The Role of League of Nations and the United Nations - Essay Example

?Globalization League of Nations and the United Nations Inter organizations are one of the most important organizations in the world. All of them resemble each other in that they consist of several member states. The most significant among the interstate organizations are the United Nations and the League of Nations like the Arab league. Leagues of Nations are regional in that they consist of nations from a specific region. On the other hand, the United Nations is global since it consists of nations from all over the world. However, both of them perform almost the same task of promoting peaceful coexistence between different nations. Both the Leagues of Nations and the United Nations have been very significant in solving international disputes. Therefore, both this organization influences the international politics very greatly. A league of nations influences the international politics of the areas where it is found. A good example is the Arab League that influences the international politics of the Arab countries. Another example is the African Union that influences the international politics of the African countries. However, due to globalization, these organizations are greatly influenced by the United Nations. The United Nations influences the international politics across the world. This is because its membership consists of all the states of the world. Although the world powers play the most significant role in controlling and funding the United Nations, other member states also play a very significant role in the operation of the organizations. Since the time it was formulated more than a decade ago, United Nations has been able to ensure a peaceful coexistence between states. Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations and the United Nations Different international organizations have their own strengths that depend on their internal and external factors. The strengths of the League of Nations are different from the strengths of the United Nations. For the League of Nations, ordination of members is easy and effective. This is because most of these organizations have members from the same nations. This makes communication within members to be easier thus enabling them to coordinate much better when undertaking an activity together. Moreover, such organizations can settle conflicts within their member states much better. This is because they understand the political and economic states of their member states much better than the United Nations do. United Nations, on the other hand, has a large budget. This enables it to handle the complicated conflicts that might require use of a large amount of resources. Moreover, the decision makers in the United Nations are selected from across the world. This makes the organizational leadership of this organization to consist of countries that are less biased. However, the two organizations also have weaknesses. Like their strengths, the weaknesses of these organizations vary across them. One of the weaknesses of the League of Nations in that it does not consists of many members, thus, they have a very small budget. Moreover, this kind of organizations might not have a world superpower among them. As a result, they find themselves relying on either the United Nations or other regional organizations for support. The weakness of the United Nations is that its decisions are dominated by the world’s super powers. This makes them to look as if they are ruled by some few countries of the world. Another weakness of the United Nations is that it has bureaucratic procedures. This makes it to be very slow when it comes to reacting to crises between its member states. Relationship of Strengths of the United Nations and accomplishments and failure of its predecessor According to Kegley and Blanton (142), the United Nations Organization was formed in 1945 just after the World War II. This indicates that both World War I and World War II preceded it. World War II resulted in emergence of superpowers. The superpowers have been playing a very important role in the running of the United Nations. One of the reasons for this is that they have been the major decision makers in the organizations. Moreover, they are the one that have been contributing the largest amount for the budget of the organizations. The United States alone contributes more than 25 percent of the United Nations budget (Browne and Blanchfield 2). However, World War II failed to achieve a well-integrated and unified world. This is because it resulted to a battle of superiority among the nations that had unified because of the war. Accomplishments and failures of the Second World War have played a very great role in enabling the United Nations to be successful. Arms race has greatly contributed to the prevention of occurrence of World War III Arms race was the major characteristic of the cold war era. According to Hobson (43), arms race the attempt by the superpowers to gain major political benefits from a shift in the balance of power brought about by arms buildup. During this era, arms build-up in both the United States and the Soviet Union. This is because the two countries increased the percentage of their national budget used on the development of weapons. As a result, each of these two countries feared going to war with each other. This is because they both knew that war between them would greatly affect both nations in terms of economy and of loss of lives. Therefore, the two nations had to find ways of resolving disputes between them without going to war. Hence, arms race has contributed greatly to the prevention of World War III. Arms race was also characterized by a great competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. This is because each of these superpowers wanted to outwit each other to become the major superpower. The Soviet Union was always trying to outwit the United States. The United States, on the other hand, was attempting to keep up with the Soviet Union’s attempts to outwit it. This competition destroyed the relationship that these two nations had developed during the World War II. As a result, each of the two nations began supporting the enemies of each other. Due to this, each of these nations started to be cautious of going into war with any other country of the world. Therefore, arms race has contributed to the prevention of major world conflicts that might result to World War III. According to Hobson (43), arms race strategy was aimed at helping the nations to attain their offensive goals without going to war. The strategy happened during the cold war that was mainly a characteristic of the European nations. Such nations had encountered very great conflicts that had resulted to the World War I and World War II. Both these two world wars resulted in serious effects for the nations involved. As a result, most nations became afraid of using war to solve their conflicts due to the costs and consequences of war that they had experienced. Arms race strategy provided an alternative of solving conflicts between nations without use of army. Hence, it assisted in the prevention of occurrence of a World War III. Military power and technology has been evolving greatly in different parts of the world. The earliest development achieved in the military technology was the development of the gunpowder. This was seen as a very great achievement during the early civilization. However, with World War II, nuclear weapons emerged that was very much advanced compared to the previous military technology. During the era of arms race nuclear arsenal continued to grow and superpowers continues to support friends and subvert their enemies (Scott 8). As a result, war became more complicated compared to the way it was during the early time. This acted as a hindrance to the occurrence of a world war III. Cold war was only cold in the north but hot in the south During the cold war period, countries in the North did not fight actual wars with each other. Instead, they used to fight cold war that was fought in form of sanctions. However, during this same period, the Soviet Union was involved in a physical in the global south. This superpower was fighting Cuba during this particular time. In the war, the Soviets decided to employ their military strength by employing nuclear powers. Conflict between Cuba and the Soviet Union could have been solved by using a cold war. However, the Soviet Union decided to employ actual war instead of a cold war. This indicates that the cold war was only cold in the northern countries that fear the military strength of each other. In cold war, there should be no blood shed. During the cold war era, bloodshed activities were unacceptable in the northern countries. The little bloodshed that happened was followed by a collaborative effort of nations in an attempt to stop it. An example of such cases was the case of Kosovo where the European Union responded in attempt to stop the bloodshed. However, superpowers continued to fight in the Global South. A good example of the war that was fought by the superpowers in the Global South was the war of Vietnam. This war was between the United States and Vietnam and it resulted to a lot of bloodshed. Therefore, the cold war was only from the standpoint of the Global North. Any war and conflicts that happened in the North was supposed to be handled peacefully. Countries that decided to handle conflicts in another manner met very severe reactions of the United Nations and other Leagues of Nations. This is because these organizations had taken the mandate of sustaining and promoting peace in their respective jurisdiction. However, the war between the Soviet Union and Cuba in the Global South continued without being stopped by the United Nations. This was due to the role that the Soviet Union used to play in the United Nations. Moreover, the League of Nations did very little in trying to stop this war from continuing. This indicates that the cold war was only cold from the standpoint of the Global North. Actual war result to death, destructions, and other great social issues. Cold war was designed in order to prevent nations from going to war. This is because in any war occurring between nations, there are other alternatives that could be used rather than military actions. In the northern nation, this concept of alternatives to war was highly considered as a mean of resolving conflicts between nations. However, the United States decided to violate the principles of cold war during its war with Vietnam. This is because there were other actions that it could have taken instead of going to war. Therefore, the cold war was only cold in the Northern countries but very hot in the southern countries. Works Cited Browne, Marjorie Ann, and Luisa Blanchfield. United Nations Regular Budget Contributions: Members Compared, 1989-2008. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Services, 2010. Web. http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/19526.pdf. Hobson, Rolf. Imperialism at Sea: Naval Strategic Thought, the Ideology of Sea Power, and the Tirpitz Plan, 1875-1914. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. Print. Kegley, Charles W., and Shannon L. Blanton. World Politics: Trend and Transformation. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning Ltd, 2011. Print. Scott, Len. International History, 1945-1990. Web. http://www.pscj.appstate.edu/faculty/ehrhardt_files/coldwar.pdf. Read More