What if … the United Nations was disbanded next Friday?

If the UN were abolished, many of the illusions of shared international norms would collapse. Diplomacy would shift decisively towards bilateral and regional arrangements, making global engagement openly transactional. In truth, much of, if not all, diplomacy already operates that way – (US President Donald) Trump’s transactional approach merely stripped away the pretence of a rules-based order. Still, the UN’s framework, however flawed, provides a reference point for international law and moral pressure in crises and conflicts. Without it, even that limited leverage would vanish, and vulnerable populations would bear the brunt. Many UN-backed treaties that attempt to uphold international norms would lose force or relevance. In fact, we are already seeing this erosion – the UN’s existence no longer guarantees the protection of those norms. Abolishing it would simply accelerate the breakdown, with regional blocs like the European Union or the African Union trying to fill the void, though none could replicate the UN’s global scope or legitimacy."