The League of Nations came into existence on January 1oth 1920, with the main aim being to settle international disputes before they ever got out of trouble. The League of Nations though it attained small initial success, by the end of the 1940s the league practically became dysfunctional. The biggest failure of the league was its inability to prevent world war II. The United Nations was formed in 1945, after the war, in order to do what the league failed i.e to prevent future wars. In 75 years of its existence the league was partly successful in preventing major wars -its main objective- but also has its fair share of issues too.

Success Of United Nations In Comparison To League Of Nations

1. Wide membership: The biggest positive for united nations which helped in its smooth functioning is its wide multilateralism. The United Nations today consists of 193 members and has been widely accepted by all sovereign states giving it legitimacy the league lacked. Even at its peak, the League had only 55 nations and major powers of the day like the USA were not part of the league.
2. Power to take military sanction: League of nations lacked its own police force which was not the case with the UN. For example, when Italy invaded Abyssinia, the League denounced Italy as the aggressor but failed to stop the invasion. UN having a strong UN peacekeeping force and its charter mandating that all members must comply with UNSC decree in case of military action has been successful in resolving conflicts like the Suez crisis, Korean War, Gulf war, etc.
3. One of the main reasons why the League failed was the way its charter was drafted. The League did not include all the major powers of the day. The UN particularly UNSC included all five major military powers of the day and providing them with veto powers has ensured that these major powers will never go to war against one another.
4. Normative power of UN: One area which attributed more success to the UN than the League was its normative power. The active presence of the UN in the world through its different missions has resolved disputes and inhibited escalation of conflict. The best example of UN normative power keeping the peace is in the case of Israel-Syria, Iraq-Kuwait.
5. Scope of UN mandate: Both league and UN were formed with very simple objectives i.e to maintain peace and to encourage international cooperation. But the UN was more successful in fulfilling these objectives because of the scope or wide range of powers it was given. The UN mandate not only asks it to prevent conflicts but also empowers the organization to carry out state-building efforts, support civilians, protection of human rights, and more. This wide mandate has enabled the UN to function more effectively.
6. Prevention of Nuclear proliferation: One of the biggest successes of the UN is to prevent nuclear proliferation to a vast extent. The Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) regime helped establish shared understandings of what was considered prestigious, legitimate, or delegitimize, and states thereby chose to disarm rather than be classified as rogue nations by the international community.
7. Human rights as main thrust: UN has been concerned with human rights violations across the globe especially post-cold war, which is another marked departure from the league of nations that was unable to prevent Nazi persecution of jews. UN operates under the “responsibility to protect” principle, where it can intervene to protect civilians from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, etc when the state has failed to fulfill this function.

Issues With United Nations

1. Despite taking collective security actions to tackle conflicts, UNSC has been criticized for being undemocratic, and for upholding procedures that impede robust action in important situations where international law has been violated but the P5 disagrees, such as in Syria.
2. Another issue is with the way the UN had dealt with P5 members when they themselves violated the UNSC decisions. For example, the US invasion of Iraq, or the weak oversight it had on the US-led strike on Iraq in 1990.
3. Another issue with the main mandate of the UN i.e keeping the peace is the increased role of the UN peacekeeping force from keeping the peace to enforcing peace. But UN peacekeeping forces are not equipped to handle this increased role.
4. UN operations are an ideal of liberal democratic peace, where aspects like democratization, rule of law, and economic restructuring were promoted. But this has been a hindrance to its success because it is disregarding the state’s right to choose its political, or economic, and cultural system. The best example of this is the UN operation in Afghanistan.
5. Some of the glaring failures of the UN were the failure to stop the Rwandan genocide, the Srebrenica massacre, and the inactions and paralysis of the UN in a number of ongoing crises like Russia’s takeover of Crimea, Israel-Palestine conflict, etc.

Despite its failures, the history of the UN has shown that P5 and other member countries more often than not agree on important resolutions. The UN so far has shown the ability to adapt and reinvent itself in line with emerging global challenges.