This essay gives the reasons for and against the effectiveness of the UN and a conclusion as to it's effectiveness based events and crisis' and how the UN responded and most importantly the result of the intervention of the UN.
The UN is an international organisation founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51
countries to maintaining international peace and security. It has 5 permanent member
states. The UN’s effectiveness is questionable with underlying tensions between countries
that bring fourth arguably its corruption as an organisation.
On one hand the UN is effective and this can be demonstrated to its response to global
crisis’ like Iran’s nuclear programme. Western countries have been concerned for a long
time that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons programme. Western countries have been
concerned for a long time that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons programme. The
Middle East has a reputation of instability; therefore, a nuclear-armed Iran could’ve become
a catalyst for further destabilisation of the Middle East which could have brought
detrimental consequences if the UN and its members hadn’t of acted. The UN created
methods to dilute Iran’s power specifically targeting its economy, these methods focused on
sanctions. The USA first applied sanctions to Iran in 1995 and the UN sanctions began in
2006 and included asset freezes. Sanctions were also placed on Iran’s crucial oil exports in
2012. The result of these sanctions and asset freezes meant Iran’s economy slowly
deteriorated as it was denied oil export revenue. Iran was forced to agree to end its nuclear
weapons programme in 2015 and in turn the sanctions were removed in 2016. The UN’s
mechanism of sanctions led to the downfall of Iran’s economic power and therefore was
unable to fund investments into activities into its nuclear programme and inevitably was
forced to stop.
Furthermore, arguably the UN is effective and this can be demonstrated by its response to
the global crisis of the Bosnian War between 1992-5. The Bosnian War resulted from the
post-Cold War break-up of Yugoslavia. It was a toxic mix of ethnic, religious and nationalist
divisions that involved genocide, mass rape and numerous other crimes. A NATO-led, UN
sanctioned naval blockade in the Adriatic was put in place. A UN resolution led to a NATO-
enforced no fly zone, led by US jets. Eventually, NATO air-strikes against the Bosnian Serbs
forced an end to the conflict and the NATO campaign was deemed crucial in the signing of
the 1995 Dayton Accord which ended the war. This case demonstrates the UN’s
effectiveness through its momentum of power that is empowered by its alliances like NATO.
In addition, the UN’s effectiveness can be demonstrated through its response to the global
crisis of the Haiti earthquake. The Haiti earthquake was a devastating 7.0 in magnitude and
destroyed 70% of buildings in the capital city, Port-au-Prince and created a humanitarian
disaster of huge proportions. In response, the UN led a huge relief operation. Within 6 days
the US Air Force restored air traffic control to Port-au-Prince’s airport to allow relief flights
in, aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and helicopter carrier USS Batan arrived to assist with the
rescues, food and water aid. This displays the UN’s effectiveness in responding quickly with
large quantities of help in desperate and complex situations like the magnitude of this
humanitarian crisis.
However, on the other hand the UN is arguably less effective than it appears. It can lack in
cohesive decision making which can be demonstrated in the Iraq issue. In March 2003, the
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