DJ Duk

January 03, 2005

U.N.

The United Nations. An international body created at the end of WWII to prevent such large-scale conflicts from occurring again. The U.N. was designed to allow nations to air their grievances in a public forum. To civilly meet and dispute points in an open discussion and receive the opinions of other nations. The other, presumably disinterested nations, could then mediate the dispute and enforce a (usually) peaceful solution. It was, and it remains, a very good idea. Somebody ought to be doing that, sadly it's no longer the U.N.

The United Nations is composed of a number of committees. Only two of them really matter. The Security Council controls the disposition of U.N. armed forces and the General Assembly essentially controls everything else. The Security Council has five permanent members and several other rotating openings. The General Assembly is one large body with one representative from each U.N. nation.

After the end of the cold war and the fall of the Soviet Union there was a significant push to increase the power of the U.N. Instead of a forum for discussion it became a prototype of world government. Gone are the days of reasonable dialog and mediation of disputes. These days the U.N. doesn't wait for nations to bring them a problem. It goes out looking for causes to fight whether any of the primary participants want assistance or not. In recent years the U.N. has begun to offer services to compete with local governments. The U.N. now has a criminal court and provides welfare services. It's even begun mentioning the idea of a world tax.

One of the major downsides to that is the corruption at the U.N. Most governments get corrupt over time. The U.N. already is corrupt. Part of the problem is the open door policy practiced in regard to new nations. Any third world dictator can get an embassy to the U.N. with an equal vote and rotating membership to the Security Council. Most commonly they try to use the U.N. as a way to make money. That likely makes the U.N. the world's largest contributor to dictatorship and terrorism if we could just get an open accounting of it.

Posted by DjDuk at January 3, 2005 11:44 AM