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group wrote in an article. In Foreign Affairs magazine.

The UN expert says that “the situation is critical” and that the organization may never stand on its own two feet.

The threat to the United Nations is that an invasion of Ukraine will raise the mood to the point that cooperation in other areas is also impossible.

Guan notes that cooperation between the United States, China and Russia has been difficult even before Ukraine, and that it has crippled the ability of the Security Council to act.

– Last year, Beijing and Moscow emphasized that the UN response to the coup in Myanmar and the war in Ethiopia was nothing more than troubling statements, Guan wrote.

Zelensky is not satisfied

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also complained that the United Nations appears toothless.

Neither the United Nations nor the United Nations Security Council has succeeded. We need fixes, he said on Wednesday.

Zelensky wants international organizations that “can really stop invasions” before they happen.

Norway’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mona Juul, acknowledges that the Security Council is in a “very special situation”.

– She said that one of the veto powers in the Security Council attacked a neighboring country and basically violated international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

Norway has been elected as a member of the Security Council for two years, and at the conference table in New York, Goole takes a seat next to Russia.

There is something unworthy about abusing this platform to generate propaganda that is clearly not based on facts, she tells Aftenposten.

Meaningful words

Gul does not agree that the entire United Nations is in an existential crisis. She notes that the peacekeeping forces of the organization are present in a number of conflict areas in the world, and that the member states of the Security Council have so far shown that they can agree on decisions that do not directly concern Ukraine. Recently, the Security Council decided, among other things, to renew the mandate of the United Nations in Afghanistan.

Gul also points out that the Security Council decided to invite the General Assembly of the United Nations to hold an extraordinary meeting on the crisis earlier this month. Russia cannot veto this type of procedural issue.

In the General Assembly, 141 countries voted in favor of a resolution strongly condemning Russia. Only five countries voted against it, while 35 countries abstained.

Although the decision is symbolic first and foremost, it has value, the ambassador believes. The same applies to Russia’s verbal condemnations in the Security Council and demands for genuine negotiations rather than war.

– The words of course mean something. No country in the world wants to face widespread condemnation. We see that Russia has a very strong need to try to justify what it is doing. Being isolated in this way is not a comfortable situation to live in.

You must have realistic expectations

Norwegian researchers have also warned against disqualifying the United Nations and the Security Council – despite the institutions’ weaknesses.

– I think many have very high expectations of what the Security Council can achieve, says senior researcher Nils Nagelhaus Chia at the Norwegian Institute for Foreign Policy (NOBI).

– It’s a meeting place, great powers unite. If we compare that to the predecessor of the United Nations, Folke Vorbondette, we see that the great powers did not have the same interest in what was going on there, he says.

Director Iver B. Neumann at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute agrees.

– There is a reason for the United Nations to survive, he says.

Neumann says the United Nations will not function at all if it does not reflect the world’s power relations. Some countries are simply more important than others.

On stage and in the back room

Defenders of the United Nations system assert that one should not judge the Organization solely by what happens in the public hall and in the Security Council.

Shea is an anthropologist who has done field work at the Security Council. He says it would be a mistake to see what is happening on the big horseshoe shaped meeting table.

– Next to the large hall, there is a small meeting room, which can accommodate only ambassadors. Sometimes they pull over there to talk. From there he does not leak what is said and does not keep a record according to his words.

While open meetings may seem like theater, in the back room and in the corridors one can hope that both sides will try to find compromises.

Repair is almost impossible

For nearly 80 years, the United Nations has debated changes to the system, but as soon as someone suggests doing something about the veto, the veto is rescinded.

This is one of the UN’s biggest problems, Neumann says. After World War II, the great victors gave themselves a veto.

– Today it seems pointless for France, and not the European Union, to sit in the Security Council with a veto. He says Britain should swap places with India.

UN Ambassador Jol emphasized that Norway is a driving force in the ongoing process of Security Council reform.

What happened in connection with the war in Ukraine is just another strong evidence that we need reforms, says Gul, and indicates, among other things, that countries in Africa deserve stronger representation.

However, UN expert Joanne has little confidence that the necessary changes will come.

He wrote: “Instead of pushing for radical reforms, the war in Ukraine is likely to accelerate the already persistent deterioration of the UN’s role internationally with regard to peace and security.”

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