The Role of the United Nations in a Collective Security Essay

The Role of the United Nations in a Collective Security - Essay Example Recent international developments, however, have proven that collective security as envisaged by the UN Charter of 1945 is inadequate to meet the exigencies of the times. In the past, the collective security function of the United Nations had often failed because it had become a battleground of the two superpowers which emerged after the 2nd World War. The UN, especially its, however, security functions, was held hostage to the power play of these two countries. Even before the dust of the war had settled, the intense competition for global supremacy between the United States (US) and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) began to take root into what has been called the Cold War, so termed because despite the intense fighting between the two sides on all fronts it did not entail the use of weapons. This intense conflict between the two superpowers affected the UN and its collective security functions because of its inherent structural defect. It would seem that the name United Nations is not the same as ‘equal nations’ because five of its members are not only given permanent standing but a commanding veto vote. When the organization was established in 1945, the countries which fought together with the Axis powers namely, the US, USSR, the United Kingdom (UK), China, and France were accorded permanent seats in the Security Council (SC) (Krasno 2004). As members of the P5, both the US and the USSR, together with the other three countries, have the sole veto power over any draft resolution of the UN (Zhu & Hearn 1999).