The United Nations is our best defense against World War III. Trump also wears the ax, who will fight to save him? | Simon Tesdal
R.The United Nations and its agencies have long struggled with deficiency in financing. Now it has become a firm problem with an acute crisis in the shadow of the ax of Donald Trump’s executioner. The United States is the largest contributor, by 22 %, in the United Nations basic budget. In February, The White House announced A six-month review of the United States membership of all international organizations, agreements and treaties, including the United Nations, with the aim of reducing or ending financing-potential withdrawal. The deadline for spare parts will decrease next month.
Trump’s cancellation of the USAID Agency (USAID), and the abandonment of most relief programs has already caused damage to unaccounted humanitarian operations, which depend on appreciated financing. However, the Trump ax symbolizes a more fundamental threat-for pluralism and system based on international rules. The primary concept of collective responsibility for the preservation of global peace and security, and cooperation in addressing common problems – embodied by the United Nations since then It created it 80 years ago Last week – on the cutting block.
High risks – Washington is not the only villain. Like the United States, there are about 40 countries in paying compulsory annual dues. The estimated donations decrease. The United Nations Charter, a statement of the founding principles, was critically undermined due to the failure to stop the unlawful war of aggression in Russia in Ukraine (and in the United States’ Israeli attack last month on Iran). China and others, including the United Kingdom, ignore international law when it fits. The height and length of conflicts around the world rises; UN envoys are marginalized. United Nations peace preservation tasks. The Security Council is often paralyzed by the veto. The General Assembly is largely powerless. Through many measures, the United Nations does not work.
Waiting on the horizon. If the United Nations is allowed to fail or shrink to the point that its agencies cannot work completely, then there is nothing to replace. Nothing, this, except for the jungle law, as shown in Gaza and other conflict areas where United Nations agencies are excluded, and the dead relief workers and legal rules were decided. The United Nations system contains many failures, some of which are infected. But a world without the United Nations, for most people in most places, is more dangerous, hungry, poorer, unhealthy and less sustainable.
The United States is not expected to withdraw completely from the United Nations (although there is nothing impossible with this extremist isolation president). But Trump’s hostile intention is clear. Budget proposal for 2026 Looking for a reduction of 83.7 % – from 58.7 billion dollars to 9.6 billion dollars – at all American international spending. This includes a 87 % decrease in United Nations financing, both mandatory and appreciated. In 2023, the total UN spending reached about 13 billion dollars. This is only 1.6 % of the Pentagon budget that year ($ 816 billion) – or About two -thirds What Americans spend on ice cream annually, “Stuart Patrick from Carnegie noticed international peace gifts. Economic aid for development and relief from disasters and family planning will be destroyed.
The effect is likely to change the world. The main United Nations agencies include the shooting line Children’s Fund, UNICEF – At a time when the risks facing children and children are arduous; the World Food Program (WFP), which can lose 30 % of its employees; Agencies deal with refugees and immigration, which are also shrinking; The International Court of Justice (the “World Court”), which shed light on Israel’s illegal behavior in Gaza; The International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iranian nuclear activities and others.
Trump is already boycotting the World Health Organization, the Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) and the United Nations Human Rights Council, and has the United Nations. He canceled 4 billion dollars For the United Nations Climate Fund, claiming that all action contradicts American interests. If its budget is adopted this fall, the United Nations 2030 Sustainable development goals It may not be achieved. American financial support for international peacekeeping operations and observers’ missions at problems such as Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kosovo, which is currently 26 % of spending, is currently heading to scratch.
The withdrawal of the support of the American Agency for International Development is already proven by a fatal, everywhere from Somalia and Sudan to Bangladesh and Haiti. UN officials describe the post -Erthquake situation, which is carried by the conflict, deprived of aid Maianamar as a “human disaster”. The research published in Lancet found that Trump’s discounts could cause More than 14 million additional deaths By 2030, a third of their children.
ProgramThe largest supplier of food aid in the world says that the expected financing deficit of $ 8.1 billion this year comes at a time when sharp hunger affects 343 million people in 74 countries. Other donor countries fail to fill the gap left by the United States. So far in 2025, only 11 % of $ 46.2 billion has been raised to 44 non -distinctive crises. The UK recently reduced the aid budget by 6 billion pounds, to pay for nuclear bombs.
UN presidents admit that many problems before Trump. António Guxres, Secretary -General, started, Thousands of job cuts As part of “”U80“The reform plan to unify operations and reduce the basic budget by up to 20 %. However, on the occasion of the anniversary, Guterres said that the most grave challenge is the destructive position of member states by sabotaging multilateral cooperation, breaking rules, failing to push its share and forgetting the reason for the establishment of the United Nations in the first place. It is not a selective list. It is the cornerstone of international relations. “
Guterres says that the greatest achievement of the United Nations since 1945 prevents a third world war. However, respectable analysts like Fiona Hill believed that it has already started. The United Kingdom and other democracies face some urgent questions. Will they surrender to Trump again? Or will they fight to stop this rebellious president and rogue countries such as Russia and Israel dismantling the best defense in the world against global chaos, and eliminated the unnecessary wars and suffering?
Will they fight to save the United Nations?