The forgotten pragmatism of the United Nations: A half-way house between nationalism and cosmopolitanism

Focusing on the United Nations (UN), the world’s largest and arguably only global international organization, the chapter probes into the highly contrasting perceptions of thate world body held by respectively the New Right and the Globalist Left respectively. More specifically, it asks why the liberal defence of the UN remains so feeble at a time when the conservative attack is more vitriolic than ever. The answer, it suggests, is not so much that the UN after seventy plus years is no longer “fit for purpose,” but rather that its liberal defenders have forgotten that power politics and clashes of interests and values are intrinsic to the functioning of the UN.