United Nations

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United Nations Summary

United Nations

The United Nations, headquartered in New York City, is an international organization established to preserve world peace and security and to develop friendly relations among all peoples. It was created in the aftermath of the Second World War and officially came into existence on October 24, 1945.

At the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson was instrumental in convincing the victorious Allied powers to establish a League of Nations. Despite Wilson's pivotal role, the U.S. Senate failed to ratify American membership in the League. Both within the Senate and among the general public there were significant fears concerning the League's charter limiting national sovereignty and congressional authority to make war, although a few U.S. leaders continued to embrace the idea of an international organization aimed at keeping peace. The failure of the United States to join played an important role in the League's inability to meet the growing threats posed by Nazi Germany's and Japan's aggression in the 1930s. Although the League of Nations continued to exist during the Second World War, it was a doomed body and it formally dissolved itself in 1946.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized American support for entering the Second World War and dealt a crippling blow to isolationism. In contrast to the view that had prevailed after the First World War, a consensus developed within the United States regarding the need to establish and join an international organization to maintain collective security. The term "United Nations" was proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the formal name for the anti-Nazi alliance. On January 1, 1942, the United States was one of twenty-six states to sign the Declaration of the United Nations. Unlike Wilson, FDR supported an organization structured to stress the primacy of the major powers in maintaining international stability.

Within the State Department, planning for the United Nations began in earnest in 1942 and Roosevelt, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and British prime minister Winston Churchill agreed at the Tehran Conference (November 1943) on the general outlines for this new world body. At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. (August–October, 1944), diplomats from China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States established the basic outlines of the organization, designating the Security Council as the principal body to preserve peace and security. This council would

A 1943 United Nations promotional poster by Leslie Ragan. SWIM INK/CORBIS

be dominated by the Big Four: the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China. A general assembly would include representatives from all member states. Ultimately, at the USSR's insistence, the major powers would have absolute veto power over Security Council resolutions.

The formal drafting of the UN Charter took place in San Francisco in 1945. In its final form, the United Nations Security Council consisted of five permanent members with veto power (France joined the Big Four) and six (later raised to ten) other nations elected for two-year terms. The General Assembly represented the interests of all nations and a smaller Economic and Social Council promoted international cooperation in these areas. The Charter also established a Secretariat and since the organization's founding, several Secretary Generals have been significant figures on the world stage. An International Court of Justice was established and headquartered in the Hague.

Ratification of the United Nations charter, in contrast to that of the League of Nations, sailed through the U.S. Senate. In the early years of the UN, the United States often dominated the body, especially in the General Assembly. The Cold War seriously hampered the ability of the UN to preserve international peace and the Soviet veto on resolutions of the Security Council often paralyzed this body. Nonetheless, the UN did endorse collective action in 1950 to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea. Beginning in 1956 the United Nations created international "peacekeeping" forces contributed by member states to patrol the cease-fire line between Egypt and Israel. Despite Soviet-U.S. competition, the UN was successful in mediating several regional conflicts, often deploying UN peacekeepers, especially to the Middle East.

The end of the Cold War in 1991 appeared to invigorate the UN and strengthen its ability to preserve international peace and stability. In 1990–1991, the United States and a broad alliance took military action under a Security Council mandate to intervene in Kuwait and expelled the invading Iraqi forces. But in 2003, the UN failed to sanction the Anglo-American war against Iraq. Although its record has been uneven in the area of peace and war, the UN has played an important role in encouraging economic and social development through the Economic and Social Council as well as through specialized agencies, most notably the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Fund. For instance, the World Health Organization coordinated a major campaign in the 1970s to totally eliminate polio.

Born of a wartime alliance between the Great Powers in World War II, but also reflecting a genuine desire by the American people to build a better world free of war, American support for the UN has waxed and waned. In more than one instance, especially in the early 1980s and in 2002, the UN was written off as ineffective. Despite these periods of disillusionment, the United States has often seen the United Nations as a valuable institution for advancing American national interests.