Don't Dismiss the Might of the UN

Joseph Stalin once dismissed the relevance of soft power by asking, How many troops does the Pope have? Today, many self-styled realists dismiss the United Nations as powerless, and argue that it can be ignored. They are mistaken.

Power is the ability to affect others to produce the outcomes one wants. Hard power works through payments and coercion (carrots and sticks); soft power works through attraction and co- option. With no forces of its own and a relatively tiny budget, the UN has only as much hard power as it can borrow from its member states. It was created in 1945 to be the servant of its member states, and Article 2.7 of its charter protects the sovereign jurisdiction of its members.

After the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s, the UN was designed to have the Security Council's permanent members act as policemen to enforce collective security. When the great powers agreed, the UN had impressive hard power, as demonstrated in the Korean War and the first Gulf War.

However, the UN has considerable soft power that arises from its ability to legitimise the actions of states, particularly regarding the use of force. People do not live wholly by the word, but neither do they live solely by the sword. For example, the UN could not prevent the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but the absence of its imprimatur greatly raised the costs to the American and British governments.

The greatest damage to the UN's legitimacy has been self-inflicted. For example, in recent years the internal bloc politics among its member states produced a Human Rights Council with little interest in fair procedures or the advance of human rights. Likewise, administrative inefficiency has led to poor performance of high-profile efforts like the oil-for-food programme.

The UN has impressive power both hard and soft when states agree on policies under the Charter. It has modest but useful soft power when great powers disagree but are willing to acquiesce in a course of action. And it has very little power when the great powers oppose an action, or repressive member governments ignore the claims of the new responsibility to protect. In such cases, it makes no sense to blame the UN. Soft power is real, but it has its limits. The fault lies not with the UN, but with the lack of consensus among member states.

Joseph Nye is University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard and author of Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.