The General Assembly at the United Nations in New York City. The room is brimming with world leaders this week, but what does it actually accomplish? (Patrick Gruban-wikicommons)

World leaders at the UN General Assembly: to what end?

Hundreds of world leaders and top officials are meeting this week in New York at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly.

Speeches will be given and many discussions will take place, but really, what does all this, or even the UN itself accomplish?

Aurel Braun (PhD) is a close follower and analyst of international affairs, He is a Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the University of Toronto and an Associate of the Davis Center at Harvard University.

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So far some of the highlights have been, not unexpectedly, the speech of U.S. President Donald Trump who accused China of meddling in internal politics, and also promoted the concept of promoting the interests of one’s own country first, as in his “America First” policy.

International affairs expert, Professor Aurel Braun (PhD) of the University of Toronto (CBC)

Canada’s delegation of several ministers is said to be lobbying hard for one of the two temporary seats on the Security Council which will come available in 2021.

Canada’s main speech will be given not by Prime Minister Trudeau, but rather by Foreign Minister Chystia Freeland.

Professor Braun however says the general assembly is like a theatre in which leaders get to promote their agenda and get world and domestic exposure that the otherwise would not get.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pictured at the United Nations headquarters in New York City last year. Trudeau has said Canada and the world benefits when the country has a seat at the UN Security Council.-but given recent international transgressions does the Security Council even have any effective power (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

He notes that the UN does perform some good works such as for refugees and international aid, but notes it’s expensive “like delivering pizza with a Rolls Royce” and that perhaps there are less expensive and more efficient ways of accomplishing some of these tasks.

Professor Braun notes that there are more autocratic and corrupt governments represented at the UN, than democratic ones. (Manuel Elias- UN)

However, he says the UN has a significant problem, like that of the failed League of Nations before it. That is a failure or inability to act in the face of illegal international aggressions such as the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, the Chinese actions in occupying the international waters of the South China Sea, and several other situations of aggressions around the world.

Stopping such international aggression is the core mandate of the organisation, he says, and one it seems unable to perform whether at the General Assembly level, or at the theoretically more powerful Security Council level, and this he notes is a serious flaw that the U.N. has to address or risk at some point in the future af going the way of the preceding League of Nations.

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