UN: Useless Nations?

As I mentioned last week, it is important for college students to know what is going on in the world. We are going to be the future leaders of our generation and that’s a big responsibility. Starting September 18, and running until the end of this week, is the 67th meeting of the UN General Assembly. It is something that everyone should know about and be interested in. At this meeting, and at the meeting of the UN Security Council, the fate of our world is literally decided. Delegates from 193 member nations are meeting to discuss issues from nuclear Iran to global sustainability. Here is a look at the major unresolved issues that have been discussed and disputed so far:


1. Nuclear Iran
On Day 2 of the General Assembly, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the assembled delegates criticizing the West for trying to intimidate his country. In his speech he stated “the current world order is discriminatory and based on injustice.” He stressed the point that his country’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. In his address, Barack Obama, President of the United States, fired back stating “the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” He also said “time is not unlimited” in reference to the time that the world has to solve the Iranian nuclear problem. As of yet, there has been no resolution to this conflict but these heated words show that this conflict will resolve itself soon, peacefully or otherwise.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, addressing the UN 67th General Assembly.

2. Syrian Solution?
Unfortunately, nope. There has been no resolution on how to deal with the crisis in Syria. Last month, after Kofi Annan stepped down as the joint UN-Arab League Envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi was chosen to fill the role. In his remarks at a press conference he stated that the interests of the Syrian people are the most important part of this conflict. “The Syrian people…will be our masters…consider their interests above and before everything else.” Obama, along with many other delegates pledged support for the Syrian people. Unfortunately, with the way the Security Council is organized, Russia can veto any resolution made about Syria as it has already done. Until Russia starts to care about the welfare of the Syrian people and not about its own political gains, the people of Syria will continue to suffer. Expect this issue to drag on for a while and not to be resolved by the United Nations.


3. Continuing the Millennium Development Goals
At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 8 goals were created ranging from eradicating world hunger to ensuring environmental sustainability. These goals were put into a plan that laid down a strategy for solving global problems by the year 2015. In three years this initiative will end and there is a push to keep it going. Also, more support is needed to keep the current initiative going at full steam. In an address to the assembly Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, pointed out the problem: “…official development assistance declined for the first time in many years.” Unlike the other 2 issues, expect this one to get solved or at least receive the attention it needs. Many nations have pledged support for this initiative and there are 3 more General Assemblies left before the end of 2015 to resolve this issue and renew the initiative.

The 8 Millennium Development Goals created in 2000.

Now of course the point of this article is not to belittle the accomplishments of the United Nations. Even though I made part of the title “Useless Nations” I respect the UN very much. They have made great strides towards a better world. I am simply trying to point out how challenging it is to solve the worlds problems. Hopefully in the future these and other problems will be resolved peacefully.