Dominic Waghorn

So it started off with 51 nations, and it was basically set up, obviously, by the victors of World War II.

So at the top of it is the UN Security Council, China, Russia, France, Germany, Britain and America, obviously not the vanquished in World War II, Germany and Japan, and none of the developing nations either.

But it's swelled to this much bigger, much more unwieldy organisation now of 193 nations.

And I go to Manhattan, to New York every year for the UN General Assembly.

which is a couple of weeks where New York comes to a grinding halt because 193 world leaders and all their diplomats arrive and their motorcades bring the place to a halt.

But every year we hear the same calls, which this organization has just got too big.

It needs to be reformed.

Nothing actually ever happens.

One person described trying to get changes to the UN like herding cats.

And it's got so big.

And it's kind of like a Tower of Babel and just a talking shop.

Now, clubs work really well if everyone agrees on something and it has a force multiplier effect.

So if the whole world agrees that climate change, for instance, is a problem and the entire membership of the 193 Nation Club focuses on dealing with it, then obviously it can be very effective.

The challenge really is galvanising it into united, coordinated action.

And that's been a fundamental problem for the last couple of decades at least.

Yeah, we have.

Yeah.

So, if you think about it as a sort of club, at the top of that club, there's this committee.

And the committee is made up of five permanent members, those countries I listed, and then 10 temporary members who sort of get it for every two years.

Now, the permanent members aren't just permanent, but they also have a right of veto.