3 Ways the United Nations Is Helping the World (and 2 Ways It Can ’t)

Former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold once remarked that the UN “was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell.” Put another (less poetic) way, the UN is better at helping the world cope with crises than at preventing or ending them. This week’s UN General Assembly has confirmed as much; here, five global challenges the UN can, and can’t solve: 1. North Korea Let’s begin with something the UN can do very little to resolve: the North Korea standoff. There are three reasons for that. First, the “carrot” the UN wields—the lifting of economic sanctions—holds little appeal for a regime that depends on isolation for political stability. Second, the principal players—the U.S., China, and South Korea—have their own, often conflicting concerns when it comes to dealing with the Kim regime. The UN can help the world arrive at a lowest common denominator solution, but only when that denominator exists. It doesn’t in this case, because these three countries can’t agree on an acceptable post-Kim outcome. Third, Kim Jong-un has a particular fear of being toppled by a U.S.-backed regime change—and that was before Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in front of the entire General Assembly this week. He believes that nuclear weapons are his only sure defense against that. He won’t negotiate them away, and there’s nothing the UN can...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized risk report Source Type: news