The United Nations and the International System

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Introduction

After the World War I, the focus of nations that were engaging in the war was to enhance international peace through the establishment of the League of Nations. Its primary goal was to prevent the emergence of another war by enhancing collective security through disarmament plans and/or settling probable international disagreements via arbitration and negotiations (Adsera & Boix 2002, p. 231).

The organisation was also handling other tasks such as steering labour conditions, addressing issues of human trafficking, trafficking of weaponry, enhancing international wellbeing, and protecting the civil liberties of the minorities. The League of Nations collapsed later in the mid 1940 when it failed to prevent the emergence of the Second World War. After the war, the United Nations replaced the League of Nations.

Later, several programmes and international organisations such as the WHO, the UN HABITAT, the UNHCR, the UNDP, and the UNICEF were developed (Taylor & Groom 2000, p. 3). These organisations together with the UN comprise the international system. These paper discuses how effective the United Nations has been in maintaining a functioning international system since its creation.

Before analysing this question, the paper first discusses the concept of international system followed by the functioning of the United Nations. This discussion will help in determining whether the United Nations plays any role in maintaining an effective international system.

The International System

An international system constitutes a collection of agencies, programmes, administrations, forums, and legal frameworks in which nations interact and work together. For instance, the World Bank and IMF form the apex of the world system of economic and financial politics and governance. An international system seeks to foster the existence of good international relations.

The term international relations means the collective interactions that exists between international communities. These communities include nations and individuals (Nau 2008, p.221). However, in the discussion of the role that the UN plays in international relations through the worldwide system, it is important to identify the differences between the international system and international society.

The notion of international society has its roots anchored in the perspectives of the international law and classical legal establishments. From this contextual basis, the international society involves communities that engage in the practice of the international law (Buzan 2004, p.328). A system constitutes several parts, which interact harmoniously.

Harmonious interaction implies that different components of the system depend on each other so that without strong covalent bonds, the different entities stand as lone entities. In contrast, besides being self-conscious, the society regulates itself (MacMillan & Hidemi 2006, p. 97). A system encompasses the fundamental idea of international relations since it can survive without necessarily the existence of an international society.

The converse is largely untrue. Cited by Buzan (2004, p.329), Bull (one of the English school authors) supports this assertion by adding that the rapid expansion of the 15^th century Europe led to the emergence of an international system prior to the birth of an international society.

The international system was born after bringing various isolated political communities and players close together to foster their regular interactions through the European power projections. In this sense, power is an important factor for binding the isolated components that constitute a system.

A system cannot exist without units, which international relations discourses refer to as states. The units provide opportunities for significant interactions to occur (Dunne, Kukri & Smith 2010, p. 8). Their arrangement and structure follow some common principles. The principle determines the order that is to be maintained between the units (independent political states or communities).

The integration between political communities, which operate independently, includes war, migration, state of diplomacy, trade, and even the movement of ideologies. The international society relates to the perceptions of the international order. In Bull’s context, order implies social life arrangements that are aimed at establishing and promoting specific values and goals.

The synonymy of international society and order introduces a vast number of possibilities of different stages of development in societies. In the extreme end, the society may constitute a collection of states that are meshed within a network of institutions and regimes that define their conducts.

In the lower end, societies may potentially comprise groups of people or political communities that are guided by common norms against key issues such as seizures or murdering emissaries.

Therefore, a discussion of the effectiveness of the United Nations in fostering the existence of an international system also involves consideration of the role of the UN in enhancing good international relations between international societies since an international system is a necessary premise for the existence of an international system.

The Functioning of the UN

The UN comprises 192 member states, which theoretically have equal voices in the organisation (Fasulo 2004, p. 45; Lowe 2008, p. 32). The organisation enacted the universal declaration of human rights in 1948. The pronouncement established the rights of all people in the world.

It formed the fundamentals of international human rights, which aim at enhancing the effectiveness of the international system in achieving its mandates (Brown 2009, p.48). Recently, it enacted the millennium development goals with the main intention of putting in place mechanisms of poverty eradication and enhancing equality by 2015.

How effective are the millennium development goals in the creation of an effective international system? Have they been realised through the UN system? The basic dimensions and institutional processes for the international system shape the activities and the functioning of the UN (Young 1998, p.902).

The UN constitutes an important player in the international system. It has the capability to influence its own operational environment. Indeed, as Young (1998, p.902) confirms, ‘throughout the history of the United Nations, the impact of the system’s environment on the organisation has far surpassed the impact of the organisation on the system’.

Instead of the environment, which constitutes the member states that influence the UN, it influences the conduct of the environment where some member states are greatly or less affected by it. This situation creates inequalities in the environment. This observation implies that it functions as a major player in the world of politics (Weiss, Forsythe & Coate 2004, p. 18).

