The answer to attacks on the UN is to revitalise it – not sideline it

Donald Trump has consistently railed against the irrelevance of the UN has justification for his actions, Heba Aly and David McNair write. But there is a clear path to creating a brighter future NewsWorldAmericasUS politicsCommentThe answer to attacks on the UN is to revitalise it – not sideline itDonald Trump has consistently railed against the irrelevance of the UN has justification for his actions, Heba Aly and David McNair write. But there is a clear path to creating a brighter futureMonday 16 February 2026 07:30 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverDonald Trump (AFP/Getty)Your support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreThere are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen, so said Vladimir Lenin.The start of 2026 has brought too many of the latter. The US abduction of the president of a sovereign country in Venezuela and threats to annex Greenland have exposed just how little power the United Nations has to enforce the rules of international law.Donald Trump has pointed to the UN’s irrelevance as justification for taking matters into his own hands in the establishment of his so-called Board of Peace, which not only circumvents the UN, but seeks to replace it with a privately-controlled entity in which the Chair has ultimate veto power.Leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney now explicitly acknowledge both the weaknesses of the world order we have known since the Second World War – and the fact that it no longer exists.We should make no mistake: this is an existential moment for the promise that commonly-agreed rules would make us all safer.The likely trajectory is a shift towards a mercantilist, "might makes right" world where politics dominate over rules; territory is confiscated by the most powerful; and the comforts and safety we have enjoyed for the past 80 years fade away. It is a world where we may be forced to send our children to war; and where the UN is impotent to challenge these dynamics.The United Nations Charter emerged from the ashes of the Second World War. Visionary leaders agreed that to avoid the devastation of conflict, we needed rules and an institution to govern them.In its history, the UN has helped prevent nuclear war between the US and Russia and pushed to maintain peace in many post-conflict settings. It oversaw decolonisation; eradicated diseases, advanced human rights, helped reduce poverty; and contributed to the fastest declines in child and maternal mortality in the history of our species – in many of those cases, using aid pledged from its Member States.Yet it is far from a perfect institution.In the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, its second secretary-general, the UN was created not to take us to heaven but to protect us from hell. In recent years, it has failed to protect the people of Gaza, of Ukraine, of Sudan and many other places, from the hell they are living through.On the current trajectory, everything the UN stands for is at risk, leaving a shell of an institution with bureaucrats debating meaningless resolutions without power or purpose.Thankfully there is another path.When the UN was created in 1945, its founders knew it would have to evolve as the world changed.Then US President Harry Truman said: “This charter … will be expanded and improved as time goes on. No one claims that it is now a final or a perfect instrument. It has not been poured into any fixed mould. Changing world conditions will require readjustments.”The Charter therefore included Article 109, which calls for a review conference to be held within 10 years, to update the UN’s rules. But 80 years later, this promise is yet to be fulfilled; each time the idea was raised, it was deemed not the right time.This is a message we still hear today, even as the UN has become an irrelevant player in its core purpose of maintaining peace and security.But as the current world order crumbles around us, we have an opportunity to re-mould the UN Charter for a new era - to build “from this fracture”, as Carney put it, “something better, stronger, and more just.”Already endorsed by countries like Brazil and South Africa, as well as smaller states who feel the system isn’t serving them, a UN Charter review conference can be called by a vote of t