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How would the UN flex its muscle?

By Bernd Untiedt, Germany (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
The meeting room of the Security Council at UN headquarters in New York City.
The biggest problem of the League of Nations was that it had no way of enforcing its rulings. The UN would be different: It would have the power to prevent wars from happening. The key to this power was the creation of the UN Security Council. The Security Council had five members who represented the five largest and most powerful member nations. In 1945, those were the U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China. China was included because it was the largest democratic nation in Asia, although its government was very weak and was under strong attack by Chinese Communist forces. These member nations had permanent seats on the Security Council--they could never be forced off the Council.

What were the purpose and the powers of the Security Council? Read each row in the table to find out.

How was the Security Council created? The delegates to the UN Conference on International Organization in San Francisco decided that there should be a small group with executive power over the General Assembly. This group, the Security Council, had the power to investigate conflicts or potential conflicts and decide how the UN members should act to prevent war.
What were the tools that the Security Council could use to prevent war? It could recommend mediation of disputes, call on member nations to boycott trade with hostile nations, and break off diplomatic relations with hostile nations. It was also allowed to use force to end a dispute.
What kind of force could the Security Council use? If the actions listed above did not work, the Security Council could take action “by air, sea, or land as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.” Since the UN itself had no military, the Council could require, or accept the offer of, certain member nations to use their military forces in the name of, and under the direction of, the UN.
What if members of the Security Council could not agree on whether to use force to end a conflict? Every action of the Council had to be agreed on by all five members. If a vote was not unanimous, the action did not pass. Each member of the Council would have the power to veto a vote, even if the entire General Assembly and the other four members of the Security Council wanted the measure to pass.

The veto power given to permanent members of the Security Council was what drew the Soviet Union into the UN. The Soviets were offered a permanent seat on the Council, which meant they could veto any resolution to stop a conflict they did not like--potentially including their own invasions and hostile takeovers of other countries. Between 1945 and 1965, the Soviet Union was responsible for almost half the vetoed resolutions in the Security Council. How could the Security Council and the UN accomplish their goal of maintaining peace if the Soviet Union could veto so many resolutions?

Most of those Soviet vetoes were not about conflicts. They were about admitting new member nations to the UN. Since the U.S. would not allow the Soviets to enter their Eastern bloc nations because they were not truly sovereign nations, the Soviet Union blocked the admission of other countries the U.S. wanted to have join the UN.

Check your understanding of the powers and purpose of the UN Security Council by completing this activity.

Click here to begin.
Use the dart to pop any balloons that contain a power or purpose of the UN Security Council.
using force to end a conflict
isolating
the Soviet Union
enforcing UN resolutions
mediating conflicts
maintaining an army
vetoing resolutions

Complete