PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · The United Nations
Do you endorse that the United Nations needs major changes in its structures and functioning? Suggest the changes for efficient improvements.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
Rk} Hammarskjéld's minimum test (save humanity from hell) → Rwanda / Srebrenica / Darfur fall below even that → endorse major change R2 Joel Ng: legitimacy = representation + effectiveness → UN short on both → so structures and functioning both need change
Body flow
Council's composition frozen at 1945 → no permanent seat for Africa / Latin America → veto converts P5 rivalry into paralysis (Syria, Ukraine) → same fault runs into functioning: no standing army, borrowed troops, slow deployment, funding shortfalls → Barnett: reactive, not preventive → hence remedies on both tracks → structure: expand both categories (Africa, Latin America, India), Annan's 24-member plan, restrain the veto, greater decision-making weight for the General Assembly → functioning: peacekeeping → peacebuilding, quicker deployment, Sachs on merging /closing overlapping programmes, Secretariat transparency + independent oversight
Counter-view
Weiss: entrenched interests will not concede reform without a burden-sharing bargain → UN80 (2026): posts cut 21%, Council composition untouched → efficiency can be administered, representation must be conceded → Guterres himself: status quo "untenable"
Conclusion routes
R1 Vajpayee: UN only as effective as members allow → reform begins at the top, in the Council, or the body goes moribund R2 managerial reform without Council reform leaves the veto intact → representation remains the test of a credible UN
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
