United Nations at Thirty

Report Outline
World Body at Critical Juncture
Goals and Structure of United Nations
Prospect of a More Effective U.N.
Special Focus

World Body at Critical Juncture

New Lssues With Tise of Third World Majority

The united nations is approaching its 30th birthday, on Oct. 24, at a critical juncture in its short, stormy life. The road it will choose at the forthcoming session of the General Assembly, which convenes on Sept. 16, could determine whether the U.N. can become a more effective instrument of global cooperation than in the past or whether it will repeat the dismal fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations.

“The future of the United Nations is clouded,” Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said in an address to the Institute of World Affairs in Milwaukee on July 14. “…Troubling trends have appeared in the General Assembly and some of its specialized agencies. Ideological confrontation, bloc voting and new attempts to manipulate the charter to achieve unilateral ends threaten to turn the United Nations into a weapon of political warfare rather than a healer of political conflict and a promoter of human welfare.”

Special Session on New Economic Relationship

The United Nations is changing, and no wonder. Circumstances in the world that gave birth to the United Nations in 1945 are vastly different today. The configurations of political and economic power have shifted. The cartel of oil-producing nations has introduced a new factor in the relationships between members of the United Nations. New issues are being raised and new voices are being heard.