Is the United Nations Still Relevant in 2025?

Can the UN be reformed to fit 2025’s world, or do we need new forums for a future world? 

The United Nations logo adorns a window at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Sept. 18, 2025. Reuters/Jeenah Moon

Commentary

In September 2025, at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Donald Trump stepped to the podium and posed a question that reverberated through the hall and across global headlines: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?”