EDITORIAL: UNGA 81: World Leaders Demand Change As Old Global Order Faces Fresh Test

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The United Nations was created in 1945 because the world had seen what happened when great powers failed to prevent catastrophe.

Eighty-one years later, the world has returned to New York with a difficult question; can the international system created after the Second World War still manage the world that exists today?

The 81st United Nations General Assembly has not produced a single answer. It has produced something more revealing; a growing disagreement among nations over how global power should be organised, who gets to exercise it and whether the institutions designed in 1945 still possess enough authority to deal with the crises of 2026.

That disagreement is no longer hidden beneath diplomatic language.

At the opening of the General Debate, General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman put the crisis bluntly: people outside the UN are asking whether the organisation works. He linked that question directly to the Security Council’s inability to act decisively on major conflicts and to the wider need for institutional reform.

That may be the most important question to come out of this year’s Assembly.

The problem is bigger than the Security Council

For decades, the five permanent members of the Security Council; China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have retained their permanent seats and veto powers.

The world around them has changed dramatically.

Africa has 54 UN member states. Countries such as Brazil, Türkiye, India and others increasingly argue that the distribution of authority within the international system no longer reflects today’s geopolitical reality.

Nigeria used the Assembly to renew Africa’s demand for permanent representation on the Security Council, arguing that the continent cannot continue to be central to the Council’s agenda while remaining outside its permanent membership.

The argument is not simply about Africa seeking seats.

It is about legitimacy.

If decisions affecting billions of people continue to be shaped by a structure whose permanent membership was fixed in the aftermath of the Second World War, then the UN will inevitably face questions about whether its political architecture has kept pace with history.

But reform is not as simple as adding countries to a list.

Who gets the new seats? Should they have veto power? Should the existing veto be retained? Should the veto itself be restricted or abolished? How should Africa decide who represents it?

Those questions explain why reform has remained unresolved for so long.

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went further, calling for comprehensive reform and questioning a system in which the decisions of more than 190 countries can ultimately be constrained by five permanent members. Russia, while supporting expansion of permanent membership, has argued that the existing veto should remain.

There is the problem in a single exchange.

Even countries demanding reform do not necessarily agree on what reform should mean.

And then there are the wars

The argument about institutional reform would be easier if the world were at peace.

It is not.

Ukraine remains at war. Gaza remains a devastating source of international division. Iran and the United States have exchanged sharply opposing positions, while the wider Middle East remains deeply unstable.

At the Assembly, President Donald Trump defended US foreign policy and warned Iran over the consequences of failing to reach a peace agreement. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, while sharply criticising Washington, also left the door open to diplomacy.

On Ukraine, the UN continued to hear calls for protection of civilians, an immediate ceasefire and a just and lasting peace consistent with the UN Charter. The United Nations reported that civilian casualties in the first eight months of 2026 had already exceeded those recorded throughout 2025.

The Gaza debate has been equally divisive.

Israel has used the Assembly to defend its military actions and challenge international criticism, while countries including Türkiye have accused Israel of unacceptable conduct and demanded greater international pressure. Israel rejects allegations of genocide and maintains that its military campaign is directed against Hamas.

The UN therefore finds itself in the uncomfortable position of being the world’s principal diplomatic meeting place while some of the world’s most powerful countries remain deeply divided over the very conflicts the organisation was created to help prevent and resolve.

That is not a communications problem.

It is an institutional problem.

The danger of a world governed by power alone

The most worrying development is not that countries disagree.

They have always disagreed.

The danger is what happens when countries begin to conclude that international institutions matter only when they serve their interests.

That is where the principle of international law begins to weaken.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned at the opening of the General Debate that the world faces defining tests over war and peace, inequality, climate change and artificial intelligence. He also renewed the call for Security Council reform, describing Africa’s continued absence from permanent membership as indefensible.

His warning deserves attention because the challenge is broader than today’s wars.

Artificial intelligence is already transforming economies, security systems and military capabilities. Climate change is producing consequences that do not respect national borders. Economic inequality is widening political tensions. Debt continues to constrain developing countries.

None of these problems can be solved by one country acting alone.

Yet the international system is increasingly being tested by countries pursuing national interests in an environment where collective institutions often struggle to respond.

That contradiction cannot continue indefinitely.

1945 cannot permanently govern 2026

There is nothing inherently wrong with preserving institutions created in 1945.

The problem arises when preservation becomes an excuse for refusing adaptation.

The United Nations has survived because the world still needs it. There is no credible replacement for a forum in which 193 countries can meet, negotiate and put their differences on record. The General Assembly itself remains the UN’s main deliberative and representative organ, with every member state holding one vote.

But survival is not the same thing as effectiveness.

A United Nations that cannot adequately represent the changing distribution of global power will continue to lose legitimacy.

A Security Council that cannot respond effectively when major conflicts erupt will continue to invite frustration.

And a system in which powerful countries selectively invoke international rules risks teaching weaker countries that rules are strongest when backed by power.

That would be a dangerous lesson.

Reform cannot become another diplomatic slogan

The world does not need another declaration promising that reform is necessary.

It needs countries to confront the difficult details.

Africa needs to determine how its permanent representation should work.

The existing permanent members must decide whether they are prepared to accept a broader distribution of power.

The wider membership must debate the future of the veto honestly.

And the General Assembly must find ways of making its influence count when the Security Council is paralysed.

None of this will be easy.

But the alternative is worse: an international system that continues to hold magnificent annual gatherings while its ability to prevent war, enforce common standards and command confidence steadily declines.

The 81st General Assembly has therefore exposed something more serious than disagreement between countries.

It has exposed a world in transition.

The old order has not disappeared. The new order has not fully emerged. Between the two lies uncertainty and that uncertainty is being played out through wars, alliances, economic competition, technological rivalry and the struggle for greater representation.

The UN was born from the recognition that humanity could not afford another global catastrophe.

Its challenge in 2026 is different but equally profound, it is to convince a changing world that international cooperation remains stronger than the logic of power alone.

That will require more than speeches.

It will require reform, compromise and political courage.

The world is watching.

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