Assessment
The United Nations is the only global international organization that serves multiple functions in international relations. The UN was designed to ensure international peace and security, and its founders realized that peace and security could not be achieved without attention to issues of rights—including political, legal, economic, social, environmental, and individual. Yet the UN has faced difficulties in achieving its goals, because its organizational structure still reflects the power relationships of the immediate post-1945 world, despite the fact that the world has changed dramatically—particularly with respect to the post-Cold War relationship between the United States and Russia and the dramatic increase in the number of independent states. The UN is a reflection of the realities of international politics, and the world’s political and economic divisions are revealed in the voting arrangements of the Security Council, the blocs and cleavages of the General Assembly, the different viewpoints within the Secretariat, the divisions present at global conferences, and the financial and budgetary processes.
Despite its intensively political nature, the UN has transformed itself and some aspects of international politics. Decolonization was successfully accomplished, and the many newly independent states joined the international community and have helped to shape a new international agenda. The UN has utilized Charter provisions to develop innovative methods to address peace and security issues. The organization has tried new approaches to economic development, encouraging the establishment of specialized organizations to meet specific needs. It has organized global conferences on urgent international issues, thereby placing new issues on the international agenda and allowing greater participation by NGOs and individuals.
Notwithstanding its accomplishments, the United Nations still operates under the basic provision of respect for national sovereignty and noninterference in the domestic affairs of states. The norm of national sovereignty, however, runs into persistent conflict with the constant demand by many in the international community that the UN take a more active role in combating aggression and alleviating international problems. For example, the United States appealed to the issue of national sovereignty to justify its opposition to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Criminal Court. Thus it is likely that the UN will continue to be seen by its critics as either too timid or too omnipotent as it is asked to resolve the most pressing problems faced by the world’s most vulnerable citizens.
Cecelia M. Lynch Karen Mingst The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaUnited Nations members
The table provides a list of UN member countries.
| United Nations membership | |
|---|---|
| 1The seat held by the U.S.S.R. was assumed by Russia in 1991. | |
| 2The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a member from 1945 until its dissolution following the establishment and admission of the new member states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia (1992), Macedonia (1993), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (2000), the last reconstituted as Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. In 2006 Serbia and Montenegro split into separate countries. | |
| 3North Yemen (capital at Sanaa) merged in 1990 with South Yemen (capital at Aden). Upon unification, there was one membership. | |
| 4Tanganyika merged in 1964 with Zanzibar. The country's name after the merger became Tanzania, with a single UN membership. | |
| 5East Germany and West Germany were admitted as separate members in 1973. Upon unification of the two countries in 1990, there was one membership. | |
| 6Czechoslovakia, a member from 1945, split into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993. | |
| 1945 | Argentina, Australia, Belarus (Belorussia), Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia (U.S.S.R.)1, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia2 |
| 1946 | Afghanistan, Iceland, Sweden, Thailand |
| 1947 | Pakistan, Yemen3 |
| 1948 | Myanmar (Burma) |
| 1949 | Israel |
| 1950 | Indonesia |
| 1955 | Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) |
| 1956 | Japan, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia |
| 1957 | Ghana, Malaysia |
| 1958 | Guinea |
| 1960 | Benin (Dahomey), Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (capital at Brazzaville), Congo (Zaire; capital at Kinshasa), Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cyprus, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Togo |
| 1961 | Mauritania, Mongolia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania4 |
| 1962 | Algeria, Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda |
| 1963 | Kenya, Kuwait |
| 1964 | Malawi, Malta, Zambia |
| 1965 | The Gambia, Maldives, Singapore |
| 1966 | Barbados, Botswana, Guyana, Lesotho |
| 1968 | Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius, Swaziland |
| 1970 | Fiji |
| 1971 | Bahrain, Bhutan, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates |
| 1973 | The Bahamas, Germany5 |
| 1974 | Bangladesh, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau |
| 1975 | Cape Verde, Comoros, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Suriname |
| 1976 | Angola, Samoa, Seychelles |
| 1977 | Djibouti, Vietnam |
| 1978 | Dominica, Solomon Islands |
| 1979 | Saint Lucia |
| 1980 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Zimbabwe |
| 1981 | Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Vanuatu |
| 1983 | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
| 1984 | Brunei |
| 1990 | Liechtenstein, Namibia |
| 1991 | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, North Korea, South Korea |
| 1992 | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina2, Croatia2, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Slovenia2, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |
| 1993 | Andorra, Czech Republic6, Eritrea, Macedonia, Monaco, Slovakia6 |
| 1994 | Palau |
| 1999 | Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga |
| 2000 | Tuvalu |
| 2002 | East Timor, Switzerland |
| 2006 | Montenegro, Serbia2 |
| 2011 | South Sudan |