Role of the UNO in the Contemporary World - Essay Example

To start with, it is composed in such a manner that no country has a dominant position and all the decisions are made in full agreement. The inner structure of the organization now is “a forum for its 193 Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the other bodies and committees” (“UN at a Glance”). And so, the main functions of the organization are concentrated around protecting peace and security in the world by providing humanitarian assistance, public information and discussions, recommendations, and other measures to complete the leading tasks of the organization. In this context, the role of the Security Council is crucial. In particular, its body is composed of fifteen states (The Republic of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America as permanent states and ten non-permanent members) who should provide an affirmative vote for nine members; moreover, Security Council has a “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security” (“Charter of the United Nations” Ch. V). And so, the UN in general and Security Council, in particular, are created to keep the world protected and harmonious.

Nevertheless, during its existence, the UN had met numerous obstacles on its way. In particular, the current situation in Africa shows that significant humanitarian aid granted by Western countries does not solve the continent’s problems at the root. The inability to compromise with African leaders turns the UN assistance into the political weapon that is used by local leaders as the tool to blame others in the inner problems. Moreover, the inner structure of the Security Council causes problems in making all the decisions due to the necessity to provide an affirmative vote for all the permanent members. At first, in the bipolar system of the Cold War, the friendly atmosphere was impossible to be set in conditions of the struggle between permanent members (USA and USSR) who had blocked all the resolutions made by the UN. Furthermore, the problem situations in Serbia, Iraqi, and Syria showed that it is hard for the UN to make a united decision in the modern world. Nowadays, the current situation in Ukraine shows that Russia cannot negotiate with other permanent members and block all the decisions in this case. As a result, the UN as an organization cannot make its aims real.

To sum up, the United Nation with the help of its Security Council is aimed to build a peaceful and secure world to protect us from the chance of World War III occurrence. However, numerous challenges that the UN has been facing all these years show that the contemporary world is far from being united. And so, on the modern stage, the international system needs more strict rules to protect peace and security in the world.