Question

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the United Nations? Provide examples that demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses identified. Do you believe the UN is an effective international organization? Provide 3 examples to support your position. Do you believe there is a need for an international organization like the UN?

Answer 1

Strengths are as below:

The UN is an international organisation, impacting more nations and individuals than most major organisations do.
It brings together the member states to achieve world peace, progress, and respect for human rights.
Most (but not all) member states are receptive to UN opinion on their actions, so a positive outcome will result from UN attention to a matter.

Weaknesses are:

The United Nations is only as powerful as its member states permit. Current decision-making powers — especially those granted to the five nations (China, France, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom) with permanent Security Council status and veto power affect justice, facts, and legitimacy.
The United Nations system suffers from democratic processes.
Numerous UN agencies have not lived up to standards.

No, the UN is not an effective organisation.

The five permanent members of the Security Council, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China are also the world's five largest arms producers and exporters today. It reflects a significant conflict of interests, a multi-billion dollar market, pushing home economies that without international conflict will not thrive. Factories/industries do not manufacture tanks, machine guns, mortars and so on

A more recent example of this is Syria. Russia is Syria's main supplier of arms, if not even to the Assad regime. It is precisely for this reason that Russia veteth any UN interference. Pick out Russia would be unreasonable, they are all guilty. For the most infamous boggey-man, the nefarious 'weapons broker,' they circumvent every UN weapons embargo.

Although the United Nations is essentially an institution established and tasked with maintaining world peace, it is dominated by forces whose intrinsic purpose (profit) is intrinsically linked to perpetuating conflict.