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UN Comic
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- Slide: 1
- You're gonna have to be way more specific than that?
- Hey have you seen the news lately?
- Slide: 2
- Oh that! Well that’s because Russia is one of the P5 in the UN.
- I mean what is up with Ukraine not being able to join NATO?
- Slide: 3
- What’s the P5 and why does it matter that Russia is a part of it?
- The UN stands for The United Nations, it's a group of nation states that have come together in order to uphold peace across the world.
- Actually what even is the UN about?
- Slide: 4
- Actually, you wouldn’t imagine how easy it is for states to come into conflict even over what most people consider to be small issues.
- Why would all of those states need to come together to form an organization to uphold peace?
- I mean it can't be that difficult to prevent conflict or war!
- Slide: 5
- Like what exactly?
- Like right now with the whole back and forth motions of tariffs being thrown around. Many states are pissed off with the USA and as tensions rise there are many people thinking that a WWIII could arise from it.
- Slide: 6
- Ok but thats now why did they feel like they’d need to make a peace keeping organization back then?
- Well the UN was created in 1945 in San Francisco, CA after WWII ended. Hitler and Nazi Germany started taking control of other states and greatly harmed many disabled, LGBTQ, and Jewish people.
- Slide: 7
- In order to prevent the atrocities that Nazi Germany committed from ever happening 50 states got together to sign a peace treaty and became allies.
- So the UN is only 50 states? Aren’t there like way more states out in the world!
- Slide: 8
- There are and actually since the signing of the UN Charter in 1945, 143 states have joined, bringing the total number of states officially a part of the UN to 193 in the present day.
- Wow that is a lot! Alright, so if 143 states could join the UN and this is going back to the beginning of our conversation, how is the Russian and Ukrainian conflict involved in this?
- Slide: 9
- Remember when I mentioned how the UN was created in order to keep peace within the world. After the creation of the UN it was established that no state is allowed to invade another state no matter the reason in order to keep the peace.
- And Russia is currently invading Ukraine which is its own separate state!
- Slide: 10
- See you're getting the hang of this!
- Wait if states aren’t allowed to invade each other then why has Russia gotten so far with all the damage they’ve done to Ukraine?
- Slide: 11
- That is because of the P5 or the Permanent 5. It is composed of five nation states who make the final decisions. These five members were the largest allies during WWII, The United States of America, The United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France.
- What do you mean by they make the final decisions?
- Slide: 12
- They basically have this thing called veto power, kind of like how if the president doesn't like a decision made by congress it's his way of shutting whatever it is down.
- Ok so like is it two or three of the states that have to say no in order for a decision to be shut down.
- Slide: 13
- No actually only one of the P5 has to say no for a decision to be shut down, which you can guess has caused some problems.
- Ok so because Russia is a member of this Permanent 5 in the UN, all of the other states a part of it aren’t able to do or say anything.
- Slide: 14
- Exactly, because as much as the other states want to allow Ukraine into NATO, they also have to take into consideration that if Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to join, then that's final.
- Well that doesn’t seem like a very smart decision.
- Slide: 15
- Why would they make it so that only one member of the P5 can invalidate the vote, wouldn’t it make more sense that at least two members have to disagree.
- You have to remember that this was signed after WWII and by states that came out on the winning side.
- Slide: 16
- The USA isn't the only state with a huge ego, they all want to make sure that their opinion is considered important.
- So the veto power is just so that each state can show off how strong and important it is?
- Slide: 17
- It's not just that, Neighboring states were worried about what Nazi Germany was doing and no one listened to them. Just think about how many people were killed.
- Aside from petting their egos, they also wanted to ensure that any worries by one states was listened to by the others. So that something like the Holocaust never happened again.
- Slide: 18
- So the veto is like a double edged sword where it makes sure that any idea that passes is one that was agreed upon by everyone but on the other hand is a power that can be abused.
- Exactly now the real question is, how or what can we do to stop it from being abused.?
- Slide: 19
- Like with the current case with Russia abusing its veto power to prevent the state of Ukraine from joining NATO.
- Yes, you're absolutely right! But even I don't really have an answer to it with how complicated international politics can be.
- Slide: 20
- It may be a complicated matter but peoples lives are at stake. Homes are being destroyed and people are dying.
- It's a sad case; in an ideal world I'd like to believe that citizens of their respective states could keep their governments accountable for their actions.
- Slide: 21
- Hey thanks for telling me all of this. And you know what while were not sure what we can do, I'm happy that I understand the situation better now.
- Well I'm glad that I was at least able to help you.
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