- This article is about a fictional representation of a real world subject.
The United Nations (UN) is an international organization with 193 member states that was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations to stop war and have a platform of discussion. Its stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achieving world peace.
History
On September 25, 1961, then-President of the United States John F. Kennedy issued a speech to the UN general assembly regarding how the UN was necessary to allow for an alternate method to war.
During the 1970s, the United Nations was requested by Grenada Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy to investigate the UFO Problem in Central America based on photographs of UFOs from a tabloid magazine (one of which also included the AI weapon Chrysalis, which was sold by Sandinista/Militaires Sans Frontières member Chico as a means to gain funding for the latter group). Later, they also sent nuclear inspectors to Mother Base to inspect whether the MSF was capable of creating nuclear weapons. It was also suspected by Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller that Cipher was involved in their decision for inspecting Mother Base. After the attack on Mother Base by XOF under the guise of a UN inspection, the UN and its subsidiary, the IAEA, denied sending any inspectors to the site.
The UN during the 1980s acted as clientel for the Diamond Dogs, the successor group to the MSF, albeit unofficially, regarding matters such as escorting food relief vehicles down a highway as well as defending ethnic minorities and refugee camps.
The UN was also involved in several civil wars as peacekeepers, with their last direct involvement in a civil war being in the Somalian Civil War during the 1990s, which led them to become extremely reluctant in getting involved in future civil wars due to the disastrous results of the mission.
From 2005 to 2007, the United Nations also frequently trusted the non-governmental group Philanthropy to investigate whether Metal Gears are being created around the world, although their services were terminated following the Tanker Incident.
The various member states voted circa 2009/2010 to create the war economy and utilize PMCs to deal with various conflicts because they were angered at America for its incident in 2009. America didn't agree to it, but was left with no other choice but to allow them to do so because America exported far too much military power during the Cold War and thus could not let its army get involved without suffering severe public backlash similar to that of the 2009 Big Shell Incident. At some point during 2014, the United Nations also held a ration swap meet that Roy Campbell and Rosemary briefly attended, where the French rations won the taste tests of the judges, and the Italian and Japanese rations being runner up, and American rations being voted unanimously as being the worst-tasting rations.
After the war economy collapsed due to the Patriots and its SOP system being taken offline due to FOXALIVE, Drebin speculated that with various countries going bankrupt due to their use of PMCs, and being under a debt severe enough that not even passing PMC restriction laws was going to be able to end the debt anytime soon, the UN would have a more important role than ever. However, he also implied that the UN, due to its history being no different than the Patriots in terms of control over people, will most likely end up creating a spiritual successor to the Patriots in terms of oppressive control and thus force the cycle to continue.[1]
| Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?] |
Maverick member Kevin Washington was a former member of a DDR group with ties to the UN, but he quit and joined Maverick, both due to having met its commander, Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov, and because Kevin himself had enough experience on how the UN operates in regards to these things to know that there wouldn't be any real change in keeping peace if he kept working there. It had also ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, although loopholes within the treaty allowed for weapons such as Grads and Vodomerkas to enter Mexico despite technically being banned from that location as well as for Desperado Enforcement LLC. and World Marshal Inc. to conduct their Sears Program without much problem.
| Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here. |
IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks the use of peaceful applications of nuclear energy. It was formed in 1957, and had a Board of Governors that acted as its admin branch.
In 1975, the IAEA sent a letter requesting that they do an inspection of the private military group Militaires Sans Frontières. Officially, the reason was because they purchased nuclear fuel from Uzbekistan authorities. However, the leaders of MSF, Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller, knew the real reason was to locate Metal Gear ZEKE's nuke, and that Cipher most likely was involved in the IAEA's request as payback for their earlier defeat, due to the IAEA having absolutely no authority to investigate MSF due to their neither being a country nor are they partied to the NPT, and thus aren't needed to be monitored for the applications of nuclear energy or have inspections on facilities.
MSF initially sent a letter of refusal citing their status as a private organization, but Huey Emmerich, one of the developers of ZEKE, ended up sending a letter that indicated they changed their mind behind Miller and Big Boss's backs. The IAEA's board of governors, when asked by Miller, revealed they had no record of ever bringing MSF up at their meetings, indicating that it was an unofficial, preliminary inspection. MSF, largely thanks to Huey's earlier action, was forced to allow the inspection to continue, as the alternative was to make things suspicious if they tried to deny the inspection again. After Mother Base was attacked by XOF, IAEA, alongside the UN, denied sending any inspectors to the site.
Behind the scenes
The United Nations was first mentioned in the non-canon game Snake's Revenge, where they were revealed to have declared World Peace Day after Solid Snake destroyed Metal Gear 2. They later made a canonical appearance/mention in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where they acted as a lobby for Philanthropy, and had somewhat of a major role in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
In the Official Missions Handbook, the United Nations was mentioned to have been responsible for creating FOXHOUND to combat terrorism in the 1990s, although the game itself implied that it was part of the United States military.
Notes and references
- ^ Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Kojima Productions (2008).
Drebin: The White House might've lost its taste for unilateralism... Started to rebuild. But there's a lot of failed states out there that went bankrupt from their PMC habits... And they owe a shit load of money. Now only question is... Who's gonna pick up the tab? I'm sure these new governments will try and keep it under control with PMC corporate reform laws... But it ain't gonna be good enough. They're all sunk up to their eyeballs in the war economy. Might not be a New World Order... But the old order under the war economy's gone for good. I'm guessin' the UN is gonna be more important than ever, what with multilateralism and all. A certain President said it best back during the Cold War... For in the development of this organization rests the only true alternative to war. Then again, the UN itself's just an old 20th-century relic. And if you think about it... When you look at its history... It ain't that different from the Patriots. // Otacon: That's right... The nanomachines used to keep you sober. // Drebin: Crush. Mix. Burn. Repeat.