United Nations
...g all nations and to work together with other nations on solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems. Many other functions were and are done by the UN; they protect human rights, fight epidemics, poverty and famine, deliver aid in form of food, clothes and medicine. They provide monetary loans to developing countries through the World Bank to help them achieve their goals. To achieve all their duties and obligations the UN is divided into branches. The UN is composed of six major branches; General Assembly, the Security Council, Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat. Each has a specific function in helping make the United Nations a functional running machine. The whole reason this machine was formed was to ensure and promote world peace. They accomplish this by helping nations settle their disputes, deter conflicts and bring ongoing conflicts to an end. They do this knowing that there is only one world and we all have to live in it. The United Nations is an organization that is involved in promotion of world peace. Many diplomatic actions are taken by the group to put and end to war and armed conflicts. The UN has an Agenda for Peace which can be separated into four groups. The four groups are: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking, Peacekeeping and Peace building. Preventive Diplomacy is the first stage that the United Nations takes into effect. Preventive Diplomacy tries to put an end to a conflict by getting the two nations to compromise before the conflict becomes violent. Anything but violence and this is usually their first move. Peacemaking the second stage, also tries to resolve the conflict diplomatically but after the bout becomes violent. Peacemaking tries to get the involved nations to cease-fire. Peacekeeping comes into play once cease-fire is established. UN peacekeeping forces come in to make sure that cease- fire is honored and help to conclude the conflict. Peace building is the last stage that promotes peace and order by raising social structures, governments and legal systems. Peacemaking and Peacekeeping are two most important and crucial stages after an armed conflict occur, but nations need peace building equally as much as Preventive Diplomacy and Peacemaking. It is one of the UN greatest problems to decide when one stage ends and the other begins. In some cases the UN was to slow to react and the weaker nations have suffered enormous consequences. The United Nations have carried out more than forty peacekeeping missions since 1948. About 750,000 soldiers have served for the UN and more than fifteen hundred have lost their lives. In 1994, the UN helped to resolve a conflict in Guatemala, Central America. The UN ended a conflict which lasted thirty-five years and claimed over 100,000 lives. In Europe, the United Nations have also played a big role as peacekeepers. The UN was involved in bringing peace to former Yugoslavia and its surrounding nations. From 1992 to 1995 UN peacekeepers were working on bringing peace to Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia and Macedonia. These actions in Europe were preventative actions in against war and any other dire that might have arose. From time to time the UN fails to bring aid and peace to needing nations such as it did to Europe. One of the biggest problems for the UN is the time factor. The UN can render services just not to everyone. It often takes time for the UN to decide weather or it is necessary for them to step in and assume control. The UN has to make sure that when they get involved in the conflict it will be solved fairly quickly and that the costs of such intervention will not be too high for them as well as the nations involved. The United Nations do not want to get involved in a conflict which will take a long time to resolve. Such conflicts require large amounts of money, resources, and human energy. The UN has a hard time t...