United Nations Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Effectiveness === According to [[international relations]] scholar [[Edward Luck]], the United States has preferred a feeble United Nations in major projects undertaken by the organization to forestall UN interference with, or resistance to, American policies. "The last thing the U.S. wants is an independent UN throwing its weight around", Luck said. Similarly, former [[US Ambassador to the United Nations]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] explained that "The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with not inconsiderable success."<ref>''Los Angeles Times'', 17 Oct. 2002 [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-17-fg-resolution17-story.html "U.N. Resolutions Frequently Violated"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317170020/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-17-fg-resolution17-story.html |date=17 March 2022 }}</ref> In 1994, former special representative of the secretary-general of the UN to Somalia [[Mohamed Sahnoun]] published ''Somalia: The Missed Opportunities'',<ref>USIP Press Books, 1994, {{ISBN|978-1-878379-35-1}}</ref> a book in which he analyses the reasons for the failure of the 1992 UN intervention in [[Somalia]]. Sahnoun claims that between the start of the Somali civil war in 1988 and the fall of the [[Siad Barre]] regime in January 1991, the UN missed at least three opportunities to prevent major human tragedies. When the UN tried to provide humanitarian assistance, they were totally outperformed by [[NGO]]s, whose competence and dedication sharply contrasted with the UN's excessive caution and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Sahnoun warned that if radical reform were not undertaken, then the UN would continue to respond to such crises with inept improvisation.<ref>Book Review by Gail M. Gerhart in ''Foreign Affairs'', March/April 1995 [http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/50763/gail-m-gerhart/somalia-the-missed-opportunities] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120239/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/50763/gail-m-gerhart/somalia-the-missed-opportunities|date=2 April 2015}}</ref> Beyond specific instances or areas of alleged ineffectiveness, some scholars debate the overall effectiveness of the UN. Adherents to the [[Realism (international relations)|realist]] school of international relations take a pessimistic position, arguing that the UN is not an effective organization because it is dominated and constrained by great powers. [[Liberalism (international relations)|Liberal]] scholars counter that it is an effective organization because it has proved capable of solving many problems by working around the restrictions imposed by powerful member states. The UN is generally considered by scholars to be more effective in realms such as public health, humanitarian assistance, and conflict resolution.<ref>{{cite web|last=Norley|first=Matthew John Ribeiro|date=2013|title=Is the United Nations an Effective Institution?|url=https://www.e-ir.info/2013/02/23/is-the-united-nations-an-effective-institution/|access-date=2022-02-16|website=E-International Relations|language=en-US|archive-date=8 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308204822/https://www.e-ir.info/2013/02/23/is-the-united-nations-an-effective-institution/|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page