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This is an important distinction and to understand why, it's helpful to read about its predecessor, the League of Nations which due to mismanagement failed spectacularly in its goals to prevent conflicts between nation states.

From their PR discourse, they don't seem like just a forum for countries to meet and talk.

In The Expanse (great sci-fi novels that just got a new TV season last week), the UN becomes the governing body of Earth after some climate-related disasters that individual countries could not or would not handle (I think).

What does it have to do with reality, though?