The world is burning: should the UN disappear for failing to maintain peace?

The war between Ukraine and Russia, the endless conflict in the Middle East, the
war in Sudan, and multiple hotbeds of tension that are struggling to find concrete
solutions are leading some to question the UN.

United Nations Building – iStockI @oliver de la haye – Getty Images

The United Nations mission is to maintain peace and security throughout the
world. Its role is based on the principle of collective security, which establishes a
system of solidarity between States to prevent or thwart any aggression or threat of
use of force against any of them.

The issue lies at the heart of growing international debate, as the United Nations
faces mounting criticism over its effectiveness in maintaining global peace and
security. Amid calls for reform and suggestions of establishing a countervailing
force, experts in international relations present diverging perspectives on the future
of the ailing organisation.

United Nations critical health

Criticism of the UN spans a wide spectrum. According to Professor Joseph Vincent
Ntuda Ebode, Director of the Center for Research on Political and Strategic Studies
at the University of Yaoundé II in Cameroon, the complaints against the UN are
ample evidence that the organization is suffering. “If people are complaining, it
means that the leadership at the top is raising the issue” he said. In a 2022 publication,
the Global Governance Forum argued that “the veto itself was perceived by many as undermining
the democratic legitimacy of the organisation” a recurring concern tied to the dominance of
the five permanent members of the Security Council. More pointed critics have come in the wake
of controversial international rulings.

In November 2024, following the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest
warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence
Minister Yoav Galant, British journalist Melanie Phillips wrote in the Jewish News
Syndicate: “The United Nations was created after World War II to bring the world
together to promote peace and justice. Yet most countries are not democracies and
do not uphold human rights. It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that the world body
does not uphold peace and justice but promotes the precise opposite.”

From within the academic community in Africa, concerns over representativeness
and ideological alignment are also taking shape. Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi,
Vice Rector of ICT University in Cameroon and former Director of the Institute of
International Relations of Cameroon (IRIC), argued that the UN has drifted away
from its original multilateral ethos. “I think the United Nations is less and less a
global organ in terms of its ideology,” he said. “It is more, and more a projection of
what the West and the Northern countries, including West and East. I do not think
that it is as democratic as it used to be in the 1960s, for instance.”
According to the international relations expert, “the United Nations has committed
a few serious mistakes which has discredited it vis-a-vis the African continent, for
instance, which it is paying for now in terms of lack of credibility.”

UN general assembly hall – Flickr – @Dano

Among these errors, the professor mentions the situation in the Democratic
Republic of Congo: “when you take the case of the Congo Democratic Republic,
the first United Nations peace mission in DRC was labelled and was sent in 1960.
If today, in 2025, we are still talking about the presence of the United Nations in
the same country, it means that something, somewhere, somehow is wrong,
clearly.”

Such enduring failures have placed the UN increasingly in the dock, not just in the
court of public opinion but also within diplomatic circles, where questions are now
being raised about its viability in a changing geopolitical landscape. As discussions
over institutional reform intensify, the path forward remains uncertain.

“The reform will be more appropriate”

Despite the widespread criticism, there is little consensus among global actors on
what should become of the United Nations. While some advocate for its
replacement or radical restructuring, others call for pragmatic reform aimed at
adapting the institution to contemporary global challenges. Among the latter is
Professor Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode, a geostrategist and Director of the Centre
for Research on Political and Strategic Studies (CREPS) at the University of
Yaoundé II in Cameroon. “For me, if there is an action to be taken, it may be the
reform. I think reform will be more appropriate,” said Professor Ntuda Ebode, who
specialises in international relations and strategic studies.

Professor Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode. Director of the Centre
for Research on Political and Strategic Studies (CREPS) – University of
Yaoundé II, Cameroon.

He argues that reform must begin at the top specifically, within the UN Security
Council, whose structure and powers have long been the subject of criticism. “The
main reform is at the level of the Council,” he said. “Once that is addressed, we
can move on to what I would consider secondary reforms.”

More concretely, Professor Ntuda Ebode suggests expanding permanent
membership and reconsidering the powers wielded by existing permanent
members. “The main reform is representational at the top level, where the key
decisions are made. Increasing the number of permanent members is one option.
Another is to reform the extent of the powers held by those members,” he
explained. “If the reform of the top management is accepted, then we can
generalise that process and examine specific provisions sector by sector” he
continued.

