Thurs 30 Nov 2006

Is it time to consign the UN to the historical dustbin?

David Starkey is joined by Carne Ross, Max Hastings, and Kate Hoey (Labour MP).

After a BBC investigation learned of UN peacekeeping troops in Haiti committing sexual abuse on children, the Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations has acknowledged that abuse is not uncommon.

In recent years the UN has faced accusations of operating a paedophile ring in DR Congo and trafficking prostitutes in Kosovo. Kofi Annan's son has been accused of corruption, and in political terms the organisation is widely viewed to have failed to contain Iran and North Korea's nuclear expansion, and has been impotent in dealing with both Saddam's Iraq and Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

America, the most powerful nation in the world, has shown disdain for the organisation by appointing an unsupportive ambassador, and acting unilaterally when the UN's objectives do not match its own, and the new Secretary General, who was the candidate seen as being the least offensive to the major powers, may for that reason turn out to be politically more impotent than Kofi Annan.

Is it time to consign the UN to the historical dustbin, like its predecessor the League of Nations, or if not, how can it be made more effective? Isn't some kind of international organisation a great achievement in a world riven by cultural, religious and economic divisions? What should the UN be doing?