The Maturity of Peace: The Case for a Truly Empowered United Nations
In the final days of 2025, the world remains caught in a paradoxical loop: as our technological capacity for destruction reaches new heights, our global mechanisms for preventing that destruction remain tethered to the mid-20th century. Recent events in Ukraine and Nigeria serve as stark reminders that the current international order is insufficient. To move beyond this cycle of violence, we must recognize that empowering the United Nations is not merely a political necessity; it is a profound expression of psychological and moral maturity.
The Cost of Impotence: Kyiv and Jabo
The necessity of a stronger UN is written in the smoke of current conflicts. Just this week, as high-stakes peace talks between Ukraine and Russia were being prepared, Kyiv was subjected to a massive barrage of over 500 drones and missiles. This strike was not just a military action; it was a diplomatic statement—a calculated use of force to undermine negotiations before they could even begin. When one party can “weaponize the cold” and destroy civilian heating infrastructure on the eve of a summit, it exposes a fundamental flaw in our global system: the lack of a neutral, empowered arbiter capable of enforcing a ceasefire.
Similarly, the village of Jabo in northwestern Nigeria recently experienced the terrifying “red glow” of a military-grade airstrike. While targeted at insurgent groups, the strike left a peaceful community in a state of panic and confusion. In both Kyiv and Jabo, the common denominator is the vulnerability of the individual to the whims of state or paramilitary violence. Currently, the UN can monitor, report, and provide aid, but it cannot effectively intervene to prevent the first shot from being fired or the first missile from being launched.
Global Governance as Psychological Maturity
To advocate for a UN with the power to truly stop conflict—through binding arbitration, a standing rapid-response force, or the removal of the paralyzing Security Council veto—is often dismissed as “idealistic.” However, from a psychological perspective, this advocacy is actually a sign of adult maturity.
In human development, a child views the world through the lens of their own immediate needs and the “might makes right” principle of the playground. As an individual matures into an “adult,” they internalize a more complex reality:
- Impulse Control: Just as a mature adult learns to resolve personal disputes through law and dialogue rather than fists, a mature civilization must move toward institutionalized peace.
- The Social Contract: True adulthood involves the recognition that giving up a degree of absolute, “wild” autonomy to a shared authority actually increases one’s long-term safety and freedom.
- Empathy Beyond the Tribe: A mature mind understands that the life of a farmer in Jabo is as inherently valuable as the life of a professional in Kyiv or a citizen in New York.
To believe that nations should be allowed to act as “lone wolves,” answerable to no one, is a form of collective arrested development. It is the political equivalent of a “toddler” phase of history—tempestuous, self-centered, and dangerous.
Conclusion: Choosing to Grow Up
The empowerment of the United Nations represents the next stage of human evolution. It is the transition from a world of “warring tribes” to a “global community” governed by the rule of law. If we are to avoid a future of perpetual strikes on cities and villages, we must have the courage to build a system that can say “no” to the aggressor and “stay” to the hand of violence. Supporting this shift is not a sign of weakness or naive optimism; it is the ultimate sign of a civilization that has finally chosen to grow up.