Why did United Nations fail to live up to its promise in the post-war period?
As World War II was coming to a close, Allied powers knew they needed to do something to correct the deficiencies of the League of Nations. Two meetings took place, one in 1944 at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington and again in April 1945 at San Francisco. At these meetings the formation of the United Nations (UN) was developed as a world organization that would arbitrate disputes among member nations and stop aggressors by force if necessary.1 Although up to fifty countries signed the UN charter voted in the General Assembly, only the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union would serve as permanent members on the Security Council.
After the establishment of the UN in 1945, the world became divided ideologically into two camps because the United States and Soviet Union treated each other in total distrust and seemed to oppose each other on every major issue. This prevented their cooperation for international peace and security, thus undermining the effectiveness of the UN.2 The UN had seen a few successful endings to various conflicts but despite their success, they have also witnessed a number of catastrophic failures, resulting in millions of innocent civilian deaths.
As the arms race heats up, conflict between the United States and Soviet Union would tighten its grip on the effectiveness UN Charter. The Cold War exemplifies the failure behind the United Nations Charter. With the atrocities of World War II still fresh in their minds, the original founders were determined to preserve human rights for all citizens of the world. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was established, which was binding to all nations along with the Convention against Genocide.3 Almost immediately, the Soviet Union disregarded these policies. Civil rights were virtually non-existent as Stalin continued to rule with an iron fist, silencing all...