One reason for the international order’s collapse has been the inability, or impotence, of the United Nations Security Council to effectively intervene
If there’s one standout takeaway from 2024, the year that is passing by, it is that the international order is on the brink of collapse. And the world is adrift.
As the world watched, around 45,000 civilians were ruthlessly killed by the continuing Israeli assault in Gaza since October 2023, the war between Ukraine and Russia raged on, while Afghanistan women were made to “disappear” into a social black hole, courtesy the Taliban.
The one reason for the world order’s collapse has been the inability, or impotence, of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to effectively intervene and stop the killings in Gaza or figure out a solution to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Or, for that matter, to check the inhumane laws against women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
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UN’s impotency
Nearly eight decades since the formation of the United Nations, and despite demands for reform, the powerful Security Council is in the firm control of five nations – the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China – to guard their self-interests, rather than the stated intention to safeguard peace and basic rights of the world’s people.
The irony of ironies is that two of the major powers – Russia and the US – are involved in a mutual proxy war via Ukraine.
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When two of the UNSC nations are themselves fighting each other, who can bring about peace between them? Two others, the UK and France, too are involved in the war, on the side of Ukraine. And China is on the side of Russia.
Similarly, when Israel continues unfettered in its ruthless assault of Gaza backed in toto by the US, of what use is the Security Council?
The remaining 188 UN members have turned into mere clay horses unable to make any moves to rectify the situation.
Clay horses in UN
For at least two decades now, UN reform has been on the agenda with the main point being the expansion of the Security Council to reflect the current geopolitical realities.
Besides cursory meetings and lip service to reforms, the five veto-wielding permanent members have shown no real interest in reforms that were originally unveiled by the then Secretary-General Kofi Annan way back in 1997. Without ratification by the five permanent UNSC members, not a single line of reform can be implemented.
The involvement of the US and Russia in a war against each other (even if by proxy) is like a cricket or football umpire joining a team on the ground and playing the game as any player would. When required to take a decision, the player again dons the robe of an umpire to take a call. If this is absurd, that is exactly how the UNSC is functioning now.
UNSC has lost credibility
The consequence of this conflict of interest within the Security Council is that the apex world body has lost its credibility. Today, the UN commands almost zero respect, prestige and credibility in its eight-decade-old existence.
If the UN was meant to make up for the various lacunae of the predecessor League of Nations, that has not worked.
Unfortunately for the world, the inability of the UNSC to act on pressing issues is not a theoretical conclusion but one that affects the lives of millions around the world, as we are seeing in Gaza.
Afghanistan: Bad to worse
In Afghanistan, the situation has worsened considerably in 2024 since the return of the Taliban to power three years earlier. After appearing to come across as more liberal than its first stint in office, the Taliban has regressed to its former self. Women are facing the brunt of the Taliban’s repressive agenda.
The latest was the decision of the government in Kabul to pull out female students abruptly from the medical courses they were pursuing. In a list of restrictions unveiled a few months ago, the Taliban even forbade women’s voices from being heard in public places.
It is reportedly considered “awrah” (that which must be covered). These ridiculously incongruous medieval laws have gone unchallenged, despite rhetorical lament from around the world.
The return of Trump
The only body that could have, the UN, is caught up in its own internal wrangling to do anything worthwhile. Documents like the Charter on Human Rights have been reduced to a farcical piece of paper.
The key question is how the return of Donald Trump as US President will affect the world.
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Trump’s unpredictability makes it difficult to foresee the impact. If his first term as president is any indication, it is that Trump has scant respect for anything multilateral, existing agreements or for global bodies like the UN. Either they have to go by what Trump says or face the consequences.
Threatening India, too
Trump has already made it clear he has no time for organisations like NATO, the military alliance of the US-led Western allies since World War II. Terming his European friends as parasitic, Trump has repeatedly said he will not hesitate to walk out of NATO.
This is good news for Russian President Vladimir Putin but a Trump walkout can cause a schism between the US and Western Europe, throwing the world into another round of turmoil.
With less than a month for Trump to take over, he has already started threatening formations like BRICS with increased tariff. His supposed friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not prevented him from threatening India as well.
A dangerous 2025
A global trade war may well be in the offing with Trump at the helm. An already battered world struggling with the Ukraine war-induced recession and all its associated ills will have little option but to bear with him. No other nation or grouping, leave alone the UN, appears to have the strength or the will to take on Trump, except maybe for China – if pushed.
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As for Gaza, Trump (before he was re-elected president) advised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “finish the job”. Whether Trump meant what he said, and as president, if he plans to stick by it, that will determine the fate of the remaining Palestinians in Gaza, and the territory itself. If you were a Palestinian or in sync with their cause, it is time to get worried.
In conclusion, if 2024 saw the world order teetering, the coming year could witness its collapse.
