- By Richard Falk Princeton University and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (August 2006)

The UN has become in these situations, sadly, more of a geopolitical instrument than an instrument for the enforcement of international law. This regression betrays the vision that the guided the architects of the UN back in 1945, chief among whom were American diplomats. It is today incapable of protecting any state that is the victim of an aggressive war initiated by the United States or its close allies. Sad as it is, this assessment should not lead to a cynical dismissal of the Organization. We need the UN - and there are three ways in which we can help it be what it was meant to be.

- For those of us who believe that we must never let any state get away with forcing the UN to undermine its own authority and the fundamentally important norms of its Charter, Richard Falk's analysis is a deeply moving wake-up call to us all: Do something before the UN decays completely as an organization for world peace. And he tells us what can still be done. Please read it, translate it, send it on to anyone in the media, decision-makers and friends worldwide! - urges TFF director Jan Oberg.

- www.transnational.org/pressinf/2006/pi241_Falk_AssessUNLeb.html