The United Nations Organization and Global Power Politics: The Antagonism between Power and Law and the Future of World Order

Abstract

The dilemma faced by the United Nations Organization at the beginning of the 21st century lies in its inability to reconcile the structural realities of power politics in a unipolar world with the requirements of the international rule of law. The paper ana- lyses the normative contradictions in the UN Charter that result from the antagonism between power and law and reviews the prospects for a fundamental reform of the United Nations Organization that would guarantee its survival under the radically different circumstances of the post-Cold War environment. In that regard, the paper emphasizes the need for a new paradigm of international organization that will do away with the idea of special privileges accorded to the great powers of 1945, and emphasizes the need for a better regional balance in the decision- making processes at the United Nations.