OPINION | The United Nations at 81: Can the world’s peace organisation save itself?

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York ended much as it began: with world leaders talking loudly while wars raged unchecked across the globe. There were impassioned speeches, bitter exchanges, and dramatic walkouts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address was preceded by a mass departure of delegates protesting military operations in the Palestinian territories, to which Netanyahu responded with characteristic defiance. The spectacle was more than diplomatic theatre; it served as a stark metaphor for the state of the United Nations itself. Created in 1945 from the ashes of the Second World War to prevent…