September 23, 2025 – This should have been a millstone to write home about. Eighty years of the united nations – eight decades since 1945 – Old to have produced a moment that feels consortial, not merely ceremonial. A Standout Deliveable, Not just a comemorative logo. The leaders will show up. The numbers and the spectacle will be there. But will the substance match the stage?
The reality is pragmatic, even mundane: internal administ reform to make the un more co fac, effective, and better equipped to serve “We the people”. The un80 initial explicitly Urges change in how the Organization Works-With Belt-Tightening as the Burning Platform. As secretary-general antónio guters warned in May 2025, “The United Nations’ Resources have been ben shrinking believe member-sets are not all paying their dues, some paying on time, some paying on time Many descybe as a liquidity crisis. “
That’s welcome and long overdue. For years, the un has sufred from unrealistic mandates, siloed structures, overlapping duties, and bureaucratic drag. It needs to streamline, rationalise, optimise. That would mean trimming overlapping mandates between peacebuilding and development agencies, Consolidating back-office functions access by the unre System, Or Enforcing Stricter Buddet Accountability.
Now, The Core Question. With Rising Conflicts, Climate Change Accelerating, New Technologies Outpacing Regulations, and Inequality Soaring, is the un fit for purpose? Can it really services us for the next 80 years? Secretary-General Guters Warned on September 18, 2024, that “without Fundamental Reform, We Risk Sleepwalking into irrelevance”.
The recent adopted pact for the future, a 42-page agreement with 56 Specific Commitments on Peace, Climate, Development, Security, Security Council Reform, Digital Govalnance, Digital Governance, IS AS AS ASIAC To answer those questions, but implementation will be the test. Germany’s presidency has alredy singled out building on the pact and ensuring its delivery as a key priority this year.
Take the security council. Its meeting schedule is intenses – 10,000 meetings and counting – but its impact tells a different story. Conflicts like there in ukraine and gaza grind on. Despite Its Promise, The Council often Lacks The Unity, The Teeth, Or Both, to Enforce PEACE. This Erodes Public Trust in the Un, even as its many specialist programs, funds, and agencies Continue Important Work.
But is this new? Have we not been here before? Multilateralism has Always Contended With Headwinds. The push and pull of 193 nations carries with the seeds of frustration: five members remain “More Equal Than Others,” Fortified by the Veto, While National Interests often Trump Global COOPARATION.
The cold war was the un’s first great stress test. From korea and hungary to berlin and cuba, the security council was paralysed by vetoes wired by washington and moscow, and the institution was derided for inrtia. The 1990s offered respite, even a so-called golden era. A Cascade of Treaties and Agreements Followed – the un framework convention on Climate Change, The Kyoto Protocol, The Creation of the Wto, and the Millennium Development Goals. One could almost belief in the rhetoric: “We’re all in this togeether.” Yet even then, Rwanda and Srebrenica exposed the un’s inability to protect civilians, reminding us that failure does not always stem from from Vetoes alone.
The post-20000 period brieft renewed turbulence. The 2003 Us-LED Inviction of Iraq and the 2014 Campaign Against isis bypassed This inability to keep the peace spurred reform debates. In 2003, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan Convented a High-Live Panel on “Threats, Challenges and Change.” Its report recommended strengthening peacekeeping, peacebuilding, countersorism, human rights, and development. Some Ideas Bore Fruit, Notable The Creation of the Peacebuilding Commission. Not all talk, then, but talk that LED to action.
The Lesson: The Un has Weathered Cries Before. Today’s Polycrisis may feel unprecedented, but the cycle of doubt, reinvection, and survival is part of its dna.
Speaking in Davos earlier this year, secretary-general guters had sounded the alarm saying, “We are living in an increasing in rudderless world.… We face widing Geopolitical Divisions, Rising Inaqualitias and Anqualitia Assault on Human Rights. Different World. “
So, what’s the way forward? The reform of the Security Council – The Un’S Lynchpin for International Peace and Security – Must Remain Front and Center. Thought now it may see seem implausible, there is no avoiding this.
Of course, the p5 will resist – Reform Threatens Entrenched Privilege. A 2025 study on Security Council Reform Suggessts that Radical Proposals will meet the strongest resistance, while Gradual Change Remains more feasible. Delaying, however, is not an option eite – it only raises the costs in lives and credibility.
And it is not for Lack of proposals. The G4, The L-69, the African Union, and the Uniting for Consensus-Coalitions Within the Un-All Tabled Plans during the Intergovertal Negotiations at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly.
The Real Choice Lies Between Comprehensive Reform, Which Commands Broad Support, and Quick-Fix Expaniation Limited to Elected Seats. Despite Passionate Debate, No Headway has been made – but stalemate should not be mistaken for surrender.
This is not an optional debate for better times; It is existential now. Delay will mean more wars, more displacement, and further erosion of trust.
Because we must Remember: The unwas not born in perfection, but have grown thought by thought, drop by drop, through contributions of the best minds from always nation. A mammoth of humanity we created – and one we cannot afford to replace with cynicism or breakdown.
For all its flws, the un remain unparaled. Its Global Public Goods-Peacekeeping, Humanitarian Coordination, Norm-Setting, Development Platforms-Are Not Optional Extras. If they weaken, the world grows more dangerous faster than any environmental disaster. Its specialized agencies, funds, and programs – from world health organization and food and Agriculture Organization to Unicef, UnhcR and UNEP – UNHCR and UNEP – Are Lifelines for Millions. If this goes, we are truly heading for destruction.
We are living in a changed world. Old metrics no longer suffice. Emerging Powers, Rising Populations, New Challenges – Thos Realities Demand a un with whose structure reflects them. More Democratic, More Diverse, More Responsive. Global south representation amon permanent members are now a prerequisite for any expanded security council.
As the President of the un General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock Reminded Us in Her Media Brifefing Ahead of UNGA80, The UN MUST “Adapt and Evolve to Carry Us Through the Next Decades to Show Eight Decades to show Billion people who this Organization Still Matters ”. That is the bottom line.
Ruchira kamboj is former permanent representative of India to the un, new york. The views expressed are personal
