The UN Remains Essential Despite Growing Strain and Great-Power Defiance
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial. "The Guardian view on the future of the UN: more embattled, but more necessary, than ever | Editorial | The Guardian." September 23, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The Guardian argues that even though powerful countries like the US, Russia, and China are increasingly ignoring or undermining the United Nations, the organization is still vital—especially for smaller nations who rely on it to have a voice. The editorial says the UN shouldn't be judged by its failures but by the fact that a world without it would be even worse.
Conclusion
The United Nations, though increasingly embattled and undermined by major powers, remains more necessary than ever and must be defended.
Premises
- World leaders like Trump openly flout the UN's founding principles (e.g., threatening annihilation of Iran, endorsing conquest in Venezuela) while other major leaders (Putin, Xi, Modi, and African heads of state) snub the General Assembly entirely, showing eroding respect for the institution
- The world faces an authoritarian resurgence, rising conflict, and a deadlocked Security Council, conditions Guterres described as turning 'cracks into canyons'
- Even champions of multilateralism like Mark Carney are turning to alternative mechanisms rather than UN reform, and Trump tried to sideline the UN with his own 'Board of Peace' for Gaza
- Despite weak formal powers, the UN and its secretary general have served as a vital voice of conscience on AI risks, climate change, and humanitarian suffering, and kept the organization functioning despite the loss of US funding
- The UN remains an essential forum, especially for smaller countries to coordinate and campaign, yielding real achievements such as action on landmines and climate change
- The UN's value has never rested on utopian success but on necessity: it was born from the desperation of world wars, and a world without it would be far worse
Assumptions
- International cooperation and multilateral forums produce net positive outcomes even when major powers disregard or undermine them
- The absence of catastrophic global war since the UN's founding is at least partly attributable to the UN's existence
- Smaller nations' ability to coordinate through the UN meaningfully offsets the organization's failures to restrain powerful states
- Reform (e.g., of the Security Council) is possible and desirable, rather than the UN being structurally obsolete
- The current secretary general's diplomatic and moral leadership record, despite criticisms, is broadly a success rather than a failure