Strengths And Weaknesses Of The International System

Since its foundation in 1945, the United Nations was conceived as an instrument to face the most relevant global challenges emerging in the international system. Its structure and functioning was designed to curtail the negative effects of globalization, such as the spread of transnational threats, and to grant peace and security. Although for many time the UN system had proved to be successful in addressing a number of global issues, during the last years, it has revealed some important deficiencies and weaknesses. This has made the Member States call for a reform of the UN in terms of structure and powers.

The maintenance of peace and security has always been a priority to the UN Member States. To achieve this objective, the organization was provided with an executive organism, which would have held the exclusive power to deal with those issues: the Security Council. Its action to promote peace and security helped the international community to solve the worst crisis of the past century and to avert the horrors of another World War. This was the case during the ‘60s and ‘70s when the political commitment of the Security Council helped to prevent the escalation of the US-USSR conflict.

Those were also the years which saw a relevant enlargement of the membership in the UN, as the new born states, resulting from the decolonization process, submitted their admission request to join the international security system created in 1945. This showed that, although their interests