The United Nations: A history of success and failure

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. The world is less peaceful than it was a decade ago; the process of post-cold War democratisation is now running in reverse across the globe. Yet while global problems continue to mount, the problem-solving capacity of our politics continues to decline. Multilateralism – the idea of governments working cooperatively – has stalled.

The United Nations – the bastion of the post-war global order – is seemingly overwhelmed. What then, is the ongoing role of one of the most important organisations humanity has created?