Role of the United Nations

In its forty years of existence, the UN has grown into several roles in the international community, hitherto left undone by the system of states. The UN must rely on soft power for those measures beyond its own capacity and thus is easily undermined. Nevertheless, the ideological underpinnings seem to be slowly strengthening the UN's reach as its standards for political, economical, environmental, and human right issues become more and more adopted throughout the world.

The UN plays several unique roles in the international community; the most important are facilitator, advisor, and actor. If you look at the existence of the UN in terms of political IR theory, it is really significant that it is able to fulfill these roles as much as it does. The international system is anarchic, meaning that there is no over-arching authoritative body. Prior to WWI, all major international conflicts were essentially solved through war. The three important roles of the UN are representative of its place in the international system – more between nation-states than above them.

Firstly, the UN is a forum for discussion. It facilitates dialogue between small countries, powerful countries, and non-state actors in a way that allows for the potential of non-violent settlements. This is something that no other nation-state has ever been able to accomplish, and is a very valuable asset to the international community. One of the four purposes listed on the UN's website is “to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights”. The UN's representative assemblies are a catalyst for creating multilateral agreements for these international problems before those issues come to a head, or within a quick enoug...

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...ential for UN peacekeeping. Everything that the UN does happens with the permission of nation-states. If the UN were to create a policy to extend their ability to force nation-states into a course of action, even if that course of action were protecting human rights or saving the environment, it would create alarm and harmful repercussions. The UN has taken 60 years to establish a reputation, and that reputation is its most powerful tool. The only concrete step I could see would be to encourage education about the UN, its processes, and its goals for the newest generations. Just as a nation-state can be conditioned to take on more and more global responsibilities, citizens everywhere could be educated to have a greater value for the peacekeeping work of the UN. In that way, the power of the UN to affect stability would increase, but it would be a slow change.