International Organizations

        We are in a world wherein we want to achieve unity in diversity and I believe that international organizations best represent that goal. We unite with different countries for a common purpose and a common objective. I’ve been familiar with famous international organizations existent in our world today; but what I am not familiar with is if these organizations have been effective in living up to their purpose. International organizations are created for different reasons; it may be because of collective interests of states, for conscious decision-making by political elites, or from recognizing interdependence among different states. But whatever the reason may be, I believe that what matters is what they do to the common good.

            There are a lot of international organizations formed by powerful people all over the world; some are well known and some are not. One of the most popular international organizations is the United Nations (UN) which aims to promote world peace, international security, and respect for human rights and international law. It is a big and complex organization which allows them to solve a lot of issues but having a lot of conflicts at the same time. It is said that the UN should not be called as such because technically the members of the said organization are not nations but instead they are states. Using the word nations would require them to include the national population in the organization and not just the leaders themselves. By this, some might think that the UN is based on popularity in politics. Another interesting point is the use of the word “united”; using this word to identify their organization may either mean that they are really as one in solving world issues or it could also mean that being united is what is required of them but they haven’t fully attained that yet.

            The UN has been interfering with different issues such as wars in the Middle East and the like to try to maintain peace and security in our world. I was curious about how effective they were in achieving one of their main objectives and I found out that they are both effective and cost effective at the same time. This is because they’ve had success in maintaining peace in around 13 countries which clearly shows their effectiveness but also had failures in 3 countries. Even if the number suggests that they are indeed effective in general, the cost of the conflicts and lives lost in those 3 countries that they failed in are quite high. This leaves the UN to ponder about their actions and find ways to improve their strategies in maintaining peace and security.

            In my personal opinion, the UN is a symbol of the efforts of leaders all over the world wanting to build bridges and work together for the good of mankind. Even if this is the case, some may think that the UN is no longer needed because of reasons such as disruption in the balance of power, ineffectiveness in avoiding wars, and basically not fulfilling their objectives. There are always two sides in a story, some say they are effective and necessary, some say they are not. But the bottom line is who gets to decide their fate, the leaders or the people?