The criticisms set remarkably high standards for Security Council performance – standards that are hardly justified by its track record. After all, there have been hundreds of wars since the UN came into being in 1945, and very few have been fought with the Council’s authority or approval.
The United Nations After the Iraq War: Great Expectations
Many supporters of the recent Iraq war, even while claiming that there was sufficient authority for it in previous Security Council resolutions, have asserted that the United Nations has proved itself irrelevant, or worse, because the Council did not explicitly mandate military action to enforce those earlier resolutions. At the same time, many opponents of military action have concluded that the UN is useless because it was unable to prevent the war. The reform chorus is in full cry. But what reforms are needed and would they make the organisation work better?
