Born to prevent war, UN at 75 faces deeply polarized world

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Born out of World War II's devastation to save succeeding generations from the scourge of conflict, the United Nations officially marks its 75th anniversary Monday at an inflection point in history, navigating a polarized world as it faces a pandemic, regional conflicts, a shrinking economy and growing inequality.

Criticized for spewing out billions of words and achieving scant results on its primary mission of ensuring global peace, the U.N. nonetheless remains the one place that its 193 member nations can meet to talk.

And as frustrating as its lack of progress often is, especially when it comes to preventing and ending crises, there is also strong support for its power to bring not only nations but people of all ages from all walks of life, ethnicities and religions together to discuss critical issues like climate change.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, looking back on the U.N.'s history in an AP interview in June, said its biggest accomplishment so far is the long period during which the most powerful nations didn't go to war and nuclear conflict was avoided. Its biggest failing, he said: its inability to prevent medium and small conflicts.

The United Nations marked its actual 75th anniversary — the signing of the U.N. Charter in San Francisco on June 26, 1945 by delegates from about 50 countries — on that date this year at an event scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Then, Guterres said people are continuing to lose trust in government and political establishments. He had warned about the rise of populism triggering increasing threats to multilateralism and called for multilateralism to be given “teeth.” He has often denounced what he calls a “groundswell of xenophobia, racism and intolerance."

He also urged the inclusion of civil society, cities, the private...