Richard Gott

About the author: Richard Gott is literary editor of the Guardian, a British newspaper.

Many people had hoped that the United Nations would become a relevant force in the wake of the cold war. Since then, however, the U.N. has increasingly been attacked as being a corrupt, wasteful, and ineffective organization. In fact, in its current form, the U.N. is a conservative organization that serves the interests of capitalist countries, and it is incapable of being reformed as a democratic institution. As public support continues to subside, the U.N. is likely to implode—and its demise should not be mourned.

The United Nations, forever bumbling away in the background, has been so much part of our lives for the past half century that it is difficult to imagine the time...