Effectiveness of the UN

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Recommended: Role of the United Nations

United Nations (UN) - An organization of sovereign nations with the main goal being the maintenance of international peace and security (United Nations, 1982). The UN was founded in 1945, during the final weeks of World War II. According to the Charter of the United Nations, this organization was made through the people’s feelings towards war and does not want future generations to suffer the untold sorrow that comes with it (United Nations, 1987). At first UN peacekeeping missions, which is handled by the Security Council, was limited to maintaining ceasefires among nations. These ceasefires were maintained through light military activity and limited peace agreements. As time went by, their peacekeeping missions involved stricter military activity, but this strategy did not prevent the Cold War from occurring. The Cold War needed a much more thought out strategy since there was no actual ‘military war.’ After 66 years of the UN being formed, the peacekeeping situation has gone away from its promise of the future generations not going through the war like atmosphere during the early and mid 1900s. Nothing as catastrophic as the two World Wars has occurred, but there have been events following the formation of UN that they could have handled in a better way. These events have been a key reason why they have not been a successful peacekeeping organization. The events that mirror the failures of UN peacekeeping include the India vs. Pakistan conflicts which still rage on today with multiple bombings still occurring in India, the Rwanda Genocide where more than 800,000 people died in 1994 at Rwanda following the killing of their President, and the Congo Crisis which was followed by the independence of Congo from Belgium.

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On. (2006, July 11). Terror strikes mumbai again with series of blasts - cnn. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-13/world/india.blasts_1_mumbai-prithviraj-chavan-zaveri-bazaar?_s=PM:WORLD

Abdullah. (2003, April). Kashmir. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/kashmir.htm

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