As the UN falters, many countries are looking to other international bodies. Will China use this to overthrow America’s global influence?

From Bloomberg. A brutal, grinding war in Ukraine. Governments overthrown in Niger and Gabon. Lingering hostility over the Covid-19 pandemic …

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With dozens of world leaders descending upon New York for the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering, global problems are showing up fast and thick at the world body’s door — with no solutions in sight. And many countries are starting to look elsewhere to do something about them.

The UN, once the central forum for trying to solve geopolitical disputes, is increasingly on the sidelines of the new global politics, unable to keep up with the array of shocks, crises and coups that seem to be fracturing the world. That’s been evidenced by its powerlessness to intervene in places where in years past it would have been front and center …

It’s a plight that even the US — which helped shape the UN at its founding in a push to cement American leadership — has come to acknowledge. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made that clear in a speech last week, describing the upheaval in almost apocalyptic terms.

“What we’re experiencing now is more than a test of the post-Cold War order — it’s the end of it,” Blinken said. …

If the countries that dominate the UN keep resisting reform, the global south will have no choice but to seek options outside the UN system, including those offered by China, a developing-nation diplomat said, asking not to be identified to speak frankly. …

Other countries that have long sought to shake up the UN now look beyond it. India and Brazil, long advocates for such reforms, are steering more of their energy toward the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. India’s also focusing on the so-called Quad that consists of the US, India, Japan and Australia.

China, with an eye to displacing the US, has led the global effort to disrupt the existing world order, pushing to expand BRICS in August by inviting Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Argentina, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, the first expansion of the group in over a decade. …

It’s a telling sign that this year, President Joe Biden will be the only leader from among the five permanent members of the Security Council to show up in person at the General Assembly debate. The heads of state from China, Russia, France and the UK are all staying home.

Some nations put the blame squarely at the feet of the US. After seeking UN Security Council blessing for its 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US went ahead anyway when the body declined to do so. Former President Donald Trump shook the organization to its core with his decision to quit the World Health Organization, a move Biden later reversed. …

There’s also outright internal animosity. Much of the problem can be traced to the Covid-19 crisis, when poor countries felt abandoned by richer ones that hoarded vaccines. A similar fault line is emerging over the climate crisis, with low-income countries resentful that rich ones responsible for most of the world’s pollution are asking them to limit their own output. …

Is this the end of the UN? What do you think?

(Excerpt from Bloomberg. Photo Credit: cristianl/Getty Images)