The United Nations in the Balance

Going beyond unimaginative calls for UN Security Council reform and demands for defunding and “detoothing” the UN entirely, veteran diplomat, Jassim Buallay, offers a practical road map for the modernization of the UN System and improvement of its crisis response. Since its inception, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations System has undertaken both the routine work of global affairs, including legal, political, economic, social, cultural, and judicial work, and the exceptional work of crisis management, including responding to territorial disputes, civil conflicts, famine, natural disasters, global health pandemics, and much more. Increasingly, the crisis response capacity of the United Nations System has been exposed as woefully inadequate, hindered by structural redundancies, bureaucratic inefficiencies, budgetary profligacies, and lack of adequate accountability mechanisms. Drawing upon the extensive knowledge and personal experience of the author working with the United Nations, both from within as an international civil servant and later as a diplomatic representative of his country to the System, Jassim Buallay delves into how UN institutions are organized, mandated, funded, staffed, and managed. Through extensive examination of the history and processes of the United Nations, Buallay explores a middle path for UN reform which emphasizes efficiency and accountability and calls upon all member states to renew their commitment to the UN as the best hope for world peace and sustainable social and economic development.