The United Nations was formed after the Second World War with the sole aim of creating peace in the entire world. However, some critics argue that the agency should be disbanded because it has grown into an agent that accommodates, and empowers, all kinds of dictators in the non-western world. The US scholars and politicians have, however, differed about whether to quit its membership or remain a member. The US is currently the world super-power; however, this power often comes with several obligations (Shrivastava, Shrivastava, and Ramasamy, 2018). This kind of power and leaders obligations that the US has put it at the same level as the UN and through that both US and UN have tried building an alliance through diplomacy over the years. This has resulted in an exchange of services such as military powers. However, the critics have accused US of having interfered with UN over the years as they argue that persuasive leadership that UN is expected to have should ensure the organization recognizes all member states whether small or big. One of the key organs, the Security Council organ, has been called out for having been mischievous as the US is spotted to be interfering with the organ (Shrivastava, Shrivastava, and Ramasamy, 2018). Nonetheless, the US should understand that regardless of its powers and dominance, each UN member state should be respected and their views on specific issues valued as well.
Functions of UN
UN was established after WWII mainly to create peace and prevent any further conflicts in the entire world (Schwartzberg, 2013). In the beginning, the UN aimed at moderating disputes between countries across the world and also aimed at protecting human beings’ fundamental rights like freedoms, right to education, right to clean food and water, etc. worldwide. Moreover, the UN provides a platform for all countries across the world to freely discuss and resolve conflicts and other issues they face diplomatically. In this case, each member state is given the opportunity to select representatives to represent them at the UN assembly of states (Schwartzberg, 2013). This means that each member state is given a seat at the UN General Assembly; however, UN has been spotted for having been unfairly disregarding some member state representatives, especially from small countries at the expense of bigger and powerful countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, etc. thus triggering a debate on whether the US should quit the organization due to its undue influence over the organization’s matters. But some experts argue that the US has been instrumental for the UN and quitting by the US would significantly jeopardize the entire functions of the organization.
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Should the US Relinquish its United Nation’s Membership?
US withdrawal from the UN has attracted heightened debate, even in the US Congress as the Republicans think the country should relinquish its United Nation’s membership ( Stamatopoulou, 2018) . As I noted earlier, the UN was formed after WWII as a means to try restoring peace among countries worldwide. To begin, the UN is headquartered in the US, New York. However, US currently only comprises of 22% of the entire UN functional budget, and due to that, the Republicans believe this was well intended to have been undermined by the globalist objectives that are contrary to US core values ( Stamatopoulou, 2018) . Nonetheless, the bill referred to as the American Sovereignty Restoration Act introduced to the Congress in 2017 by Mike Rogers said it would pull out the US from the UN permanently. On the one hand, the supporters of this Bill argue that UN always pursues agendas that are contrary to the country’s core values. Therefore, US is justified to withdraw from UN completely. According to the supporters, US Contributes nearly 22% of the entire UN budget; however, the UN has continued promoting ideas that derail the US core functions. For example, UN most recently joined Palestine and unanimously ratified the resolution that condemning Israelites settlements at the Jerusalem region.
On the other hand, those who are opposed to US relinquishing its United Nation’s membership like President Trump argue that US might have such great opportunity of withdrawing from the UN in future; however, right now the whole world must get together through UN and fight address world concerns like terrorism, hunger, violence against women and children, and many others ( Thakur, 2016). Moreover, the opposers of this move have called on the United States of America to dwell on solving its problems and coming with the solutions for the issues that it is currently facing like issues to do with foreign policies instead of dwelling on the modalities of leaving UN ( Thakur, 2016) . Also, before US relinquishes its United Nation’s membership, the country should vehemently examine the cause of its problems, and if the UN is one of them, it would be a good idea to leave. However, since UN is not causing any problem for the country, it would be a waste of time to start such a debate ( Thakur, 2016) . One of the people who have been reported by the media to have changed tune on leaving the UN is President Trump. For example, during his first address to the UN after his election, he said, “UN most often solve several problems across the world, and US often does support such resolutions.” This statement indeed supports the fact that even President Trump has changed his tune and currently supporting retention of US in the UN.
Should UN be Disbanded?
The debate whether UN should be disbanded or not has also attracted two sides to the argument as some people support disbanded of UN while others oppose the idea ( United Nations, 2018) .
According to Pedersen (2015), UN should be disbanded because it has become a dysfunctional world system. Pedersen (2015) believes that UN is currently having broken record by sending highly trained soldiers to some of the most dangerous regions of the world, but warns them against firing even a shot thus putting their lives in danger. Secondly, Pedersen (2015) argues that UN is currently being run by leaders who are driven by selfishness and self-interests thus jeopardizing the entire function of the body. Moreover, such leaders only strive to keep the vulnerable or the weak to the extent that they can worship them while services being offered to them by the body are substandard.
On the other hand, Fridlund and Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2017) dismiss the motive of disbanding UN and argue that the organization has helped the whole world against vices like racism. According to Fridlund et al., (2017), the UN charter of human rights has also tremendously and commendably done a good job in stopping discrimination against some minority races which might have brought a lot of racism to people across the world. Moreover, the authors believe UN should not be disbanded because it has recently helped cease-fire in some countries like Sudan, Syria, and the Central African Republic, among others, where without the intervention of the organization, several people could have died.
References
Fridlund, E., & Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Londyn). (2017). History of wolves . London: Weidenfeld &Nicolson.
Pedersen, S. (2015). The guardians: The League of Nations and the crisis of empire .
Shrivastava, S. R., Shrivastava, P. S., & Ramasamy, J. (2018). Need for an Urgent Response to Counter the Risk of Famine and Malnutrition in the African Region: United Nations Children’s Fund. MAMC Journal of Medical Sciences , 4 (1), 61.
Schwartzberg, J. E. (2013). Transforming the United Nations system: Designs for a workable world .
Stamatopoulou, E. (2018). Women’s rights and the United Nations. In Women's Rights, Human Rights (pp. 36-48). Routledge.
Thakur, R. (2016). The United Nations, peace and security: from collective security to the responsibility to protect . Cambridge University Press.
United Nations. (2018). The essential UN .
