Does the UN effectively promote international security, peace and wellbeing worldwide? The UN is a repository of our hopes. It reflects and embodies the highest ideals. At the same time it also embodies and reflects the realities of international politics.

In a 2007 poll, two out of three Americans were disappointed at UN failures. Yet the same proportion wants the UN to play a strong role in settling global problems. The UN was designed with a Secretariat which was given the power to implement policies and actions designed by the member states. The UN was never intended as a world government and was never given the power and the funding to achieve goals not fully agreed upon. The strongest political body, the Security Council, has 15 members with five major countries holding veto power. Even the threat of a veto determines what comes up before the Council. The Secretary General is far more secretary than general. If the major powers cannot agree on an action, it will not happen.

Much of the UN's work is not controversial. Over 80% is humanitarian and highly effective given the small budget allocated for it. The UN is the first recourse for aiding both natural and manmade disasters. Essentials for survival come quickly--bags of food, crates of medicine, blankets and tents. Rescue workers under the blue flag appear in hours. Through its many agencies, the UN promotes clean water, safe schools, vaccination and education campaigns. The UN is a leader in promoting security, education, and empowerment of women. The greatly feared worldwide pandemic, triggered by avian flu, has so far been avoided, thanks to international cooperation carried out through the UN.

Disappointment with the UN springs primarily from the UN's limited ability to control human rights abuses, and particularly the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur. The Rwanda genocide happened because the US, under President Clinton, actively lobbied against sending more peacekeepers. The ongoing genocide in Darfur continues in part because China protects Sudan from excessive attention in the Security Council. The Sudanese government uses the currency it earns from selling oil to China, to buy weapons from China.

Yet even in the mine-strewn and politically explosive area of peacekeeping the UN has negotiated 172 peaceful settlements of regional conflicts. The UN peacekeepers can keep a peace process going, but only when there is a process to keep. The major powers must agree to effectively intervene for the UN to carry out its function.

When governments agree the UN can intervene with speed and effectiveness. In some cases, as in Haiti, the UN has a strong mandate to use force to protect civilians. In the war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, when tensions threatened to ignite the entire Middle East, the participants and the governments wanted a ceasefire. The UN was there, ready and able to call a halt using peacekeepers. They stopped what could have been a spreading conflagration.

There are currently 16 peacekeeping operations. The need for peacekeepers has grown sharply from 10,000 personnel in 1999, to 85,000 in 2007. Amazingly, the UN spends less on peacekeeping worldwide, than New York City spends on the annual budget of the Police Department. The UN is developing a Peace-building Commission to prevent countries at risk from falling into or returning to internal conflict.

The UN is desperately needed. Problems are now global, crossing borders without passports. Climate change, resistance to international terrorism, weapons proliferation, epidemics spread by world travel, all demand cooperation. The participation of the world's largest economy, the US, is essential. It is tragic that the US has pursued a mostly unilateral approach, rejecting the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and payment of its arrears in dues to the UN.

During this election year it is a melancholy fact that the presidential candidates have not mentioned the UN or the urgent need for active global cooperation. We must demand a wiser policy from the next administration. At its best, the UN is the world's conscience. The Secretary-General has a bully pulpit to be used both for consciousness raising and to keep alive a vision of the world as it should be.

Phyllis Ehrenfeld is President of the National Service Conference(NSC) of the American Ethical Union and NSC Representative to the UN.
Dr Sylvain Ehrenfeld is IHEU Representative to the UN.