War, arms race and UN crisis as a democracy problem

Another democracy problem with the UN system is that not all countries are represented in a fair way. Entire continents, such as Africa and Latin America, lack permanent representation on the Security Council, and populous nations such as India also lack permanent influence in the most important decisions.

Following the US's charter-defying military interventions in Venezuela and Iran in early 2026, more and more voices are now being raised from various countries to reform the UN Charter so that the representation problem is improved and the veto right is weakened in some way, perhaps by requiring more than one permanent member to support the veto or by allowing the veto to be overridden by a qualified majority in the General Assembly.

A small group of heads of state and UN representatives have taken up the issue under the coordination of Jeffrey Sachs. They met online at the end of April (https://youtu.be/SHVvg3zG2Is) and will continue to work on the issue. They are based on an ongoing initiative by 40 civil society organizations called The Article 109 Coalition (https://article109.org), which refers to the UN article that deals with how the UN Charter can be formally amended.

The arms race and wars between states are a problem of democracy seen from the perspective that ordinary people in most countries have no interest in going to war. Those who have an interest in war are partly arms producers or economic actors who want to access raw materials or markets, and partly political actors who seek power out of ideological, religious or economic interest. To get ordinary people to agree to war preparations and military confrontation, psychological manipulation is required in the form of propaganda that paints an evil enemy image that whips up fear and motivates escalation into armed conflict.

Sanctions and influence campaigns from an external power to bring about regime change in a recalcitrant country are often justified with democratization as a pretext when the real motive is to get a new government that is willing to let in exploitative companies or allow the establishment of military bases.

In the Ukraine war, Europe has chosen to reject diplomacy between the parties and instead support Ukraine militarily, which continues to lead to more deaths and serious injuries, as well as enormous material destruction and environmental degradation. Currently, there are tens of thousands of deaths every month and a total of two million dead and injured in the war according to CSIS, but the figure is very uncertain because the truth is the first victim of war and both parties understate their own and exaggerate the enemy's losses.

Conflict resolution must ultimately take place through a process where the parties listen to each other and come to a compromise that both can live with. The process and the outcome will be more stable if it is done with the help of neutral and professional conflict managers and mediators.