Introduction of WWII

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers: eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilised. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human history,[3] resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. The war is generally accepted to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and Slovakia, and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Germany set out to establish a large empire in Europe. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe; amid Nazi-Soviet agreements, the nominally neutral Soviet Union fully or partially occupied and annexed territories of its six European neighbours. Britain and the Commonwealth remained the only major force continuing the fight against the Axis in North Africa and in extensive naval warfare. In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theatre of war in history, which, from this moment on, was tying down the major part of the Axis military power. In December 1941, Japan, which had been at war with China since 1937,[4] and aimed to dominate Asia, attacked the United States and European possessions in the Pacific Ocean, quickly conquering much of the region. The Axis advance was stopped in 1942 after the defeat of Japan in a series of naval battles and after defeats of European Axis troops in North Africa and, decisively, at Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Fascist Italy, and American victories in the Pacific, the Axis lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, while the Soviet Union regained all territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. The Japanese Navy was defeated by the United States, and invasion of the Japanese Archipelago ("Home Islands") became imminent. The war in Asia ended on 15 August 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender. The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the

Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers started to decline, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to stabilise postwar relations.

1. Failure of the League of Nations

The League of Nations (LON) was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I, and it was the precursor to the United Nations. The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The League's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.[1] Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, trafficking in persons and drugs, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when needed, for the League to use. However, they were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could also hurt the League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. When, during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting Red Cross medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out." After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. In May 1933, Franz Bernheim, a Jew, complained that his rights as a minority were being violated by the German administration of Upper Silesia, which induced the Germans to defer enforcement of the anti-Jewish laws in the region for several years until the relevant treaty expired in 1937, whereupon they simply refused to renew the League's authority further and renewed anti-Jewish persecution. Hitler claimed these clauses violated Germany's sovereignty. Germany withdrew from the League, soon to be followed by many other aggressive powers. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to avoid any future world war. The United Nations replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.

1.1 Origins of the League

The concept of a peaceful community of nations had been outlined as far back as 1795, when Immanuel Kants Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch[5] outlined the idea of a league of nations that would control conflict and promote peace between states.[6] There, Kant argues for establishment of a peaceful world community not in a sense that there be a global government but in the hope that each state would declare itself as a free state that respects its citizens and welcomes foreign visitors as fellow rational beings. It is in this rationalization that a union of free states would promote peaceful society worldwide, therefore there can be a perpetual peace bound by the international community. International co-operation to promote collective security originated in the Concert of Europe that developed after the Napoleonic Wars in the nineteenth century in an attempt to maintain the status quo between European states and so avoid war. This period also saw the development of international law with the first Geneva conventions establishing laws about humanitarian relief during war and the international Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 governing rules of war and the peaceful settlement of international disputes. The forerunner of the League of Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), was formed by peace activists William Randal Cremer and Frederic Passy in 1889. The organization was international in scope with a third of the members of parliament, in the 24 countries with parliaments, serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve international disputes by peaceful means and arbitration and annual conferences were held to help governments refine the process of international arbitration. The IPU's structure consisted of a Council headed by a President which would later be reflected in the structure of the League. At the start of the twentieth century two power blocs emerged through alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that came into effect at the start of the First World War in 1914, drawing all the major European powers into the war. This was the first major war in Europe between industrialized countries and the first time in Western Europe the results of industrialization (for example mass production) had been dedicated to war. The result of this industrial warfare was an unprecedented casualty level with eight and a half million members of armed services dead, an estimated 21 million wounded, and approximately 10 million civilian deaths.[13][14] By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had a profound impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe and inflicting psychological and physical damage on the continent.[15] Anti-war sentiment rose across the world; the First World War was described as "the war to end all wars",[16][17] and its possible causes were vigorously investigated. The causes identified included arms races, alliances, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. The

