Discuss how far the United Nations has been successful in resolving global disputes from year 1946 to 1991.

Answer:

Between its founding and the end of the Cold War the United Nations achieved a mixed record. Paralysed by superpower rivalry in the gravest disputes, it nonetheless prevented escalation in many lesser conflicts and did much to advance decolonisation and humanitarian work.

Where it succeeded

• The Suez crisis of 1956 was defused, and UNEF became the first peacekeeping force.
• The Congo operation from 1960 held the country together, at the cost of Hammarskjold's life.
• It mediated in Kashmir, Cyprus, Indonesia and the Iran-Iraq War.
• Decolonisation was advanced by the 1960 Declaration on granting independence to colonial peoples.
• Sanctions and censure isolated apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.
• Specialised agencies achieved much, notably the WHO's eradication of smallpox.

Where it failed

• The veto paralysed the Security Council whenever a great power's interest was engaged.
• It could not act on Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 or Afghanistan in 1979.
• Vietnam, the largest conflict of the period, lay wholly outside its reach.
• It failed to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict despite repeated resolutions.
• It had no army of its own and depended entirely on member states.
• Resolutions were widely ignored, and enforcement was rare.

Structural limitations

• The Council's permanent membership froze the power distribution of 1945.
• China's seat was held by Taiwan until 1971, distorting representation.
• Chronic financial shortfalls limited what operations could be mounted.
• The General Assembly could recommend but not compel.

Assessment

• Its greatest achievement was that no third world war occurred.
• It provided a permanent forum where adversaries could meet and talk.
• Peacekeeping, though improvised, became a valuable instrument.
• The organisation reflected the limits its members imposed rather than failing on its own account.

Beyond disputes

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 set a global standard.
• UNICEF, UNESCO and the UNHCR carried out substantial humanitarian work.
• The Law of the Sea and other conventions built an international legal order.
• Membership more than trebled as decolonisation proceeded.

The United Nations was therefore successful in secondary disputes and in humanitarian and decolonising work, but largely powerless where the superpowers were directly engaged. As historians conclude, its record from 1946 to 1991 reflects less an institutional failure than the structural reality that it could never be stronger than the agreement of its most powerful members.