The United Nations at 80: navigating crisis, continuity, and change
Eighty years after its founding, the United Nations faces major challenges. Once established to prevent global conflict, the organisation now operates amid geopolitical tensions, prolonged wars and growing criticism. Joris Larik discusses this in Forbes.
Eighty years after its founding, the United Nations faces one of the most complex periods in its history. Created to prevent global conflict after the devastation of the Second World War, the organisation now operates amid rising geopolitical tensions, prolonged wars, and increasing scrutiny of multilateral institutions.
Dr. Joris Larik, Associate Professor of Comparative, EU, and International Law, considers how the UN’s original mission holds up in today’s fractured international landscape. In his article The United Nations in the Storm, he explores the tension between the organisation’s founding ideals and the realities of contemporary politics, particularly in the Security Council, where long-standing power imbalances shape key decisions.
The problem of veto power
Veto authority exercised by permanent members of the Security Council has become a central challenge to the UN’s credibility. Larik explains that it is often used to protect narrow national interests rather than uphold shared values or human rights. While debates about reform, including broader representation, continue, he argues that structural changes alone cannot resolve deeper governance problems. Expanding membership or influence does not automatically make decision-making more effective.
Multilateralism in transition
Rather than viewing the UN as in decline, Larik sees it undergoing transformation. The European Union exemplifies this shift, promoting multilateral cooperation while also protecting its strategic interests in a more competitive global environment. Tools such as anti-coercion measures demonstrate how the EU balances normative commitments with pragmatic considerations, signalling a cautious but active approach to sustaining international order.
Maintaining order and norms
Amid growing global fragmentation, only a few actors actively strive to preserve stability and uphold international norms. The EU’s efforts, according to Larik, illustrate how international actors can influence the world stage even when multilateralism is under pressure, showing that cooperation and competition often operate side by side.
The United Nations will not be radically reinvented. Instead, it continues to reflect the complexity of the world it serves: imperfect, contested, and shaped by competing interests. Its endurance is driven not by power but by necessity. As long as conflicts and injustice persist, there will remain a forum where states engage with one another and search for solutions.
The full Forbes article is available, with a Dutch-language print version in the Winter 2025/2026 edition of Forbes Belgium.