In another class I am taking this semester, I learned in more detail as to why the U.N. is set up as it is. The U.N. is an international institution that was created by the winners of the Second World War. The Five Permanent members on the U.N. Security Counsel are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. As the years have progressed, a lot has changed, and many powerful countries have waned and risen, but the same five members have stayed in there powerful positions with no new positions added.
In that class, we talked about how the U.K. is not as powerful as it used to be without its colonies. the U.K. was once the empire in which the sun never set because of how wide its reach was. There were colonies in Africa, Asia, North and South America, and in Australia. By the end of World War II, all of its colonies became independent and the majority of its influence on the world was lost. The country had been reduced to just a tiny island in the north of Europe. France was quickly defeated at the beginning of World War II and part of its citizens collaborated with the Nazis until the country was liberated by operations carried out on D-Day and the weeks after the initial beach assault. China, Russia, and the United States were rising powers by the end of the war, but Russia as the Soviet Union collapsed by the end of the Cold War. As of right now, both France and the U.K. hold their status as a symbol for the victors of World War II.
The European countries of France and the U.K. should be replaced with Germany, which now has the largest economy in Europe. Germany became much stronger after it became unified towards the end of the Cold War. It has a lot of power in the European Union. if any European country wants to do anything, they need Germany's support or else it will be very difficult to get many other countries the help pass anything through. On the U.N. Security Counsel, the continent of Africa is not represented at all. African countries like Egypt or South Africa should be represented in one of the five impermanent security counsel seats so that way the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa are all equally represented on the counsel.
The U.N. has done a lot to help maintain peace and fight issues plaguing the world today. It is not a perfect institution by any means. It will probably be almost impossible for any of these changes to happen because no one likes giving up any sort of power. the more likely option is that there becomes more permanent added to the counsel. this will make it more difficult to get anything to pass through the counsel since there would be an increase of countries with veto power. The way the U.N. system is now is that Europe is over represented and Africa is severely underrepresented. Until something is fixed, there will not be an equal representation of all the regions of the world.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Harry Potter and the United Nations
In the popular film and book series, Harry Potter, the Wizengamot wizarding court, has many similarities to the United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations General Assmebly is a group of world leaders that get together to maintain world order. The Wizengamot is a fictional group of the most important and influential wizards in charge of overseeing and deciding on matters affecting the wizard of world. The Wizengamot and United Nations are similar in their meeting styles, governmental actions, and attendees.
The meetings of the United Nations and Wizengamot are both decided ahead of time in a specific place and location. The United Nations General Assembly occurs once a year and lasts a duration of two weeks. The location is always in New York City in the United Nations Headquarters in downtown Manhattan. The meeting requires high security and intense planning. As a result, the annual meeting garners much media attention. The Wizengamot occurs at least once a year but additional sessions are called into place in times of distress or justice. The meetings can last until a verdict or decision is reached, after all members have contributed. The location is always in the same place in the Ministry of Magic, the hub of the magical world. The meetings are always reported by the Daily Prophet, the wizarding newspaper. The Wizengamot and United Nations both have Meeting styles that are organized and well thought out ahead of time.
The duties performed by the Wizengamot and United Nations are much like those of any government organization meeting. The Wizengamot is responsible for creating new rules for the magical world, in order to protect against dark magic and the human world. Each member is allowed to speak if they have an opinion to contribute to the discussion. Each member also has a vote in order to veto or approve a decision. They dually function as a group that provides justice through sentencing criminals and making laws. The United Nations is responsible for budget, election of memebers to committees, expulsion, suspension, accession, and important declarations. The Assembly is broken into smaller groups responsible for overseeing a specific issue. Each member she gets one vote and 2/3 or majority vote is required in order to veto or confirm. The United Nations is responsible for making the best decisions to protect the world and its people. The Wizengamot and United Nations both are responsible for the protection of their people and must make the best choice to benefit all nations and groups.
The attendees of the United Nations and Wizengamot are important figures in their field. The United Nations has signatories and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. They all are responsible for their own group and making sure that group is the most informed it can be in order to benefit all the groups as a whole. There are guest speakers periodically that perform a speech in front of the General assembly adovocating an issue they are passionate about and feel is affecting the world. The Wizengamot has important figures in all the main aspects of the wizarding world. For example, the headmaster of schools, the prime minister, the defense department, the human department, and the media department. They all make decisions on prisoners or laws causing harm on the wizarding world and come to an agreement on how to reform them. Sometimes, witnesses or people with a protest will come and speak at the Wizengamot meeting to bring an issue to their attention. The Wizengamot and United Nations are meetings of the most important leaders that can best represent the world with their knowledge and advice.
