PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · The United Nations
Do you agree with the view that despite the limitations in the functioning of the UN, it has distinguished and unique achievements to its credit?
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
#2 SHAPSHOT —howtheanswermovs
Body flow
R1 Hammarskjold's yardstick (save from hell, not carry to heaven) → judged so, agree → limits and achievements share one root R2) UN acts only as far as members permit → failures = members’, achievements = organisation's → hence "unique"
Counter-view
collective security rests on great-power unanimity —. one veto cancels it → Cold War paralysis → failure wherever P5 interest engaged (Rwanda, Srebrenica, Syria) → Pillay: narrow national interest above human suffering → no army, no assured funds → turn: where members did not obstruct → decolonisation (80 members, 750 mn) → human-rights law (UDHR 1948 → Covenants 1966) → more law in seven decades than all earlier history → peacekeeping (172 settlements) → non-political record strongest of all → proves the block is political, not institutional
Conclusion routes
a body that can be bypassed and starved owns only permitted achievements → Gowan: dangerous dependence on two paying members (US, China) → UN80, May 2026: status quo untenable Rk! Hanhimaki: far from flawless, but the forum's legitimacy has no substitute → that legitimacy is the unique achievement R2 | agree — limits owned by members, achievements by the organisation → reform, not replacement, is the honest verdict
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
