UN Security Council in the context of United Nations System

Chapter V of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It gives the Security Council the authority to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security.”

The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States. The conflict was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold War.

After the end of World War II in 1945, Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for 35 years, was divided by the Soviet Union and the United States into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel, with plans for a future independent state. Due to political disagreements the zones formed their own governments in 1948. North Korea was led by Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, and South Korea by Syngman Rhee in Seoul; both claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. On 25 June 1950, the Korean People's Army (KPA), equipped and trained by the Soviets, launched an invasion of the south. In the absence of the Soviet Union's representative, the UN Security Council denounced the attack and recommended member states to repel the invasion. UN forces comprised 21 countries, with the United States providing around 90% of military personnel.

The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Namibia had been occupied by South Africa since 1915, first under a League of Nations mandate and later illegally. Since 1966, South African forces had been combating an insurgency by the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of the Namibian-nationalist South West African People's Organization (SWAPO). The UN Security Council passed Resolution 435 in 1978, which set out a plan for elections administered by South Africa but under UN supervision and control after a ceasefire. However, only in 1988 were the two parties able to agree to a ceasefire. As UNTAG began to deploy peacekeepers, military observers, police, and political workers, hostilities were briefly renewed on the day the transition process was supposed to begin. After a new round of negotiations, a second date was set and the elections process began in earnest. Elections for the constitutional assembly took place in November 1989. They were peaceful and declared free and fair; SWAPO won a majority of the seats. The new constitution was adopted four months later and it was followed by Namibia's official independence and the successful conclusion of UNTAG.

Humanitarian intervention is the use or threat of military force by a state (or states) across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread human rights violations in a state which has not given permission for the use of force. Humanitarian interventions are aimed at ending human rights violations of individuals other than the citizens of the intervening state. Humanitarian interventions are only intended to prevent human rights violations in extreme circumstances. Attempts to establish institutions and political systems to achieve positive outcomes in the medium- to long-run, such as peacekeeping, peace-building and development aid, do not fall under this definition of a humanitarian intervention.

There is not one standard or legal definition of humanitarian intervention; the field of analysis (such as law, ethics or politics) often influences the definition that is chosen. Differences in definition include variations in whether humanitarian intervention is limited to instances where there is an absence of consent from the host state; whether humanitarian intervention is limited to punishment actions; and whether humanitarian intervention is limited to cases where there has been explicit UN Security Council authorization for action. Nonetheless, there is a general consensus on some of its essential characteristics:

Chapter II of the United Nations Charter deals with membership to the United Nations (UN) organization. Membership is open to the original signatories and "all other peace-loving states" that accept the terms and obligations set forth in the UN Charter and, "in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations". According to Chapter II of the UN Charter, in order to be admitted to the UN, a country must first be recommended by the UN Security Council and then approved by a vote of the UN General Assembly. In addition, the admission must not be opposed by any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), sometimes referred to as the Permanent Five or P5.

Admission to membership in the UN is regarded as an important indicator of sovereignty and legitimate statehood, especially for microstates. Some states have governments that are unofficially recognized as independent, such as the Republic of China on Taiwan, but have not been admitted to the UN due to a veto by a P5 member. During the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union did not allow rival blocs to be admitted to the UN. When they began letting those countries join, it led to a period of great expansion of UN membership, especially as the number of colonies gaining independence increased.

The Ahtisaari Plan, formally the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement (CSP), is a status settlement proposed in Mach 2007 by Martti Ahtisaari, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, covering a wide range of issues related to the status of Kosovo.

The plan was presented to the UN Secretary-General on 15 March, and then sent to the UN Security Council on 26 March, where it was discussed for the first time on 3 April, and later on several other occasions during 2007 and 2008, without formal adoption or rejection.

As of September 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN), or just over 80% of all UN members. It has been a non-member observer state of the UN General Assembly since November 2012. This limited status is largely due to the fact that the United States, a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power, has consistently blocked Palestine's full UN membership; Palestine is recognized by the other four permanent members, which are China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

The State of Palestine was officially declared by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on 15 November 1988, claiming sovereignty over the internationally recognized Palestinian territories: the West Bank (which includes East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. By the end of 1988, the Palestinian state was recognized by 78 countries. In an attempt to solve the decades-long Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993 and 1995, creating the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a self-governing interim administration in Gaza and around 40% of the West Bank.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The resolution was sponsored by British ambassador Lord Caradon and was one of five drafts under consideration.

The preamble refers to the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security".

On 19 March 2011, a NATO-led coalition began a military intervention into the ongoing Libyan Civil War to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 (UNSCR 1973). The UN Security Council passed the resolution with ten votes in favour and five abstentions, with the stated intent to have "an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians, which it said might constitute 'crimes against humanity' ... [imposing] a ban on all flights in the country's airspace — a no-fly zone — and tightened sanctions on Muammar Gaddafi's government and its supporters."

