Eighty years on: revisiting the dream of the United Nations

Eighty years ago, the United Nations was founded at the end of the Second World War. Like the League of Nations before it, its purpose was – as it still is – ‘to promote co-operation among nations’.

The magnitude of its failure is all too easy to see. Despite the deeply committed and courageous work of many in the organisation, and perhaps of some of its member states, the world today is blighted by conflict far more than it is blessed by co-operation. Genocide, war and famine compete with climate breakdown to destroy lives and ruin the earth.

Is it too late to reform the UN? What would it need to fulfil its original purpose?

This talk is sponsored by Bath & District UNA, Bath Stop War and Rethinking Security B&NES.

Jane Kinninmont is chief executive officer at the United Nations Association UK.

She was previously, in turn, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, head of programmes for The Elders and policy and impact director at the European Leadership Network.

She has contributed to a wide range of publications, including the Economist, the Financial Times, Newsweek, the Guardian and Prospect, and to consultancies and NGOs such as Oxford Analytica and Freedom House. She appears regularly in the broadcast media.