A New UN: The Regrettable Irrelevance of the Security Council

The UN Security Council has long been unrepresentative of the international society of states. Simultaneously, the geopolitical balance of power is nearing a tipping point, in favor of states heretofore less well-represented in the Council. The Russian invasion of Ukraine may be the triggering factor, accentuated, possibly, by the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This chapter will look at how the UN Security Council so far has, or has not, handled these two serious, possibly defining conflicts, how they might have been dealt with by the UN General Assembly instead or in parallel, and how this all fits into the larger picture of geopolitical change and its potential effects on the UN organization. What will the consequences be for the UN Security Council, the international law underpinning it, and ultimately the UN? The chapter ends with an attempt to picture what kind of new UN might be forming on the horizon.