The initial coalition members of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, UK and US expanded to nineteen states, with later members mostly enforcing the no-fly zone and naval blockade or providing military logistical assistance. The effort was initially led by France and the United Kingdom, with command shared with the United States. Italy only joined the coalition on the condition that NATO took on overall leadership of the mission instead of individual countries. NATO took control of the arms embargo on 23 March, named Operation Unified Protector. An attempt to unify the military command of the air campaign first failed over objections by the French, German, and Turkish governments. On 24 March, NATO agreed to take control of the no-fly zone, while command of targeting ground units remained with individual coalition forces. The handover occurred on 31 March 2011.

Ethnic cleansing occurred during the Bosnian War (1992–95) as large numbers of Bosniaks and Croats were forced to flee their homes or were expelled by the Army of Republika Srpska and Serb paramilitaries. Bosnian Serbs had also been forced to flee or were expelled by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croat forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers. A lot of Bosnian Croats were also expelled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but once again, on a restricted scale. The UN Security Council Final Report (1994) states while Bosniaks also engaged in "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law", they "have not engaged in "systematic ethnic cleansing". According to the report, "there is no factual basis for arguing that there is a 'moral equivalence' between the warring factions".

Beginning in 1991, political upheavals in Bosnia and Herzegovina displaced about 2.7 million people by mid-1992, of which over 700,000 sought asylum in other European countries, making it the largest exodus in Europe at the time since World War II. It is estimated between 1.0 and 1.3 million people were uprooted in these ethnic cleansing campaigns, and that tens of thousands were killed.

Paraguayan foreign policy has concentrated on maintaining good relations with its neighbors, and it has been an active proponent of regional co-operation. It is a member of the United Nations and has served one term in the UN Security Council in 1967–1969. It maintains membership in several international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. It also belongs to the Organization of American States, the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), the Rio Group, INTERPOL, MERCOSUR (the Southern Cone Common Market) and UNASUR.

At the political level, diplomatic affairs and international relations of Paraguay are officially handled by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, which answers to the executive branch of the government. Minister of Foreign Relations 2018 -2019 was Luis Alberto Castiglioni.

Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter deals with the International Court of Justice. Most provisions related to the World Court are contained in the Statute of the International Court of Justice, which is annexed to the Charter. Article 93 states that all UN members are members of the World Court. Article 94 requires all members to abide by World Court decisions in any cases to which they are a party, and gives the UN Security Council power to enforce such decisions. The World Court is also authorized to issue advisory opinions upon request. Chapter XIV is analogous to Article 14 (and to some extent, Article 13) of the Covenant of the League of Nations.

Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter deals with peaceful settlement of disputes. It requires countries with disputes that could lead to war to first of all try to seek solutions through peaceful methods such as "negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice." If these methods of alternative dispute resolution fail, then they must refer it to the UN Security Council. Under Article 35, any country is allowed to bring a dispute to the attention of the UN Security Council or the General Assembly. This chapter authorizes the Security Council to issue recommendations but does not give it power to make binding resolutions; those provisions are contained in Chapter VII. Chapter VI is analogous to Articles 13-15 of the Covenant of the League of Nations which provide for arbitration and for submission of matters to the Council that are not submitted to arbitration. United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 are two examples of Chapter VI resolutions which remain unimplemented. United Nations Security Council Resolution 217 is an example of a Chapter VI resolution which was implemented.

The United States–Taliban deal, officially known as the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States of America and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (commonly known as the Taliban and not recognized by the United States as a state) and commonly known as the Doha Accord, was a peace agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban on 29 February 2020 in Doha, Qatar, with intent to bring an end to the 2001–2021 war in Afghanistan. Negotiated for the U.S. by Zalmay Khalilzad for the first Trump administration, the negotiations for the agreement did not involve the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Afghan government at the time. The deal, which also had secret annexes, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). Adhering to the conditions of the deal, the U.S. dramatically reduced the number of U.S. air raids, leaving the ANDSF without a key advantage in keeping the Taliban at bay. This resulted in "a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population" according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). ANDSF was ill-prepared to sustain security following a U.S. withdrawal, which allowed for the Taliban insurgency, ultimately leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.

The agreement stipulated fighting restrictions for both the U.S. and the Taliban, and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The U.S. agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days (i.e. by July 2020), followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months (i.e. by 1 May 2021) if the Taliban kept its commitments. The United States also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020. The agreement was welcomed by Pakistan, China, Russia and India, and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council.

Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It gives the Security Council the authority to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security.”

The P5+1 refers to the UN Security Council's five permanent members (the P5); namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany. The P5+1 is often referred to as the E3+3 by European countries. It is a group of six world powers which, in 2006, joined in diplomatic efforts with Iran with regard to its nuclear program.