Just the [19]2 of us, UN I

Just the [19]2 of us,
We can make it if we try,
Just the [19]2 of us,
UN I.

Question: Is the UN a realist or liberal organization?
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Well, Tori stole my idea to use the charter as an explanation (man, I even had a BOOK with all of that stuff in there, called Basic Documents on International Human Rights...I stole it from a library.), I'll have to do something different.

Or not.

The UN is a liberal organization. Originally, I was going to say no, it is both, and to a certain extent it is, because, as discussed in class Tuesday, liberalism incorporates both ideas unique to liberalism and borrows ideas from realism. So, alright, yes, it is both, but we're calling both liberalism at the moment.

My support of this lies in the preamble of the charter:

"to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and...

to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest"

Alright, so, the UN will use armed force it is deems it necessary to the common good of peace.
Which is a little bit like using realist methods to achieve liberal goals.

Which is what I said in class Tuesday.
Beyond that, it really is a question of how you want to look at the UN: if you want to look at the ideals it was founded on, then yes, it is completely liberal. If you want to look at how it actually acts, then yes, it is still pretty much liberal. Looking at relative and absolute gains....everyone in the UN achieves absolutely. Relatively, however, is based on the interactions within the UN and can change on the turn of a dime (or a dollar, which seems very applicable now in days). It could generally be said that the Group of 77 relatively receives more than others, and from a realist point of view this would be looked at negatively.

Yet from the liberal point of view, the gains are a part of mutual benefits: if developing nations are better developed, then the status of the world's economy is more stable, and everyone benefits from a stable economy (please see current stock market crash for more proof), and stable economies are more peaceful.

Alternatively, achieving economic stability is a really sneaky way of creating peace. Actually, liberalism is a really sneaky way of creating peace. By creating so many ties to each other that if one is damaged, others are too, incentive is created to not be a jerkface and get all aggressive up in this globe. Which in theory should work, but doesn't always pan out.

Which brings up a good point...has the UN ever really stopped a war? In my opinion, no. Then again, you can't have everything.

Go UN, you can make it if you try [harder].