The US has vetoed a Palestinian request to the United Nations security council for full UN membership, blocking the world body’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
The vote in the 15-member security council was 12 in favor, the US opposed and two abstentions, the UK and Switzerland.
US officials had been hoping Washington could avoid use of its veto if other states objected to a draft resolution before the council recommending the “State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations”.
On the contrary, this is the UN working as intended. Veto power is supposed to represent (at least originally) nuclear weapons capability. The idea is that we’d rather they just argue than bomb with nukes each other. There’s a ton of fuckery and appalling stuff around the UN. But overall, it has stopped far more violence than it has allowed to exist. It sucks as all hell for individuals and ethnic groups who suffer while the diplomats bicker. But the planet has not frozed on a nuclear winter yet, so thus far it has fulfilled it’s mission.
Yet now they are working hard on bringing that winter on.
Huh, never knew that. This new information really paints the UN in a different light for me now.
Are there any primary sources you’d recommend for following up on this information?
That justifies the existence of the UN, not the veto power for permanent members.
Also your justification follows the “tiger repelent rock” pattern: we don’t really know if the “no nuclear winter yet” is due to the UN or not, much less due to the whole veto power thing - two conditions existing at the same time doesn’t mean they have a causal relationship.
MAD is just as good or better explanation for that specific outcome and the process by which it would work it’s a lot simpler, so it’s the logical one to choose per Occan’s Razor.
But for how long. People are losing trust in it and do not see it as an institution worth respecting. Its probably gonna end up like the League of Nations.