What role can the UN, as a world body, play in fighting terrorism and how effective has it been so far in containing this scourge?

Terrorism can also be managed at an international level.

Role played by UN:

 In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the United Nations passed a series of resolutions, which was aimed at getting member countries to freeze the financial assets of terrorists and their supporters, deny them travel and safe havens, prevent recruitment and weapon supply, and cooperate with each other in information sharing and criminal prosecution. The UN also set up a Counter-Terrorism Committee to monitor the adherence of member states to the resolutions and strengthen the counter-terrorism capacity of UN member states. More than $200 million USD funds have been frozen and 4000 suspects arrested since.

International efforts are becoming even more crucial in the advent of globalization, which allows terrorist to maintain international networks and cooperate with other terrorist organizations at an international level. To combat such affiliations and cooperation, the international community needs to act as well, by freezing funds and choking weapon supplies to slow down terrorism. Only when countries cooperate to slow down terrorist activities can transnational terrorism be managed.

Effectiveness:

The effectiveness of the UN can be seen from specific case studies. We will be using the intervention in Afghanistan to show how the UN has been successful and its limitations. Afghanistan is a hotbed for terrorist activity, with the large number of terrorist training camps and presence of major terrorist groups such as the Taliban. The actions taken by the UN can be classified into 3 types. 

At first, the UN took measures to resolve the situation through dialogue. They condemned the terrorist acts of the Taliban and called for peaceful talks and for the Taliban to stop their terrorist activities. After this failed, the UN indirectly intervened through peaceful methods such as putting broad sanctions in place and freezing Taliban funds and financial resources. Lastly, the UN has resorted to direct military intervention in Afghanistan by establishing the International Security Assistance Force, which both trains Afghanistan security forces and combats insurgent groups in Afghanistan.

The intervention by the UN can be seen as effective in improving the terrorist situation in Afghanistan as negotiations with the Taliban have been making more progress in recent years, which can be seen from the US considering withdrawing their troops. However, the way the situation was managed also shows the politics which limit the actions of the UN. Direct military intervention was initiated by the US and can be seen as retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. However, they did so without waiting for a resolution or approval from the UN, and it is unclear whether this was actually the best action to take at that time due to the political climate after 9/11 affecting the decisions made by the US. This shows that the UN has limited power as a world body and influential countries such as the US may not follow its rules and regulations.