Although the Wizengamot is fictional and the United Nations is an important aspect of our world, they both follow main aspects of government organizations. Both the Wizengamot and United Nations have order, organization, meeting time and place, and tasks. Their meeting time and place are planned ahead of time. Their tasks are laid out before the meeting begins. They have similar goals in how to take care of their people. Also, they have expertise and are well respected in their community in order to make well-informed decisions.
I'm Mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore
On August 15th, 1971 the United States unilaterally ended the convertibility of the dollar to gold. This effetely brought an end to both the gold standard that had defined American monetary policy for nearly a century and the Bretton-Woods system that had defined global currency trading since the end of World War II. This system was defined by a mutual agreement that international currency exchange a violate practice in the past would be regulated and pegged to gold held by the United States. This system served the world well with countries like Japan and Germany exploding in growth. However, strains such as Vietnam weakened the American dollar along with American confidence. In my opinion, no film better represents the mood of the country post-Vietnam and post-Bretton-Woods.
The network is an American film released in 1976 by director Sidney Lumet and stars Peter Finch as anchorman Howard Beale at the fictional broadcast station UBS. He had been a leading anchor for decades but in the recent events his ratings have slipped and is told he is going to be let go in two weeks. In response to this Howard tells his audience on his last day that he is going to kill himself on air. Unsurprisingly this leads to the network being furious but after seeing the huge jump in ratings they allow him to go on rants about current affairs. Here we see the mood of the country be personified by his rants.
The most famous rant in the film is commonly known as the “I’m mad as Hell” speech. Many statements he makes are reflexive of times. Howard cries out that “I don’t have to tell you things are bad everyone knows they are bad” and this manifest itself with high crime rates in New York and a general crime wave across the country. He then states that now “ a dollar buys a nickel” referencing hyperinflation that occurred in the 70s. The speech ends with him saying that “I am a human being god damn it my life has value!”. After the Bretton Woods agreement was terminated real wages began to stagnate and productivity skyrocketed leading to the current day income inequality.
After a couple of months of success, Howard uncovers a corporate scandal and exposes it on his show. This leads to him getting yelled at by his boss and some great lines about modern America are said such as “We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business.” and “We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business.”. This depresses Howard and he goes insane. After another meltdown, the network has him killed on live air in a final act of depraved exploitation.
Here are some clips it’s a great movie
Security Council Legitimacy
When the United Nations Security Council
was created post-WWII, it allowed the 5 winners of the war to have permanent
seats and veto power. World War II ended
over 70 years ago, and these 5 countries are still the only ones with permanent
seats because along with being the winners of the war, they are also perceived as
the 5 most legitimate military powers in the world. The world has changed significantly since
World War II with the rapid increase of economic globalization and stabilization. The dominating economies and militaries in
the world today exceed the original 5, but there have been no changes to the permanent
security council seats. I believe that in order for the UN security council to
be more legitimate, the permanent members must be able to change to reflect the
world powers of the current time.
Globalization
has changed how countries interact with one another. The relationships between states now has a
direct correlation with trade agreements, industry, and outsourcing, among
others. The top 10 economies in the
world today do not even include all 5 of the permanent members of the Security
Council, and GDP per capita of other developed countries, like Germany and Japan,
far exceed that of Russia. To say that a
country like Japan is not on the same level, if not higher, economically and stably
than Russia would be incorrect.
Therefore, why cannot Japan (or another country per say) have a
permanent seat on the council? This is the long-standing debate.
With
a world more focused on global expansion and country economies than ever in the
past, I believe that in order for a country to have a permanent seat on the UN
Security Council, there must be two essential factors: (1) they must be one of
the top GDP per capita economies in the world and (2) their standard of
living/human rights should be very high.
The ideology pre-World War II was very militaristic centralized. Having the most powerful military was what constituted
a country to be the most powerful in the world.
This has shifted over the last 70 years toward economic power. The most powerful economies in the world are
now perceived as the most powerful countries in the world. Therefore, the Security Council must reflect
the shift in norms just as this ideology has.
The most stable countries are the ones with the most developed economies,
and these are the states that should have the most power in foreign security
debates.
The
biggest takeaway is this: the world and ideologies change over time, and institutions
like the UN Security Council must change along with them or else become illegitimate
in the eyes of the world. In order for
the UN Security Council to be the most effective it can be, it must have the
influence and backing of the most powerful countries in the world at the time. If this means changing, removing, or adding
permanent council members, the council must consider it and change the original
reasoning behind the 5 permanent members in order to gain legitimacy.
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