This proposition forms a basis of confusion and criticism from different scholars. For example, political realists such as Roger and Zaidi (2008, p.47) and Weiss and Daws (2007, p. 56) maintain that the UN does not play any active role in the world politics, but only functions to reflect its composition of the member states.

However, the next section opposes this proposition. It maintains that the UN actively engages in the shaping of global economic and social politics.

Analysis: Effectiveness of the UN in maintaining a functioning International System since its Creation

Achievements of the UN are important in fostering international understanding as encapsulated in the international relations theoretical paradigms, which suggest its capacity in the creation of an effective international system. However, the organisation faces some criticisms akin to its mode of operations.

The main question that global political analysts pose is whether the operations of the UN are based on its influence from nations that possess a high command as manifested through their military capability such as the US and nations that belong to the EU (Ruggie 1998, p. 14).

Indeed, the organisation did nothing to curtail the occurrence of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Gold (2004, p.103) asserts that one of the likely reasons for the failure of the UN to intervene in preventing the deaths of 800, 000 people is because the concern failed to align with the USA and France’s strategic interest. The two states are permanent players in the UN Security Council.

This claim is inappropriate in generalising the influence of powerful nations in the work of international organisations such as the UN in enhancing the existence of an effective international system. However, it sounds imperative to claim that power has effects on the operations of international organisations and their roles in enhancing the effectiveness of the international system in a bid to shape the current world order.

In terms of driving the global development agenda, international organisations such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) exist. The two organisations were established in 1944 to shape the financial and economic order. However, Blake (2009, p.263) claims that their current functions and modalities serve the interest of parties that advocate neoliberalism.

This claim suggests that the UN fails to create an effective international system that favours the contribution of all member states in terms of driving the global agenda. The main goal of establishing the WB was to loan money to the western nations that were involved in war in the effort to aid them in rebuilding their post-war torn nations.

However, in subsequent years, the WB shifted its attention of lending money to nations in the developing world. Mansfield, Milner, and Rosendorff (2002, p. 479) confirm that the agenda of IMF is to ‘regulate currency exchange rates to facilitate orderly international trade as a lender of last resort when a member country experiences balance of payment difficulties and/or is unable to borrow money from other sources’.

Both the WB and the IMF were established in such a manner that their operations would be neutral so that all member states could equally gain. Unfortunately, their practices serve the stakes of the western nations.

For instance, in both institutions, the powers of voting for different nations are not determined by the population sizes of the member states, which subvert the principle of equality as explored by the English school theory. In this extent, the UN, through the WB and IMF, fails to maintain an effectively functioning international system.

In the WB and IMF, voting powers are functions of political powers that nations reflect on global platforms and the amount of capital contributions. The G7 nations play the most significant roles in policy development. While each of the US, Japan, France, the Great Britain, and Germany has one director, 19 other directors are elected from about 150 member states.

The tradition of the appointment of the MD for the WB is essentially to fix an American figure while that of the IMF is to fix a European figure. In case of IMF, the G7 voting power is 46 percent (Gretchen 2012, p. 18). An effective international system must advocate political, economic, and social equity.

With the dominance of the most powerful nations in the management and setting of policies in the international organisations, the question that emerges is whether indeed international society, as suggested by the English school, can precisely explain the interaction of states in the current world order.

Many nations regard the exploration of weapons of mass destruction as a disguised attempt to ignore the international peace treaty that is presumed to constitute the general rules that bind the international societies.

The need to protect the territorial integrity of a given nation from foreign superpowers in the endeavour to defend statutory individualistic ideologies, which are opposed to the collective interests of the international community, triggers this attempt (Gretchen 2012, p.852). Nationalistic interests incredibly hike the chances of the initiation of war between two or more nations.

Classical realism declares such a war a regrettable, but unfortunate outcome in the discourse of international relations (Ross & Feng 2008, p. 67).

This situation is perhaps exemplified by the war between Iraq and Iran in which the two nations fought over supremacy of their nations based on their nationalistic interest to control the Gulf Region. Such individualistic interests undermine the interdependence of nations as a fundamental principle on which the international system discourse rests.

In the development of the millennium development goals, the UN aims at ensuring that all states that form the international system effectively engage in resolving common problems. In 2000, the UN member states ratified the millennium development goals (MDGs). The deadline for achieving the eight MDGs was set as 2015.

The eight goals included the suppression of hunger and food shortage, attainment of worldwide primary learning, women empowerment and endorsement of gender fairness, reduction of newborn death, improving motherly physical condition, dealing with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, enhancement of environmental sustainability, and developing global partnerships to foster collective development of nations (The United Nations 2014, p. 4).

With only one year remaining to the 2015 deadline, the United Nations reports that many of the goals have been met. However, others such as maternal health still lag behind, especially in the developing and low-income nations such as Indonesia and many African nations.

