The United Nations has been holding its annual General Assembly at a very disunited time. There is little agreement in the air.
There used to be a time when all the democracies were lined up in more or less unanimous support for the multilateral organizations that came out of World War II and grew in influence during the second half of the 20th century — and for the order based on international rules, laws and norms that they helped underpin — although not always successfully.
Once the Soviet Union imploded and communism ceased to have a worldwide following, or look anything like the future, hopes were high that a new era for the U.N. would dawn.