The reform proposal aligns with the will of current UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres. Speaking to reporters on March 12, 2025, at UN Headquarters in New
York, Mr. Guterres emphasized that the reforms aim to bring about improvements
in peace, development, and humanitarian assistance, while ensuring the judicious
and transparent use of public funds. “These efforts are not ends in themselves.
They are about better serving people whose very lives depend on us. They are
about hardworking taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do,”
Antonio Guterres said.

Already engaged in a program of reforms relating to the simplification of
procedures, the decentralization of decision-making, and the strengthening of
transparency since taking office in 2017, the UN Secretary-General indicated that
“It is essential that an organizational system as complex and crucial as the UN
submits itself to a rigorous and regular review in order to assess its ability to
effectively achieve its objectives.”

António Guterres. Secretary-General of the United Nations

Several other world leaders and politicians have called for UN reform. In 2023, for
example, while serving as UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly called for
Security Council reform at the opening of the Chatham House Conference in
London. “We want to see permanent African representation and membership
extended to India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan,” he said.

In the same vein, the Turkish president acknowledged the dysfunction and
ineffectiveness of the UN in fulfilling its founding mission during the
organization’s 79th General Assembly. Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that
international peace and security were too important to be left in the hands of “five
privileged countries” while reiterating that “the world is bigger than five.”
However, there is a growing ambition to dismantle the United Nations altogether
or to create a parallel body that would put pressure on it.

“Have alternative means to pressure United Nations”

In a context of redefining the new world order with the rise of the BRICS bloc (an
intergovernmental organization created by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South
Africa), several experts in the world of international relations see this as an
opportunity to put the UN to work.

Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi, vice-chancellor of ICT University in Cameroon,
has declared: “That is what Africans, Southern Americans, and Asians should do:
have alternative means to pressure the United Nations and make sure that wealth,
and comfort are generated alternatively by the centres we know today. That is all.”

“I think the BRICS are more and more powerful [now that] you have Saudi Arabia
now joining,” added the specialist in political science and international relations
Explaining his point of view, the former director of the Institute of International
Relations of Cameroon (IRIC) has declared:”You do not want to expect any
change from the Security Council.

Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi, Vice-chancellor of ICT University – Cameroon

The composition of the Security Council will
not change. Because it is not meant to be changed. What the kind of arrangement
of adding 10 more countries which are temporary is the only thing that we can
expect.” “I am saying that if I were sitting there, I would change absolutely
nothing. People are there to defend their own interests, no matter what people say,”
he added.

However, this argument is not supported in all geopolitical spheres. In an interview
given to the United Nations on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of
peacekeeping operations (2023), Bernard Miyet, former head of Peacekeeping
Operations and president of the French Association of the United Nations,
declared: “No country is able to propose an alternative to the United Nations, nor
to conceive of different values and principles acceptable to all, nor to bring
together all States within the same organization. The UN remains our future.”

Despite that, there are those who agree with Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi’s
opinion. “I propose that the starting point for the democratization of the
international system should not be the reform of the UN but the search for
innovative and effective ways to guarantee that social movements obtain available
means at the local, national and international level to defend and protect their
rights,” wrote Nicola Bullard, in the columns of Focus Global South, where he is a
senior member.

BRICS summit – 2024- Russia

Regarding the BRICS, which the professor mentions as an example, the idea of a
counterweight that can influence the balance of power is not isolated. In a point of
view published in 2014, Sylvie Matelly, research director at the Institute of
International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), responded to the question of whether
the BRICS can compete with Western international institutions and shake up the
balance of power on the global economic scene in these terms: “The BRICS never
manage to have weight in these institutions because they do not have sufficient
voting rights. Until now, they did not have the means to do so, but because of their
emerging status, and their growing weight in global GDP, they aspire to more
rights.”

As the UN turns 80 this year, the debate over whether it should disappear or not,
remains a current affair topic in political and diplomatic circles. This is taking
place in a context of geopolitical upheaval marked by the emergence of new power
blocs such as the BRICS.

However, if the reform option on the table of the international community
struggles to materialize or to bring all stakeholders into agreement, those proposing
the establishment of “alternative means” should succeed in offering humanity, an
instrument capable of ensuring international peace and security in the perspective
of a more just and balanced world. It could be a long-awaited offer to put out some
fires in a burning world.

By Yves Modeste Ngue