UN comes together as fundamental principles are under threat
The United Nations rarely achieves its higher goals. But it is difficult to remember that its fundamental principles of developing peaceful common solutions, supporting human rights and promoting international law were ever so threatened.
Once upon a time, the United Nations was a hotbed of wartime diplomacy. But those days are gone as Beijing and Moscow exercise their Security Council veto powers, hampering good offices efforts in places like Syria and Ukraine. After the invasion earlier this year, Russia turned council meetings into absurd theaters.
U.S. President Joe Biden will continue his candid speech Wednesday when he called on the world to stand up against Moscow’s “naked aggression,” national security adviser Jack Sullivan said. Biden warns that the world is being divided into a duel between tyrants and Democrats over money.
Of course, critics of the United States point out that it often seems to violate the principles of the United Nations itself, such as the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Former President Donald Trump, who upended U.S. diplomacy by defying Western allies and coddling tyrants, could undo Biden’s efforts to save international law if he returns to power.
This all explains the unusually bleak tone of the Secretary-General’s speech, who, while lamenting “no cooperation, no dialogue, and no collective problem-solving,” warns, “The reality is that we live in a dialogue logic that cooperation is the only way forward. “
