On Thursday 24 October, the United Nations celebrates its 79th birthday, although it is likely to be a muted affair because the international community is more divided now than at any time since the end of World War II. The wars in Ukraine and the Levant take most of the headlines, but there are dozens of armed conflicts and power struggles in Africa and Asia that also worry the UN Security Council. The gap between the Nation States that still believe in traditional values and those who believe in the supremacy of individual human rights is widening.
Much has been made of the deployment of North Korean troops and Chinese weapons to support the Russian Army this week, but it is little more than British, American and German Special Forces, tanks and missiles being used by the Ukrainian Army against Russia. With the entry of China and North Korea in the Ukraine War and the continuing attacks on civilians in Gaza, the prognosis for 2025 is not good.
History shows that military solutions seldom work, so what we need is a compromise, but to achieve that, the United Nations should replace the current bureaucrats, who have failed their diplomatic tests. When I pause on Thursday to commemorate the gallant UN soldiers who have fallen in the cause of Peace, I will also be hoping for this change in leadership in New York.
Rupert Wieloch 