United Nations · 3:51pm Apr 7th, 2014
If you thought your own government was hard to understand, what happens when you combine every country's government?
I'll just leave this here. UN humor is hard to find.
If you're writing a story about Equestria meeting Earth, chances are that it might involve the UN. I thought I would give a laydown of how the United Nations is organized.
Overview:
After World War One, the League of Nations was founded. It failed to prevent World War Two. You had one job, LN! It didn't work, mostly because it lacked significant participation from several major powers, including the US, USSR, Germany, and Japan.
After World War Two, the United Nations was founded. It absorbed some of the old LN organizations and headquarters.
The UN Headquarters is in New York City. Other main offices are in Geneva, Switzerland; Nairobi, Kenya; and Vienna, Austria.
UN HQ, NYC
The UN has a General Assembly for deciding things; a Security Council for deciding things related peace and security (i.e. do we go to war?); the Secretariat for supporting the day-to-day operations; the Economic and Social Council; and the International Court of Justice. There's also the United Nations Trusteeship Council for helping territories become independent, but it's been inactive since 1994 when the last trustee territory (Palau) became a country. There are also many specialized agencies, which include but are not limited to: the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and my favorite, the Universal Postal Union.
For all the elected positions in the UN, the terms vary between two and nine years, so nobody can get constant power across everything. The head of the Secretariat, and pretty much the UN's leader, is the Secretary-General. This is currently Ban Ki-moon who has been in the position since 2007 and is on his second and final five-year term. There have been some Secretaries-General with really funny names, like U Thant and Dag Hammarskjöld.
Ban Ki-Moon (left)
The UN is funded based on countries' gross national income. As such, the United States pays the most, at 22%. The UN's total budget is a few billion per year, which is actually kind of small compared to the income of some of the top countries.
There are 193 members of the UN - nearly all of the world. Kosovo and Western Sahara are not members due to disputed sovereignty and not all UN members recognize them. The Cook Islands and Niue choose to be represented by New Zealand. The Vatican and Palestine are non-member observers.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) was a member before being replaced by the People's Republic of China (China-China) in 1971. The UN recognizes China as the real China. Taiwan is not a member because China would veto the vote in heartbeat. I'd explain it more, but then you'd have to hear me rant.
Security Council:
The United Nations Security Council is the one you hear about the most, and the one that has the most ability to mess up your personal life. They vote on threats to peace which usually includes military issues and also recommend the new Secretary-General to the General Assembly and recommend new states for admission as member states of the United Nations.
And they go by the acronym UNSC.
Source - robcakeran53's DeviantArt
There are fifteen members of the Security Council. The five permanent members are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The other ten are elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. Currently, they are: Argentina, Australia, Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Korea. The body's presidency rotates monthly between its members.
The permanent members have veto power, so no matter what anyone else votes, they can stop it. For example, the UN Security Council recently voted on whether Crimea's split from Ukraine was valid. The vote was 13-1 against (China abstained). Despite 13-1 voting, it didn't go through because Russia's veto canceled everything else out.
Vetoes used. As you can see, Russia used to do a whole lot, but the US has done more since 1965 (most in support of Israel). I'm not saying this is a good thing.
When it does work, the Security Council can create peacekeeping forces. They are currently deployed in 18 countries, the majority in Africa. Peacekeeping forces are provided by member nations. They use their own equipment and stuff, but with UN colors.
Blue helmets and white paint.
Criticism:
While the UN does a lot of stuff, it depends on nations to cooperate. The organization by itself can't really enforce things. For example, the biggest conflict the UN has been involved in was the Korean War. They were able to vote on entering the war because the USSR was boycotting the UN at the time so they weren't around to use their veto. Some point out that because the whole council didn't vote, that this wasn't legitimate. In addition, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was turned down by the UN but the US went anyway. The former President of France, Charles de Gaulle, was generally unimpressed by the UN, calling it le machin ("the thingamabob").
In 1975, a bloc comprising the USSR and Third World nations managed to pass a resolution declaring Zionism to be racism, which wasn't repealed until 1991.
Speaking of Zionism, the UN recognizes as a country Palestine, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but not Taiwan which has its own territory and government separate from China.
Like any large organization, corruption and inefficiency are there.
