The United Nations is a union of many of the most powerful nations in the world. It is a perfect example of global unity for the opposite reasons of all the empires in the Empires section of this site. The U.N. is based on the League of Nations which was formed by Woodrow Wilson following the first World War I.
To understand the purpose of the U.N., one must be familiar with its most important components. The General Assembly, an organization very similar to a world parliament, has one representative from each of the 185 member nations. Decisions are made on a two-thirds majority vote. There's a Security Council with fifteen members (five permanent) that acts as an international peacekeeper, resolving disputes without violence. Occasionally this council will also use U.N. troops to create peace or deal with international menaces like Sadaam Hussein. The Economic and Social Council has 54 members; it's function is to oversee UN activities and policies promoting economic growth in developing countries, policies dealing with human rights, and finally, policies that promote international cooperation in areas such as housing, crime prevention and protection of the environment. The World Court which solves disputes between member nations and other internal judiciary tasks. The Secretariat, which consists of 8,900 staff members from 170 countries does the day to day work of the U.N.
There are some misinformed people who feel that the U.N. is a giant conspiracy intended to disarm the world so they can institute their own world government or other such tripe. This is clearly not the case. The U.N. is a purveyor of world peace and aid for struggling democracies, countries facing economic crises, starving populations and disease-ridden areas. The U.N. is pitted against disputes such as the religion-based strife between India and Pakistan. They also are behind the weapons inspections in Iraq which are meant to ensure that the Iraqis are not hiding deadly chemical weapons. The U.N. is responsible for the formation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which tries people accused of taking part of the atrocities during the Yugoslavian civil war.
Although the U.N. is set up loosely like a world government, passes international laws and has an army of sorts, in my opinion, it is nothing to be feared. It has been around for over fifty years and has only made humanitarian contributions up to this point. When countries such as Kuwait are invaded by larger powers like Iraq, the U.N. takes appropriate action. The U.N. really is the polar opposite of the imperial regimes in the Empires section.