perceived remedies to these were seen as the creation of an international organisation whose aim was to prevent future war through disarmament, open diplomacy, international co-operation, restrictions on the right to wage wars, and penalties that made war unattractive to nations.[18] While the First World War was still underway, a number of governments and groups had already started developing plans to change the way international relations were carried out in order to prevent a repetition of the war.[16] United States President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel Edward M. House enthusiastically promoted the idea of the League as a means of avoiding any repetition of the bloodshed seen in World War I, and the creation of the League was a centerpiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace.[19] Specifically the final point provided: "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."[20] Before drafting the specific terms of his peace deal, Wilson recruited a team led by Colonel House to compile whatever information deemed pertinent in assessing Europes geopolitical situation. In early January, 1918, Wilson summoned House to Washington and the two began hammering out, in complete secrecy, the Presidents first address on the League of Nations which was delivered to an unsuspecting Congress on January 8, 1918.[21] Wilson's final plans for the League were strongly influenced by the South African Prime Minister, Jan Christiaan Smuts. In 1918 Smuts had published a treatise entitled The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion. According to F.S. Crafford's biography on Smuts, Wilson adopted "both the ideas and the style" of Smuts.[22] On July 8, 1919, Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States and embarked on a nationwide campaign to secure the support of the American people for their countrys entry into the League. On July 10, Wilson addressed the Senate declaring that a new role and a new responsibility have come to this great nation that we honour and which we would all wish to lift to yet higher levels of service and achievement. Positive reception, particularly from Republicans, was scarce at best.[23] The Paris Peace Conference, convened to build a lasting peace after World War I, approved the proposal to create the League of Nations (French: Socit des Nations, German: Vlkerbund) on 25 January 1919.[24] The Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by a special commission, and the League was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles. On 28 June 1919, 44 states signed the Covenant, including 31 states which had taken part in the war on the side of the Triple Entente or joined it during the conflict. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1919, the United States did not join the League. Opposition in the U.S. Senate, particularly from Republican politicians Henry Cabot Lodge and William E. Borah, together with Wilson's refusal to compromise, ensured that the United States would not ratify the Covenant.

The League held its first council meeting in Paris on 16 January 1920, six days after the Versailles Treaty came into force. In November, the headquarters of the League moved to Geneva, where the first General Assembly was held on 15 November 1920 with representatives from 41 nations in attendance.

2. Need to form an international body

The League of Nations failed to prevent World War II (19391945). Because of the widespread recognition that humankind could not afford a Third World War, the United Nations was established to replace the flawed League of Nations in 1945 in order to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization was begun under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort.[3] On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter of the United Nations. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security CouncilFrance, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United Statesand by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946.[4] The organization was based at the Sperry Gyroscope Corporation's facility in Lake Success, New York, from 19461952, before moving to the United Nations Headquarters building in Manhattan upon its completion. Since its creation, there has been controversy and criticism of the United Nations. In the United States, an early opponent of the UN was the John Birch Society, which began a "get US out of the UN" campaign in 1959, charging that the UN's aim was to establish a "One World Government." After the Second World War, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the US as the government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that aimed at creating the new organization. Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it le machin ("the thing"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace, preferring direct defence treaties between countries.

3. Formation of the UN
August 1941 - It was during the Atlantic Conference, off the coast of Newfoundland, where President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a joint pronouncement that an effective international organization would be needed to replace the

struggling League of Nations that was unable to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War. There, too, the Four Freedoms were promulgated as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: Freedom of speech and expression, Freedom of religion, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear. January 1, 1942 - The term "The United Nations" was first announced by Franklyn D. Roosevelt, several weeks after the attack at Pearl Harbor. It was the name given to the coalition of countries lead by the United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Union to defeat the Japanese and German aggression. By February 15, 1943 more than forty countries had joined the United Nations and had severed diplomatic relations and signed a declaration of war on the Axis powers. In October 1943, at the Moscow Conference, the "Big-Three" and China (referred now as the "Big Four") formed a Four Power Alliance pledged to commence the creation of a postvictory, international, military force and organization to maintain peace, and to quickly curtail any future aggression. The Moscow Declaration stated " the necessity of establishing at the earliest practicable date a general international organization, based on the principle of sovereign equality of all peace-loving states... for the maintenance of international peace and security." August 21-October 7, 1944 - At Dumbarton Oaks, an estate in Washington DC (photo), the "Big Four" met with the main objective to create an organization that "would maintain international peace and security, by peaceful means, if possible, and economic sanctions and force if necessary; and to promote security by encouraging economic and social cooperation among nations." While the foundations were laid out, some details on voting procedure had to be decide at a later time. February 1945 - At the Yalta (Crimea) Conference, the provisional government of France was also invited to take a leadership role at the San Francisco Conference along with the "Big Four". In addition, forty-six other countries that waged war against the Axis Nations were also invited to participate at the conference at San Francisco, that was formally known as the United Nations Conference on International Organization. Their mission was to create the charter for the United Nations basically along the guidelines of those proposed at the informal conversations at Dumbarton Oaks. April 12, 1945 - Two weeks before the San Francisco Conference was to meet, President Roosevelt died. Exhausted and ill, he was resting at Warm Springs, Georgia, when he suddenly complained of a terrible headache. Two hours later, he was pronounced dead of a stroke. Roosevelt was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman, who vowed to continue with the formation of the United Nations Organization. April 25 to June 6, 1945 - At the San Fransisco Conference, 49 of the 800 delegates and