However, more than half of UN peacekeeping missions are successful. It was responsible for much of the world's decolonization - more than 80 colonies became independent since the UN's creation. More than a dozen agencies and individuals associated with the UN have won the Nobel Peace Prize. While the UN is unable to take significant action against human rights abuses without a Security Council resolution, it does substantial work in investigating and reporting abuses.
"The United Nations never fulfilled the hopes of its founders, but it accomplished a great deal nevertheless."
- Stanley Meisler
And hey, that's better than one government alone ever did, right?
archive.epica-awards.com/pages/results/2007/finalists/print/images/20_03052_001_UN_soldier.jpg
Huh.
I now feel marginally more wise. Thank you!
1988485 I thought about linking to this one, but it seemed too mean.
I thought I knew most of what there was to know about the UN.
I was wrong.
Also: Fuck you, Russia.
That was an interesting read. The UN is a word you often hear on the news and it is nice to read what it exactly does and is.
I'm a bad person because when I saw Ban-Ki Moon's name, I immediately thought he was a soul reaper from bleach, and started giggling like I had gone mad.
But yeah, though it may seem like the UN can do some good, they're terrible to work with, and because of all the ridiculous bureaucracy, they can seemingly never get anything accomplished. They would honestly work considerably more efficient if they were their own separate entity, comprised of individuals, voted for by their representative nations, where they would act independently of their nation. So say Russia goes to war with Ukraine, regardless of the Russian representative's loyalties to Russia, he would be free to vote that the UN's forces should intervene, and would be able to use the Russian forces put under the UN's control. Unfortunately, even though that was how the system was supposed to work, many nations are still able to keep their representatives on a tight leash, one way or another.
Yeah, the UN building in Vienna (I live there is indeed a sight to behold).
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Vienna_International_Centre.jpg
Im really looking forward to a day when the UN finally becomes the all famed World Gouvernment, however with all those veto powers in act I dont think its ever going to happen.
1988539 Maybe. Sometimes I can be callous.
Ahh, the UN. I wish Americans ragged on it less.
I wonder which, in the fullness of time, will be the first 'permanent' SC nation to lose that status (either through decline or, possibly worse, rising).
I wonder if bueraucratrinization is a human compulsion, with its purpose being to stop us doing anything rash and stupid (and instead just do paper-stupid things instead), basically creating a buffer zone of policies and regulations that props up status quo.
I wonder if a unified world gorvernment is an inevitability, what with us having set loose the powers of the telecomnicomnicon and such, and if that wouldn't be such a bad (or good) thing.
I wonder who thought blue hats was a fashionably acceptable idea.
I hadn't realized how often Russia used it's veto power like that. It's frustrating to see them get away with annexing Crimea, but I can understand why the one veto trump is necessary.
I was going to start with serious comments, then you posted the fourth pic.
My. God.
As for Taiwan, really, we were part of this issue. And Korea, as I see it, was more of a UN-approved US involvement. History is such an annoying topic.
And for vetoes, it's plain to see that the USSR vetoes were in the most tense parts of the Cold War, so it makes sense for them.
So, what does NATO do?
I'm learning about the UN right now in history class, so this was really helpful. Never was told how it actually operated.
1992483 NATO is made up of most of Europe, plus Canada and the US. It's basically a giant mutual defense agreement. Unlike the UN, NATO is primarily a military organization.
1993938 I know that, but what does it do? I barely hear anything about NATO nowadays...
1996195 NATO doesn't really do much of anything else. The only time the mutual defense part of the NATO treaty was ever invoked was to set up ISAF in Afghanistan.
1988692 I wish other people ragged on America less
2004369 That's the way the world rolls I'm afraid. People print bad news because bad news sells. It's a common source of low opinions on everything ever.
2009872 I would look up a cute pony pic to lighten the mood, but I'm on the comp one-handed because I'm eating pizza lol
2013529
images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/34600000/Cute-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-34614718-1000-918.png
Dose that satisfy?
2015151 It would, but the image won't load for me lol
2017434 What...? Damn, that's annoying. Still, you can see it if you follow the link. Last time I post a picture from just a random web site...
The UN was set up to give the nations of the world a forum to discuss their issues.
It was never intended to have any authority over the member nations, any more than the owner of a meeting-hall has over a group using it. Incredibly, it has instead grown into a pseudo-government of its own, with its own military.
That farce has gone on for much too long.
With the availability of instant worldwide communications, the UN is obsolete. It no longer has any valid purpose.