The war in Ukraine and the Middle East conflict between the United States and Iran have raised fundamental questions about the existence and role of the United Nations as the central institution for managing international conflicts. Whenever I appeared on television to comment on the U.S.-Iran war, one question was impossible to avoid: Where is the United Nations and what is it doing? In the past, whenever a major armed conflict broke out between states, the international community naturally looked to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). However, in the latest crisis, the United Nations has been virtually invisible. Although Pakistan and several other countries have undertaken limited mediation efforts, they have not been able to exert enough influence to stop the fighting. China and Russia have even used their vetoes to block a Security Council resolution calling for the protection of commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and a coordinated international response. The U.S.-Iran war has become yet another example of the growing impotence of the United Nations, which is supposed to st