advisers were active Rotarians. Some of the notable Rotarians that attended the conference were: Thomas J. Davis, past president of Rotary International (1941-42) and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate; Luther Hodges, past president of the Rotary Club of New York (1945-46). Luther also went on to become governor of North Carolina, Commerce Secretary for President Kennedy(1960-63), and President of Rotary International in 1968. Gabriel L. Dennis, the Secretary of State of Liberia was a signer of the Charter for Liberia Jan Christan Smuts, the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. Carlos Romulo of the Philippines was also a signer for the Philippines. He served as Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States Congress from 1944 to 1946, President of the Forth Session of the General Assembly ( 1949-50), and was the Philippines' Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1950 to 1984. Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. As a result, many have argued, it was decided at the conference that the causes of aggression and war, such as poverty, ignorance, and lack of human rights, would have to be ameliorated as well. As a consequence, the UN Charter was designed to help achieve these goals much more than originally planed at the Dumbarton Oaks conference. Rotarians contributed to the drafting the charter , its Preamble, and the articles on ECOSOC and the NGO's. October 24, 1945, the Charter was ratified and the United Nations came into existence.

4.The Structure of the United Nations

192 States belong to the United Nations almost all the States in the world. In the United Nations, the Member States are represented by their respective governments. The principal organs of the United Nations, according to the Charter, are General Assembly Security Council Secretariat with the Secretary-General Economic and Social Council International Court of Justice Trusteeship Council

The General Assembly is the principal political organ of the United Nations with allencompassing responsibility. In it, all 192 Member States are represented with the same rights. As the sole plenary organ, the General Assembly assumes a special political position that makes it the pivot of all United Nations activities. The six main committees are: The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security Committee) that is concerned with disarmament and related international security questions The Second Committee (Economic and Financial Committee) that is concerned with economic questions The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee) that deals with social and humanitarian issues The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee) that deals with a variety of political subjects not dealt with by the First Committee, as well as with decolonization The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary Committee) that deals with the administration and budget of the United Nations The Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) that deals with international legal matters Among the six principal organs of the United Nations, the responsibility for keeping world peace and international security lies with the Security Council. It is the only organ that can adopt internationally binding resolutions for the Member States of the United Nations. The Secretariat is composed of the Secretary-General and staff members subordinate to the Secretary-General. Ban Ki-moon, former Foreign- and Trade Minister of the Republic of Korea, has been the Secretary-General of the United Nations since January 1, 2007. The Economic and Social Council is the central coordinating organ of the United Nations. It is the liaison between the political level of the General Assembly and the development activities of the institutions below. The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, is the United Nations principal organ for the administration of justice. It is composed of 15 independent judges, chosen by the General Assembly and the Security Council for nine-year terms. The Trusteeship Council was originally tasked with oversight of the management of the international trusteeship system of subordinate colonial regions and support of them as they developed toward independence. With the conclusion of the last trusteeship agreement, the work of the Trusteeship Council de facto ended.

In addition to the principal organs, there are a multitude of subsidiary organs, special organizations, specialized agencies and other intergovernmental institutions, that, for the most part, were established after the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

5.Functions and powers of the United Nations

The U.N. functions are stated in the United Nations Charter, signed in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on June 26, 1945 by 50 member countries, particularly in Chapter 1, Article 1 of the UN Charter, which states: The Purposes of the United Nations are: 1. To maintain international peace and security, to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace; 2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and selfdetermination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; 3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; 4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends. The United Nations system is based on five principal organs (formerly six - the Trusteeship Council suspended operations in 1994); the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice, each of which counts many subsidiary organs, councils, commissions and bodies. The General Assembly is the main deliberative organ, the only one in which all member states have equal representation. Its powers are to oversee the budget of the United Nations, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, receive reports from other parts of the United Nations and make recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions, which are not binding for the members. The General Assembly subsidiary organs are divided into five categories: committees (30 in total and six main ones), commissions (seven), boards (six), councils and panels (five), working groups, and "other". The Security Council is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization

