1957 - Lord Salter - The United Nations: Reform, Replace or Supplement?

In this lecture, Lord Salter discussed the institutional problems facing the United Nations and suggests some solutions. He noted that the primary problem is that the Security Council is bound up in superpower rivalry, leading to a constant succession of vetoes without any decisions being made. He reflected that the League of Nations was based on an idea of consent even stronger than that of the United Nations, extending power to smaller as well as larger nations. This idea, he claimed, was at least more logical. Either way, the success of either institution is dependent on agreement between its most important members. As to alternatives, he explored three ideas: that the Assembly be given new powers to make legally binding decisions, the Charter be amended to remove the veto powers of the permanent members of the Security Council, or that the project be abandoned all together in order, all of which he disagreed with. On the other hand, he supported ideas to supplement the United Nations with an international system that is consistent with the Charter but outside of it.