Is the United Nations still relevant?

Is the UN still relevant? I'll gather the latest evidence on its global impact and challenges to give you a balanced answer.

Is the United Nations still relevant as it marks its 80th anniversary in 2025? The answer is contested - most analysts and polls say yes, but with major qualifications.

Why many still say yes

1. It remains the primary global forum:
As the UN marks its 80th anniversary, the question of the body's relevance looms large. Despite that, its sheer popularity with world leaders is seen as a clear indicator of political relevance:

> its more than 190 member states, with only a few exceptions, are sending representatives from across the world to New York City for the 80th session of the high-level week of the UN General Assembly
> The vast majority are sending heads of state, presidents, or prime ministers

In September 2025, the President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, said if high-level week is any indication, the United Nations is still relevant, noting "Over the past week we heard from 189 Member States, including 83 Heads of State, 41 Heads of Government and 45 Ministers".

The view from the UK Parliament was summed up as: "Is the United Nations still relevant? Unhesitatingly, I say yes. Is it still fit for purpose? Reluctantly, I say, without reform, no."

2. Global public opinion remains positive:

> Most publics in the 25-nation 2025 Pew Global Attitudes Survey hold net-positive views of the United Nations

A Pew survey of 31,938 adults in 25 countries in September 2025 found that a median of 61 percent of adults had a favorable view of the world organization, while only 32 percent had an unfavorable one.

In the United States itself, even as the government steps back, 57 percent of Americans overall view the United Nations favorably.

That perception makes the United Nations a still-useful venue for international contestation—and a tool for nations seeking international power and prestige. With the United States stepping back, China is looking to step up and has steadily grown its influence within the UN agency system.

3. It still delivers on humanitarian, development and normative work:

Supporters point to operational work that no other body does at scale:

> Key achievements of the United Nations include peacekeeping missions that have helped stabilize conflict zones, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, efforts to eradicate diseases like smallpox, promoting sustainable development goals, and coordinating international humanitarian aid

The UN is also responsible for the COPs, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the Paris Agreement formed in COP21. Peacekeeping's achievements go far beyond keeping the peace - Blue helmets are protecting millions of displaced people and supporting delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid.

In a fractured world, proponents argue the UN is irreplaceable as the only universal body where "we gather to have hard conversations during challenging times".

Why relevance is increasingly questioned

1. Security Council paralysis:

The most common criticism is that the core security function is broken.

> The United Nations Security Council faces a deepening crisis of effectiveness and legitimacy. Designed in 1945, its anachronistic structure, centred around five permanent members with veto powers, is increasingly unable to address today's conflicts. In 2025, permanent members cast vetoes blocking action on Gaza and Ukraine

> In 2024, permanent members cast eight vetoes on seven draft resolutions, the highest number since 1986. In 2025, vetoes decreased to four – two US vetoes on Gaza and two Russian vetoes on Ukraine – but the Council's output continued to decline: it adopted 44 resolutions, the lowest number since 1991

The structure still reflects the world of 1945. The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France retain permanent membership and veto power. Critics note two of the main perpetrators of global threat, Russia and China, are still two of the permanent members. They regularly veto Security Council proposals.

India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the United Nations is "gridlocked" and has become largely irrelevant to decision-making on major crises, citing failures on Gulf, Ukraine, Africa and COVID.

Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned: "The Security Council's ongoing failure to properly function constitutes the most egregious cause," highlighting repeated use of veto by permanent members "to shield themselves, their allies and their proxies from accountability".

This leads to a legitimacy 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

With Russia violating Ukraine's sovereignty, China refusing to condemn it, and the US seen as providing unconditional support for Israel's actions in Gaza, great-power hypocrisy has "eroded the institution's relevance in its most central role, which is to ascribe or deny legitimacy to the use of force".

2. Financial and political retrenchment:

The UN's ability to act is shrinking rapidly due to funding cuts. In 2025, the Trump administration pulled back $1 billion in funding and told Congress it plans to revoke another $1 billion, withdrew from the World Health Organization, and in January 2025 pulled out of 31 UN entities.

Secretary-General António Guterres warned in March 2025 that the United Nations faces an unprecedented and imminent financial collapse following the formal withdrawal of the United States from dozens of UN agencies. The UN refugee agency UNHCR faces one of its worst-ever funding crises, facing a $5.789 billion funding gap after money fell 24% between 2024 and 2025.

This has led to questions not whether the UN should exist, but whether it can produce results.

3. Representation gap:

Since the UN was established, the number of member states has quadrupled and the global population has grown from 2.5 to 8 billion, but Africa's 54 countries account for roughly 25 per cent of UN membership but have no permanent representation. Nor do Latin America or India with over 1.4 billion people have permanent seats.

Outlook: Relevant but at a crossroads

Most experts conclude the UN is still relevant for humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, development, health, climate negotiations, and as a legitimizing forum where all states have a voice - but it is increasingly irrelevant for resolving major power conflicts without structural reform.

Reform proposals include expanding the Council to 25-26 members with African, Latin American and Asian permanent seats, voluntary veto restraint in mass atrocity situations, and the 2024 Pact for the Future committing leaders to a consolidated reform model. But reform requires approval from all five permanent members, which has blocked change for decades.

As one 2025 analysis put it, in a multipolar world the UN's future lies in adapting to and facilitating the co-existence of overlapping orders - less as a decisive enforcer, more as an indispensable convener where, as the General Assembly closing noted, the UN "remains critical, especially facing a crossroads".