The Warrior United Nations

The United Nations was created in 1945, following two catastrophic world wars, to serve as a "warrior'' organization to end all future conflicts. But, instead, it has become mainly known for its peacekeeping missions and its agencies dealing with health and social welfare matters. In its first 45 years, Cold War clashes between the Soviet Union and the United States prevented the UN Security Council from taking action against aggressors-except in the case of the 1950 Korean War. Following the Cold War's end, the UN twice more acted in a warrior capacity to crush invasions-in Kuwait and in Afghanistan. In sum, though, for most of its history, the UN has avoided intervening in most conflicts and left unused the machinery it has at hand in its Charter to prevent strife. While the UN is to be commended for all of its extraordinary humanitarian and peacemaking activities, it has failed to live up to its most important mission-to use force to stop war.