The big idea: The United Nations (UN) is the closest thing the world has to a place where almost every state meets to keep the peace and solve shared problems. It was set up in 1945 after World War II, and its rulebook is the UN Charter. It is the heart of global governance — the way the world cooperates when there is no world government.
- General Assembly (GA) — where all members meet and each has one vote; it debates and passes (non-binding) resolutions.
- Security Council (SC) — the most powerful body; it can order sanctions or the use of force. Five permanent members (the P5) each hold a veto.
- Secretariat — the UN's staff, led by the Secretary-General, who run its day-to-day work.
- Agencies & programmes — the WHO (health), UNHCR (refugees), UNDP (development) and more do the practical work.
One state, one vote — except the Security Council: In the General Assembly, a tiny state and a superpower each have one equal vote — but its resolutions are not legally binding. Real enforcement power sits in the Security Council, where the five permanent members can each veto any action. So the UN is democratic in the Assembly but great-power-controlled where it counts most.
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The UN does a huge amount of good — but it is only as strong as its members allow, and the veto can paralyse it. Judging its achievements and limitations is a core exam skill.
Case study — the power and the paralysis of the UN: The UN's peacekeepers have separated warring sides and protected civilians in many conflicts, and its agencies deliver vaccines, food and refugee aid at a scale no single state could — clear achievements. But when a conflict touches a great power's interest, that power can veto Security Council action, leaving the UN unable to act even against mass atrocities. So the UN can be decisive when the great powers agree and paralysed when they do not — its record is genuinely mixed.
The key point: The UN is the central body of global governance — a near-universal forum offering legitimacy, peacekeeping, aid and shared norms that no single state can. But it depends on its members and is limited by the veto, so it is powerful yet conditional — effective when great powers back it, weak when they block it.
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Is the UN a success or a failure? It is genuinely both — and the fairest verdict is usually 'a real achievement in need of reform'. Weigh it.
Link it up: The UN links to interdependence (shared problems push states to cooperate), sovereignty (it rests on sovereign members, and the veto guards great-power sovereignty), legitimacy (its unique authority comes from being near-universal) and power (the P5's veto is structural power).
How the UN comes up in Paper 1: A Paper 1 source might describe the UN acting — or being blocked. The key idea to bring: the UN is powerful when the great powers agree, and paralysed by the veto when they do not.
IB-style questionExplain[4 marks]
With reference to a source and one example you have studied, explain why the UN Security Council is sometimes unable to act.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Easy marks to lose: 1. Thinking the UN is a world government. It has no army and can't compel states.
2. Confusing the GA and SC. GA = all members, non-binding; SC = powerful, with the veto.
3. Saying the UN 'always' or 'never' works. Its record is mixed.
4. Forgetting the veto. It is the single biggest limit on UN action.