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United Nations Is a Super Power: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A fictional, [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]/[[Exty Years From Now]] version of the [[United Nations]] that [[NGO Superpower|possesses political, military and/or economic power on par with a world superpower (or even hyperpower)]]. <ref>And for the record, this means that the UN effectively answers to no government save its own, thus technically qualifying it for "non-governmental organization" status.</ref> Or perhaps it takes the next step: becoming a [[One World Order|planetwide government]].
As some of the examples below would suggest, [[Fun with Acronyms]] is practically a necessity.
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In [[Real Life]], the UN has no military force of its own, and acts primarily through sanctions, when its members can be made to agree on anything in the first place. UN "military" are generally peacekeeping forces made up of units and equipment volunteered from member nations. As a result, many instances of this trope require that the UN adjust its structure to become much more powerful; frequently there is some form of world-threatening crisis that demands a unified multi-national force under UN command that results in the UN becoming far stronger.
Earlier works using this trope tend to portray the UN as the good guys. They represent the best aspects of humanity, doing its best to protect freedom. Latter works will show the Super UN as either overly bureaucratic (at best) or as an evil empire (at worse).
'''Do not confuse for "any crossing of [[NGO Superpower]], [[The Federation]] and/or [[One World Order]]". This trope is about the ''[[United Nations]] itself'', or a direct descendent or reformed incarnation thereof, becoming an [[NGO Superpower]] (and occasionally [[One World Order]]).'''
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== Films ==
* The UN is militarized in ''[[The Animatrix]]'', (and is apparently far more powerful by this time) as a direct result of humanity uniting against the Machines.
* Used in the ''A Thief in the Night'' films (a Christian End Times series). After the Rapture and subsquent emergency, the UN reforms itself into the UN Imperium of Total Emergency. It proceeds to do evil: forcing people to get branded, controlling food supplies, having their own secret police, etc.
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* The U.N. was depicted this way in ''[[Left Behind]]'', which is why the [[Anti Christ]] went for a job as Secretary General. Hilariously, it's treated as though the United Nations has ''always'' been this powerful. (For why, see [[Conspiracy Theories]]).
* This is the Case in [[Daniel Keys Moran]]'s ''Tales of the Continuing Time'' cycle. The French have begun to dominate the UN, and the peacekeeping forces are now known and feared as ''peaceforcers''.
* In [[Charles Stross]]' ''[[The Eschaton Series|Eschaton]]'' series, the UN, consisting of most of the microstates of the [[Balkanize Me|balkanized]] post-[[The Singularity|Singularity]] Earth, is an interesting mix of "quite powerful" and "not very powerful at all": it mostly leaves local governments on Earth alone, but it has scores of agents tasked with enforcing the laws of the Eschaton--a far-future expression of the Singularity that flung human civilizations across space for reasons unclear, but which wants the laws of causality to be preserved at any cost. It also a lot of pull for the mythical association with [[Earth-That-Was]] (which they usually can't distinguish from Earth-That-Still-Is).
** It should be noted that this UN is ''not'' the same organization, but rather a development of the Internet Engineering Task Force (yes) that took on the responsibilities and form of the UN after the post-Singularity Earth had settled down (i.e. suitably modified for a world of ''tens of thousands'' of states rather than 193).
* Larry Niven's ''[[Known Space]]'' has the UN develop into a planetary government.
* ''Shah Guido G'', a short story by [[Isaac Asimov]], has the UN ultimately transform into a tyrannical, caste-based oppressive regime headed by a hereditary Sekjen ([[Don't Explain the Joke|Secretary General, in other words]]), only to fall when one of the high caste arranges for the flying capital city of Atlantis to crash after seeing just how corrupt the society has become. The reason for the name of the story is in-universe a nickname by the oppressed masses for the last Sekjen, and out-universe a [[Shaggy Dog Story|reference]] to the [[Word of God|Asimov-admitted]] point of the story being to set the stage for an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]].
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''The Psychotechnic League'' has the UN reforming into a superpower after a nuclear conflict in 1958. However, many nationalists oppose this, and the UN sends special agents (''UNMen) to defuse threats. Unlike some other examples, the UN are the good guys.
* David Feintuch's ''[[Seafort Saga]]'' has the UN as the governing body of Earth and its colonies. Oddly enough, it's society is akin to Napoleonic-era Britain: Swearing in public can lead to legal trouble, The Church is an important factor of life, and there are legal duels.
* ''[[The Forever War]]''
* ''[[Carrera's Legions|Carreras Legions]]'': The UN is the governing body of Earth, developing the planet into a [[Feudal Future]] [[Crapsack World]].
== Live Action TV ==
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* The UN Peacekeepers faction in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', which - like any other faction - you can develop from a single colony into [[One World Order|a world government]].
* The United Nations in ''[[Halo]]'' founded both [[One World Order|the Unified Earth Government]] (UEG) and the UN Space Command (UNSC); the UEG absorbed its parent organization into one of its branches, but was itself eventually subsumed during the Human-Covenant War — by the ''UNSC'', which now rules all of humanity in the Milky Way galaxy.
* This happens over the course of the ''[[Command
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has UNATCO, the "United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition", which while on the surface, seems to be a world police force hosted by the UN, is {{spoiler|pretty much the beginnings of a military for a one-state world.}} The UN itself apparently has much more power in the 2050s, since it appears holds sway over politics in nations, as one character uses the term, "UN-governed nations." The UN's influence got to be so bad, that China left it sometime before the game, and is [[China Takes Over the World|arguably better off for it.]] Conversations and flavor text materials in the game suggest that much of this came about because citizen confidence in local sovereign states has severely waned in the wake of ecological and economic disasters, weakening those states, which in turn causes them to increasingly rely on the UN to maintain their influence, consolidating effective power there. This in turn reduces citizen confidence in those states further, leading to widespread discontentment and open civil war in first world nations.
* ''[[Mission Critical]]'' is based on the idea of UN waging a war with [[The Alliance]] (which includes US) over AI research and slowly winning thanks to superior [[Attack Drone]] technology. UN believes that AI research will lead to Armageddon and wishes to ban it worldwide, while the Alliance pretty much takes a page out of Patrick Henry's book (i.e. "Give me liberty or give me death").
* The United Nations are alluded to be the faction fighting against the Combine in the [[Half-Life (series)|Seven Hour War]]. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|They lose in mere seven hours, their headquarters are brought down and Earth surrenders to give way for the Combine rule.]]
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