Is the United Nations still relevant?

Is the UN still relevant? I'll gather current perspectives on its role and challenges.

The United Nations is at an 80th anniversary crossroads - still widely seen as relevant, but increasingly constrained.

> As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, the question of the body’s relevance looms large.

There is no simple yes/no answer. The debate centers on two different measures of relevance: as a legitimate global forum, and as an effective actor that can solve problems.

Why It Is Still Considered Relevant

1. It remains the unique global meeting ground.

As Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The United Nations remains the essential, one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.”

Even critics note that its survival is significant. Former Singapore Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani argued the founders' "genius" was to give the big powers a veto, preventing it from dying like the League of Nations, and that it "will definitely survive" and "outlast us all." Political risk consultant Ian Bremmer, a close adviser to Guterres, insisted the United Nations remains relevant — “with no caveats.”

He argued: “But its legitimacy and its credibility in speaking for 8 billion people on this little planet of ours is unique."

And:

> "The important thing is that as long as the great powers decide not to leave the United Nations, every day that they stay is a vote of confidence in the U.N."

2. Public legitimacy remains positive.

Most publics in the 25-nation 2025 Pew Global Attitudes Survey hold net-positive views of the United Nations, and that perception makes the United Nations a still-useful venue for international contestation—and a tool for nations seeking international power and prestige.

Even if the United States is stepping back, China is stepping in, with 77% of Chinese citizens agreeing China should make decisions within the UN framework, suggesting the forum remains prized for power and prestige.

3. Operational scale no other body can match.

The UN system has expanded from peace and security to a "multi-headed octopus" with over 133,000 staff worldwide in 2023.

In 2024 alone:

> Together with partners, the UN coordinated a $50 billion appeal for the humanitarian needs of 198 million people. “In 2024, the United Nations helped to mobilize $25 billion of the $50 billion funding target, enabling life-saving humanitarian assistance to reach 116 million people in urgent need across 77 countries and territories.”

That included programs in the Horn of Africa, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and regions affected by natural disasters.

Its history includes 71 peacekeeping operations since 1948, including successes in Angola, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and specialized agencies widely praised for hunger, refugees, children, nuclear monitoring and telecommunications.

Diplomacy for peace remained core to its work in 2024, from engaging stakeholders in Syria under Security Council resolution 2254 to supporting de-escalation in Lebanon.

On climate, it is responsible for the COP system and the Paris Agreement formed in COP21 in 2016, and supported 170 countries in implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions. On technology, health and development, the 2024 Summit of the Future adopted the Pact for the Future, Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations as a blueprint to tackle 21st-century challenges, calling for stronger diplomacy, climate action and reforms to global governance including Security Council reform.

Why Its Relevance Is Questioned

1. Security Council paralysis.

> Its clout on the world stage is diminished... Its most powerful body, the Security Council, has been blocked from taking action to end the two major wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Analysts said the core cause of paralysis is the Security Council's structure: five permanent members hold veto power that routinely blocks action when their interests are involved.

Criticism centres on three issues: Security Council membership does not reflect today’s world; developing countries are underrepresented, and there are no permanent members from either Africa or Latin America; (2) five permanent members enjoy veto power. With Africa's 54 nations holding zero permanent seats while filling the Council's agenda, demands for overhaul are growing, including calls for two permanent seats for Africa with veto power.

Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned:

> “The Security Council’s ongoing failure to properly function constitutes the most egregious cause,” he said, highlighting the repeated use of veto by permanent members “to shield themselves, their allies and their proxies from accountability.”

> Without it, the UN risks lurching towards either collapse or irrelevance

Former US Ambassador John Bolton said “It’s probably in the worst shape it’s been in since it was founded”, blaming rising tensions dividing the P5 - Russia and China versus US, Britain and France.

2. Legitimacy and funding crisis.

> The most fundamental challenge to the relevance of the United Nations is intimately linked to perceptions of its legitimacy. For many, this has been irretrievably compromised.

That includes Russia violating Ukraine's sovereignty, China refusing to condemn it, and the US seen as hypocritical over Gaza and Qatar, eroding its central role to ascribe or deny legitimacy to the use of force.

Financially, it:

> has been radically diminished by the United States’ decision to delay critical budgetary support and put caps on its contributions to UN peacekeeping

with the result that the UN’s ability to tackle climate change, global health, humanitarian disasters and development is shrinking, and it is shrinking rapidly, worsened by US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and WHO. In 2024 it was also the deadliest year on record for UN staff with 373 aid workers killed.

Former Secretary-General Ban noted global conditions have worsened since 2016, marked by deepening confrontation among major powers and eroding multilateralism.

Bottom Line: Relevant But Must Evolve

Experts at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs frame the anniversary as a paradox: its institutional architecture remains anchored in the post-1945 settlement, yet the order it was designed to govern is increasingly contested.

Most assessments conclude the UN is still relevant as an irreplaceable forum and humanitarian operator, but increasingly irrelevant as an enforcer of peace and security without reform. As the UN's own reporting puts it: despite enormously trying times – indeed, precisely because of them – we can and must keep pushing.

Whether it remains relevant for the next 80 years likely depends on whether member states agree to adapt it - particularly Security Council reform, sustainable financing, and renewal of multilateral commitments like the Pact for the Future - or allow competing powers and smaller, regional orders to sideline it.