"Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night.” Those words came from American First Lady Michelle Obama.

A tragic blow dealt to the Nigerian people, the Boko Haram attack could have been  prevented, according to prior Nigerian intelligence. Even worse, the United Nations might have been in a position to stop it, but it failed to act. With many different levels needed to obtain permission to act in a highly volatile crisis situation, the UN decision-making process is far too cumbersome and slow.  The UN is such a highly ineffective organization that many people have compared it to the failed League of Nations, which was dissolved in 1946.

With its diminished powers, the UN is not able to prevent wars from occurring. The Iraq War is one such example. The US suspected that Iraq contained weapons of mass destruction (WMD)  and demanded that Iraq let inspectors verify the WMD’s existence. If Iraq did not agree to those terms, Iraq would be invaded, according to the White house. Bush knew Saddam Hussein would not allow the inspectors into his country. With that possibility, Bush asked the UN for permission to invade in order to learn whether or not the WMDs exist. With Russian and French opposition to UN intervention in Iraq, the international agency hesitated to agree to the US request. In addition, the US did not trust the competency of UN inspectors. Given these conditions, Bush ordered US troops to invade Iraq. Within seventy-two hours they were able to capture Baghdad.

The World Bank is one of the most controversial UN agencies. A lender of money to developing countries, it has acquired a reputation for charging high interest rates on its loans. The World Bank’s mandate is to help developing countries grow their economy. Borrowing money from the WB is a double-edged sword. On the bright side, developing countries get much needed money. On the dark side, many countries that borrow the money can’t repay the loans at the exorbitant interest rates the WB charges and they fall into deep debt. The developing countries vehemently oppose WB policies, but the WB is turning a deaf ear towards them.

Running out of options, those countries have turned to the China led Asian infrastructure investment bank. China and other countries were dissatisfied with the amount of influence they had at the WB. China decided to create its own bank in order to have more power over lending policies.  The US used the world bank to maintain its dominance in the world of developing countries loans, but the Chinese disagreed. As for the Europeans, they wanted to join the cool kids on the block. In this case that’s China. The first kid to become a member of the new gang was Great Britain. This was a shock to the US and a wakeup call that the US needs to change its World Bank lending policies. Other Western European countries soon followed Britain's lead amid American protests.

The UN has lost some of its clout in other areas as well. The World Health Organization is the equivalent to the American Center for Disease Control,  but the WHO operates on a global scale. Its job is to study and stop diseases before they become an international issue. However for the most part, the WHO is slow to act. For example, the CDC criticized the WHO’s poor response time to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. West Africa did not have its own health system in place that could cope with the rapid spread of the virus. As a result of this, more than 10,000 people in the world were infected.

Until the UN reduces its bureaucracy,  it will remain a less effective organization.