IntroductionThe United Nations and Peace:
A Fair Assessment

One view of the world today sees chaos everywhere. Not since the end of the World War II have there been so many refugees, displaced people, and asylum seekers. Extremism and nationalism are on the rise. Terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram, have seized large territories, committed gross human rights violations, and triggered humanitarian crises. Atrocities, the deliberate starvation of civilians, and assaults on hospitals and shelters have become common. The suffering of women and children in failed states is unendurable. Diplomacy among different regions and cultures is on the defensive, undermined by spates of violence in the Middle East and Africa.

Another view is that, despite the problems highlighted in the news every day, the world as a whole is moving to a higher stage of civilization. All the big indicators of modern life — health, education, commerce, science, energy, shipping, communications, transportation, law, women’s rights — are expanding. Two billion people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been lifted out of dire poverty in the past two decades. A new global middle class is emerging. More people can claim their human rights than ever before. The major powers are not fighting one another as they did in the twentieth century.

Which is the real world? Both these views reflect reality. So how are we to make sense of such divergence and how can we build hope for an enduring peace?

In four decades in public life as a parliamentarian, ambassador, and civil society activist, I have been preoccupied with this question. I find myself repeatedly coming back to the United Nations, the only place where 193 nations come together to work out, in six languages, their global problems. The UN was started seventy years ago “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” How successful is it?

At one level, the UN’s record of accomplishments is astonishing. It delivers food to 90 million people in eighty countries, assists 38 million refugees, protects human rights through eighty treaties and declarations, deploys 120,000 personnel in sixteen peacekeeping missions, in addition to thirteen political and peacebuilding missions which are averting future genocides. The UN is responsible for aviation safety, detecting global warming, and rising literacy rates among the world’s poorest. It is charting the seas and space as the common property of humanity.

At another level, the UN is criticized for its failures — it hasn’t stopped the slaughter of innocent people in Syria and Iraq, and there are still millions of destitute people. Speeches without end are made at the green marble podium in the General Assembly and float off into the atmosphere. When international tensions mount, the big powers frequently bypass the very body they built to guarantee security.

In looking at the sprawling organization headquartered in New York, with branches in Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, and outposts in virtually every country, I have asked myself a basic question: Is the United Nations effective in building human security? The pillars of human security are arms control and disarmament, sustainable economic and social development, environmental protection, and the advancement of human rights. That is the agenda of peace. How successful is the United Nations in developing that agenda?

That is the question I set out to answer in this book. The answer is vital in trying to make sense of the conflicting trends on the world scene today. Can the twenty-first century be a time of peace, or are we mired in the muck of hatred? The United Nations is trying to lift up humanity, to show that over the horizon clearer waters are ahead. At its seventieth anniversary, it is time for the UN’s human security work to be fairly presented, not with a cheerleading hurrah, but with a level-headed assessment of how the organization affects the life of every person on the planet.