United Nations Reform?

 

The United Nations is surely after President Trump's removal of the Venezuelan dictator, ripe for reform?   Dictators are not my cup of tea but sadly the world seems full of them. President Trump's actions not so far apparently approved in the USA by Congress, verges on giving him the appearance of being a dictator or if not, moving in that direction.

For a foreign leader to  depose a dictator may be a fairly straight forward  action for a wealthy country with sizeable and well equipped armed forces but ensuring the country is reasonably well run thereafter is hardly easy, as the case of Iraq illustrates. 

The 2003 removal oft the dictator Saddam Hussein, from running Iraq again by USA led forces, was effected in a  relatively straightforward way but governing the country thereafter was, putting it mildly, difficult.

My Catholic friend from Baghdad   initially welcomed the regime change but fairly soon afterwards condemned it. The USA had few if any plans for running Iraq  with the result that fighting and killings took place between various faction for years afterwards.

The USA now appears to have few real plans for Venezuela beyond seeking the country's extensive oil supply although this may of course be incorrect.

More significantly there are many other nations run by dictators not the least of which is China. Thus reforming the United Nations may be the least worst way forward. 

What reforms to the UN should there be? Setting up a committee to consider this way forward is a possibility especially if the committee is required to report back to the UN general assembly within  say 12 months.

My own view is that reform rendering decisions of  the UN Security Council to be capable of being delayed by a year following a general assembly vote to that effect, would be possible. The House of Lords in the UK can currently use such delaying powers as regards many decisions of the House of Commons through which the government generally operates. The power to delay is limited to one month for tax and spending decisions. Presumably not too dissimilar  provisions could be made to work for the UN.