ABSTRACT
Having now surveyed the United Nations from top to bottom and situated it in the political and theoretical traditions of modern international relations and organization, we are obliged to conclude by addressing briefly the common query: “Is the UN worthwhile, given that it seems unable on many occasions to enforce its decisions or carry out its resolutions?” During the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Washington advanced the equally quotidian grumble that the United Nations had demonstrated its “irrelevancy” in modern world politics. Readers will sense that the complex answer to the query and the grouse rests within the pages preceding this epilogue. So, while a thorough response would hearken back to the full text, we recognize that these familiar comments require a reasonable final parry.
