The United Nations is Soverign

The United Nations is a sovereign body in the world, yet not formally considered one. The United Nations is made up of many sovereign nations that work together equally (in most cases) and therefore have authority. In our class discussion, it was noted that to have authority, the body that is to be sovereign needs territorial boundaries (because there needs to be a community that recognized the authority). However, because the United Nations is made up of countries that have their own territorial boundaries and recognition of authority over them, the people recognizing their country also recognize the laws that their country made in conjunction with the United Nations. Alex Hochman recommends that the United Nations take Antarctica as their territory. Territory and recognition problems aside, the United Nations also has the legal authority to declare war.
The United Nations also has power in the world; power being defined as lasting influence through the military, economics, leadership, and relationships with other nations. Of course, the United Nation’s military isn’t very large, but if a country decided to declare war on the United Nations, then it would be assumed that the nations that comprise the United Nations would join together to take down the antagonist. Therefore, the military power of the United Nations is equal to the combined military power of the nations that make it up. The United Nations IS the relationships between other nations, so clearly the United Nations has the power to coerce nations to its’ will in addition.
The United Nations does have the capacity to govern itself, as it is not short of funds or manpower. The United Nations also has the autonomy to govern itself, and very few people/countries have risen up against it with many consequences. Countries may choose to flex their political biceps and threaten to do something against the United Nations’ policy but countries never do anything that would blatantly create war.