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the
UNITED
NATIONS
at
The "last hope" of mankind, it has been called. But
after four decades the United Nations, like the
world it represents, totters on the brink of oblivion.
by
Gene H. Hogberg
1
T
w
AS
in San Francisco,
June 26, 1945-a truly
historie place and time–
that the signing of the
Charter of the United Na–
tions occurred.
Most of the victorious powers
of World War JI had gathered
in the California city to draft a
program for the postwar world .
July / August 1985
The Charter was the fruit of the
labors of representatives of more
than four dozen nations.
Later that year, on October 24,
1945, the United Nations officially
was born with 51 member states.
Aim: Prevent Major War
The first article of the Charter out–
lines the aim those representatives
had in mind in establishing the
United Nations-"to main–
tain international peace and
security."
This hope is more elo–
quently expressed in the
foreword to the Charter. In
it the signatory nations
pledged "to save succeeding
generations from the
scourge of war, which twice
in our lifetimes has brought
sorrow to mankind." The
signers further pledged that
"armed force shall not be
used, save in the common
interes
t."
Article 2 contains other
basic principies such as the
sovereign equality of its
members (assuring one vote
for each member country–
now grown to 159), regard–
less of size; that disputes are
to be settled by peaceful
means; and that members
undertake not to use force or
the threat of force in con–
travention of the purposes of
the United Nations.
To prevent meddling
within the affairs of each
state, however, Article 2
stipulates that the United
Nations shall not intervene
in matters within the domes–
tic jurisdiction of any mem–
ber nation.
Since those idealistic days
40 years ago more than l00
armed conflicts have plagued
the world, though thankfully
none of them have been
nuclear-yet. Hardly a
month has gone by without
fighting on sorne battlefield.
The world has witnessed the
often pathetic plight of under–
manned U .N. peace forces. In
southern Lebanon, they are com–
pletely outmaneuvered by combat–
ants who almost pretend that U.N.
soldiers aren't even in the vicinity.
Other wars, such as the bloody
Iran-Iraq war, rage on with no
influence exerted by the United
Nations whatsoever.
United Nations peacekeeping
capacity, even if it were realistically
effective, is further rendered impo–
tent by the ever-present threat of big
power veto in the U.N.'s Security
Council, the organization's only
decision-making body. Since many
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