The United Nations is an international organization composed of representatives from nearly every nation in the world. Created at the end of World War II in an effort to avoid further wars, the organization provides a place for governments to come together to find peaceful resolutions to conflicts. As such, the United Nations provides a forum for solving international economic, cultural, social, and humanitarian problems.

The main body of the United Nations is called the General Assembly. The General Assembly discusses all issues before the United Nations, votes on resolutions to implement United Nations programs, and forms United Nations policies regarding world events. Each United Nations member nation occupies one seat in the General Assembly and has one vote. A two-thirds vote is needed to pass any resolution.

The Security Council is a special body within the United Nations charged with carrying out the primary objective of the organization: maintaining international peace and security. It has five permanent members--Britain, China, France, the USSR, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members, who are chosen on a rotating basis. 

Through the Security Council, the five permanent members are able to exert great influence over the General Assembly, because any permanent member can veto a United Nations Security Council resolution. Beyond the primary goal of world peace, the United Nations is also dedicated to the development of friendly relations among nations, based on the principle of equal rights and self-determination (choosing one’s own form of government.)

Several factors limit the power of the United Nations. First, global rivalries in which countries have tried to use the United Nations to further their own interests—as in the case of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union—have weakened the organization’s nonpartisan role. In addition, the United Nations lacks the means to enforce many of its resolutions, especially if one of the permanent Security Council members does not support a specific measure. Finally, the United Nations is hurt by the high cost of implementing worldwide programs, especially international peacekeeping forces.