The nations of the world needed something larger than themselves - not a unilaterally powerful world government, but a council of sovereign nations that would intervene in world affairs as needed. President Roosevelt himself coined the term "United Nations,"" and the previously ineffective League of Nations was abandoned.
Formation of the new organization took three years of planning. Finally, on June 26, 1945, the U.S., Britain, China, France, and the Soviet Union signed the United Nations charter. Forty-six other nations from every region of the world joined these five central powers in signing, and together they became the founding members of the United Nations. .
Today, the U.N. is an all-inclusive body. All but four of the world's nations belong to the United Nations at present. As is defined in its charter, the UN aims to promote collective security throughout the world; advocate human rights and self-determination of peoples; achieve international co-operation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems; and function as a centre for co-ordination of all of these activities. .
These objectives are certainly ambitious, as they cover the spectrum of international activities. However, they are also problematic - when such a large-scale problem-solving mission is launched, its scope and enterprise serve to make the process of obtaining peace both time-consuming and overly bureaucratic. .
As was earlier stated, it is clear that the UN has been both effective and ineffective in its short history. It will need to play a useful role in the future; not only to keep peace, but also to solve all of the smaller disputes, which if left ignored might cause an outbreak of war.
"After World War I, the League of Nations was formed, and after World War II, the United Nations. Both have played a useful role, but not completely fulfilled the hopes of their founders. We had better not wait for World War Three before seeking to make the U.