WI: USSR leaves UN in 1950s?
- Thread starter Ismailov
- Start date
Assume that they denounce the UN as too biased in favor of the West, which was a common complaint back then when a large chunk of the world was still comprised of colonies, Pan-Arabism was in its infancy, and Castro wasn't in power.
If the Soviets leave, then that gives the West precedent to kick out the countries that they don't like, which potentially turns the UN in a democracies only club.
Ignorant communist. Countries friendly to the U.S. are always democratic
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Oh, ok. Then not Americans ought to know a bit more about how international politics work.
The USSR leaving would, Ironically, MAKE the UN biased in favor of the West, as the USSR is gone.
Nations that complain of communists aggression, even USSR support of local communists, could appeal to the UN for aid, and might actually get a useful response.
Any communists complaints would likely get block by Vetos.
This would both weaken the UN as it would seem partisan.
AND strengthen the UN as VETO gridlock would be greatly lessened.
This could butterfly away the switch from Taiwan to Red China in the UN.
RoC would stay in China's slot, though PRC won't be as concerned. The UN would be for those countries in the Western sphere, and those in the Soviet sphere would do something else. Which, IMO, makes the UN little more than a glorified NATO and possibly has negative effects on a number of international treaties (various arms treaties, the space treaty, the moon treaty). I also think that one of the UN or NATO will start to die away/be subsumed by the other, at least after the war is over, unless Russia and the other former Soviet states join the UN after the end of the Cold War. (Probably resulting in the PRC eventually getting their spot as well).
It should be fairly obvious that the foremost goal of the USSR withdrawing from the UN would be to convince other countries to do so as well and to discredit the organization, making it much weaker than IRL.
Consider subtracting every Soviet veto, or threatened veto, for the entire Cold War. The last time the Soviets missed out on a key Security Council vote, the UN went into Korea.
But would have the Korean War gone any different had the Soviets vetoed? Sure the anti-communists wouldn't have been fighting under the banner of the UN but would it change the outcome of the war much?
If the USSR leaves the UN, they would likely force all of the Warsaw Pact countries to leave the UN with them, and then the Communist bloc would form their own "UN", dominated by the USSR and the PRC. And then the fight between the west and the USSR for influence in the third world would forces newly independent countries to choose between one of two "UNs". What would happen to the Non-Aligned Movement in this scenario?
OTOH, the failure of the League of Nations to prevent WW2 is still fresh in people's minds at the time, and the USSR leaving the UN and likely taking the Warsaw Pact members with it is likely to be seen as heading down a similar road. Especially if the Cold War seems to be getting ugly, would an effort to make concessions to keep the USSR in the UN be possible? I imagine this would probably mean allowing the PRC into the UN and perhaps a tougher stance on colonialism. Maybe too optimistic, but I could see Scandinavian countries or Non-Aligned countries pushing for this.
OTOH, the failure of the League of Nations to prevent WW2 is still fresh in people's minds at the time, and the USSR leaving the UN and likely taking the Warsaw Pact members with it is likely to be seen as heading down a similar road. Especially if the Cold War seems to be getting ugly, would an effort to make concessions to keep the USSR in the UN be possible? I imagine this would probably mean allowing the PRC into the UN and perhaps a tougher stance on colonialism. Maybe too optimistic, but I could see Scandinavian countries or Non-Aligned countries pushing for this.