In 1990, about half of people who live in the developing nations earned less than US $1.25 every day. However, the United Nations (2014, p.4) reports a significant reduction of extreme poverty. By 2010, the number of people earning less than US $ 1.25 reduced by 22%, which is equivalent to 700 million people.

The MDG target was to reduce extreme poverty by half. Between 2011 and 2013, 173 million lesser people suffered chronic hunger compared to the period of 1990 and 1992 (The United Nations 2014, p.9). Indeed, the goal number one for MDGs was met in 2010.

Goal number 2 of enhancing access and completion of primary schooling for all children faces challenges since some children live in war-torn areas. Indeed, not even one nation has reached a 100% mark, although North Africa recorded 99% enrolment by 2012 (The United Nations 2014, p.16).

From the above assertions, it is also possible that even though the UN has played a central role in championing for collective development of all nations across the globe in the effort to eradicate ignorance and/or foster the development of an effective international system, challenges still remain.

For instance, although the millennium development goal number three was to eliminate disparities in the access of secondary and primary education by 2005, and at all educational levels by 2015, the United Nations (2014) reports high disparities in institutions of higher learning. Women are generally underrepresented in the labour markets and political participation.

However, a significant progress continues to be achieved (The United Nations 2014, p. 14). Secondly, the target for a reduction of infant mortality by more than two-thirds has not yet been achieved. However, in 2012, infant mortality reduced by more than half of the 1990 levels (The United Nations 2014, p. 15).

Apart from environmental sustainability, the world has made incredible efforts towards the achievement of the other MDGs. However, success in achieving the goals is not homogenous across all nations. Some nations are still struggling with problems that have been targeted by MDGs. For example, maternal health is now an issue of national focus in Indonesia.

Although the UN aims at enhancing equality and equity in access to basic requirements such as quality maternal health, such access remains ineffectively homogenous among different nations.

For instance, as revealed before, in terms of promoting the effectiveness of the international system, one of the millennium development goals (MDGs) is to have lower than 102 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in every nation across the globe by 2015. In 1991, Indonesia recorded 390 maternal deaths in every 100,000 live births, 228 deaths in 2007, and 220 deaths in 2010 (Belton, Myers & Ngana 2014, p.1).

By 2012, Indonesia had a risk of one maternal death in every 150 women, being the highest in Southeast Asia compared to one risk in every 4000 women in developed countries (Webster, 2012, p.1981). This finding suggests that the UN still suffers from its ability to enhance the development of an international system that has equity and equality in terms of healthcare accessibility.

The UN aims at maintaining an effective international system by safeguarding the interest of all member states by putting in place mechanisms of enhancing good international relationships. However, it fails to ensure equal distribution of power. From the perspectives of classical realism, power is an important tool for maintaining peace within a unit of political community.

In the context of an international system, a political community entails all nations that come together to form the UN. These nations ensure that potential threats across their borders are mitigated. In fact, this outcome is the goal of international relations, a fundamental concept that is explored by the UN. The goal is realised by putting in place sanctions to nations, which pose threats to other nations.

In ensuring that nations, which pose threats to the international peace, become ineffective in their plans, international organisations, including the World Bank limit or even totally cancel funding programmes that are aimed at boosting their economic development. Through such a strategy, international organisations, which form the international system whilst acting as pillars of the UN, limit the power of nations.

However, through such limitations, rivalry may emerge between nations. Interpretation of the interplay between international relations and conduct of international organisations this way explains the influence of the US and the EU nations in terms of controlling the production of weapons of mass destruction such as the case of North Korea.

This observation suggests that for international peace to prevail, the primary conduct of the UN has been to ensure that power remains within certain nations.

This situation emphasises the need for interpretation of the current world order from the perspectives of the international system in which all nations have disparity levels of opinions and power to influence the UN policies. As such, the paper holds that the United Nations has not been effective in maintaining a functioning international system since its creation.

Conclusion

The UN and its affiliated organisations establish rules and regulations that ensure equality, international peace, and free and fair interaction in trade among other concerns.

While this deliverables encompass a major stride towards maintaining an effective international system, the rules and guidelines for international organisations that constitute the international system are developed through unequal participation of all players in the system.

For instance, the G7 nations have a significant power in terms of making the UN policies. This situation reflects the role of power inequality as advanced by the theory of classical realism in the development of hegemonies. Inequalities dominate international political and economic interactions.

Hence, power struggles between states, as developed through international systems perspective and advanced by the classical theory of international relations, reveal that the world order is created by the most powerful nations through the UN.

Hence, the UN has been ineffective in maintaining an efficient international system due to its failure to achieve certain collective commitments among member states such as some aspects of the millennium development goals and inequality in power among member states.

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