The U.N. Security Council is Struggling. We Still Need It

Eighty years ago, the Allied victors of World War II founded the United Nations to prevent future wars and shape the postwar order. They agreed that five powers– the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, and France—would play a dominant role within it. These five permanent, veto power-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council—the P5—would be the world’s policemen.

As world leaders gather in New York for the annual meetings of the U.N., few would argue that the P5 are fulfilling the ambitions of the organization’s founders. The P5 are at odds over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, and crises from Sudan to Myanmar.

During the Cold War, the divisions between the major powers were sometimes so intense that the Security Council did not meet fo