Is the United Nations still relevant?

Is the UN still relevant? I'll assess its current impact and the debate over its effectiveness.

The United Nations remains relevant, but its relevance is increasingly contested and uneven - it is seen as indispensable in some areas and ineffective in others.

As the UN marks its 80th anniversary in 2025, the question looms large. As one analysis put it: "Undercut by financial shortfalls, US retrenchment, and growing geopolitical divides, can the UN remain a vital stage for global diplomacy or will competing powers shape a world order that sidelines it?"

Why The UN Is Still Considered Relevant

1. A universal platform with continued legitimacy

Despite criticism, member states continue to use the UN as a primary diplomatic venue. Its "more than 190 member states, with only a few exceptions, are sending representatives... to New York City for the 80th session" - and the vast majority sending heads of state or government is seen as "a clear indicator that the United Nations is widely viewed to be politically relevant and an important platform for shaping international discourse and influencing public opinion."

In closing remarks at the General Assembly, President Annalena Baerbock said that "if high-level week is any indication, the United Nations is still relevant."

Other speakers have said the UN, "notwithstanding its inadequacies and failures, was an indispensable 'family of nations' that had nurtured countries in search of equality, peace and prosperity" and was described as "Still Essential but Needs Reform to Be 'Fit for Purpose'"

This is reflected in public opinion. Most publics in the 25-nation 2025 Pew Global Attitudes Survey hold net-positive views of the United Nations, with one report noting public trust was strong for the United Nations (58 percent) and the World Health Organization (60 percent). In the United States, 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."

2. Humanitarian, health and development work

Much of the UN's day-to-day relevance is not in the Security Council but in its agencies: UNICEF, WHO, WFP, UNHCR, UNDP and others. Examples in 2025 include:

Without the UN system, there is no other organization with comparable global reach for humanitarian aid, refugee protection, food assistance, and coordination of vaccination, disease surveillance and development goals.

3. Peacekeeping

The evidence shows peacekeepers — or 'blue helmets' — "significantly reduce civilian casualties, shorten conflicts, and help make peace agreements stick" and "the majority of UN Peacekeeping missions succeed in their primary goal, ultimately stabilizing societies and ending war."

"If we look at the completed missions since the end of the Cold War, two thirds of the time, peacekeepers have been successful at implementing their mandates and departing", and millions of lives have been spared since the creation of peacekeeping in 1948.

4. Norm-setting and global governance

The UN remains the central forum for setting international norms on climate change (through the Paris Agreement and COP process), technology standards, human rights, and international law. Even when enforcement is weak, its resolutions and treaties provide the framework that other institutions reference.

Why Its Relevance Is Questioned

1. Security Council paralysis and the veto

The most cited criticism is structural. The UN faces "valid criticism regarding bureaucracy, inefficiency, and occasional impotence in preventing major conflicts and atrocities. The Security Council's structure—with permanent members wielding veto power—often reflects post-World War II power dynamics rather than contemporary realities".

The veto power of the five permanent members "has often been a point of contention, leading to calls for reform."

Sharp criticisms have been directed at the council "for its failure to prevent conflicts, inadequate implementation of meaningful peacekeeping measures, and inability to take action on crises (with those in Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan being only the most recent examples)." Critics highlight that its membership does not reflect today's world, with "no permanent members from either Africa or Latin America" and that veto use shields allies and enables impunity.

2. Legitimacy crisis linked to great-power hypocrisy

"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." Analysts point to Russia violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, China refusing to condemn it, and the United States being seen as providing unconditional support for Israel in Gaza - eroding "the institution's relevance in its most central role, which is to ascribe or deny legitimacy to the use of force in international relations."

Some commentators argue more bluntly that the UN "no longer holds even one ounce of legitimacy or relevance" and warn of its "growing irrelevance given that the body was created in a bid to ensure global peace in the wake of two world wars."

3. Financial and political retrenchment

Its ability to tackle "climate change, global health risks, humanitarian disasters, technological change, and longer-term development goals is shrinking, and it is shrinking rapidly" due to "the United States' decision to delay critical budgetary support and put caps on its contributions to UN peacekeeping", compounded by the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and WHO and by other states delaying support.

Funding cuts in 2025 have already "disrupted services including maternal care, vaccination, HIV prevention and disease surveillance".

4. Bureaucracy and accountability issues

The UN has also been criticized for bureaucratic inefficiency, slow response, and scandals such as sexual exploitation and abuse by a small minority of peacekeepers.

Conclusion: Relevant but at a crossroads

The paradox described by many observers in 2025 is that the UN "is more necessary than ever, yet under unprecedented strain from geopolitical rivalries and global crises. Its survival and relevance depend on embracing reform".

Most reform proposals do not call for abolishing the UN, but for changing it: expanding Security Council representation, limiting veto use in cases of mass atrocities, improving funding and efficiency, and adapting its role to manage a multipolar world where overlapping regional orders coexist.