Mincing no words the UN Secretary general during the course of his recent visit to Pakistan lamented the fact that the real power in the UN lay in the hands of five super powers. The UN Secretary general belongs to a small country like Portugal which though once used to be a colonial power but those were the days when any country which ruled the waves used to be very strong and Portugal then had a very strong Navy.
If one looks into the history of the UN one notices that, by and large, its general secretaries maintained a very cordial working relationship with envoys of those countries which enjoyed veto power. They were always kept in good humour by them. One, however, remember strained relationship between the then Soviet leader Nikitia Khuruschev and UN Secretary general Dag Hammerskold which would have taken a turn for the worse but for the latter’unfortunate death in a plane crash which proved the drop scene of their long drawn_out political battle. Seen in this context the aforementioned words of the UN Secretary general must have grated on the leaders of those countries which are vested with veto powers.
Some of its drawbacks, notwithstanding, the UN has been able to checkmate the eruption of third world war unlike its predecessor organisation the League of Nation which collapsed after 26 years of its existence when the second world war started. There were many reasons for the failure of the League of Nation but the main handicap with which it suffered was that right from day one, Germany, US and some Asian countries opposed it.
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