for military action. While other organs of the United Nations can only make 'recommendations' to member governments, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member governments have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. Ten of its fifteen members are elected on regional basis by the General Assembly, whereas five members - The French Republic, the Peoples Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom on Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America - are permanent and have veto power (a negative vote, or veto, by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal). Some of its subsidiary bodies include: peace building commission, sanctions committees, counter-terrorism committee, 1540 committee, UN Compensation Commission, the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Working group on Children and Armed Conflict, Working Group on Documentation. The Secretariat - an international staff working in duty stations around the world - carries out the diverse day-to-day work of the Organization. It services the other principal organs of the United Nations and administers the programmes and policies laid down by them. At its head is the Secretary-General (currently South Korean Ban Ki Moon), who is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council for a five- year, renewable term. The duties carried out by the Secretariat are as varied as the problems dealt with by the United Nations. These range from administering peacekeeping operations to mediating international disputes, from surveying economic and social trends and problems to preparing studies on human rights and sustainable development. Secretariat staff also inform the world's communications media about the work of the United Nations; organize international conferences on issues of worldwide concern; and interpret speeches and translate documents into the Organization's official languages. The International Court of Justice is the only UN major organ not located in New York (its headquarters are in The Hague). It is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. Its main functions are to settle legal disputes submitted to it by member states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized international organs, agencies and the UN General Assembly. The ICJ has dealt with relatively few cases in its history, but there has clearly been an increased willingness to use the Court since the 1980s, especially among developing countries. The United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986, and so accepts the court's jurisdiction only on a case-tocase basis. Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce World Court rulings, but such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, all of whom are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. ECOSOCs functions include information gathering, advising member nations, and making recommendations. In addition, ECOSOC is well positioned to provide policy coherence and coordinate the overlapping functions of the UNs subsidiary bodies and it is in these roles that it is most active. Its subsidiary organs are divided in Functional Commissions and Regional Commissions. ECOSOC also coordinates the work between Specialized Agencies (FAO, UNESCO, WHO) and the Peacekeeping and security The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states of the UN. The forces, also called the "Blue Helmets", who enforce UN agreements, are awarded United Nations Medals, which are considered international decorations instead of military decorations. The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. Situations where the UN has not only acted to keep the peace but also occasionally intervened include the Korean War (1950-1953), and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases member states have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions, an issue that stems from the UN's intergovernmental nature seen by some as simply an association of 192 member states who must reach consensus, not an independent organization. Disagreements in the Security Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, failed to provide humanitarian aid and intervene in the Second Congo War, failed to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and protect a refugee haven by the authorising the peacekeepers to use force, failed to deliver food to starving people in Somalia, failed to implement provisions of Security Council resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and failed continuingly to prevent genocide or provide assistance in Darfur. Human rights and humanitarian assistance The pursuit of human rights was a central reason for creating the UN. World War II atrocities and genocide led to a ready consensus that the new organization must work to prevent any similar tragedies in the future. An early objective was creating a legal framework for considering and acting on complaints about human rights violations. The UN Charter obliges all member nations to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights" and to take "joint and separate action" to that end. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though not legally binding, was adopted by the General

Assembly in 1948 as a common standard of achievement for all. The Assembly regularly takes up human rights issues. The United Nation Human Rights Council was established for this purpose in 2006: it counts 47 members, distributed by regions, each serving three years terms and no more than three consecutive terms.

6. Why the UN was successful where the League failed? A comparative study.
The League of Nations was effective in some areas and ineffective in others. As a general rule, the United Nations tended to be effective where the League was not. The Leagues goals, among others, were to resolve international disputes peacefully, prevent war, and improve global welfare (more or less comparable to that of the UN) and they worked towards these goals with strong determination that yielded them successes that were tremendously influential even with the absence of several major powers. While the United Nations for the most part has had the full support of all the major powers. The League was able to resolve problems in Abyssinia, Albania, Upper Silesia, and the Aland Islands. The Leagues triumphs in peace-keeping, however, were eclipsed by their achievements in improving global welfare. During the Leagues short existence they were able to accomplish great humanitarian feats and create legacy organizations which continue to improve the world we live in today, many of which continue today through the UN. While all of this was certainly effective, The League of Nations was ineffective when it came to conflicts concerning or requiring the aid of the major powers. The UN on the other hand has proven to be much more successful when it comes to dealing with the major powers. The only time that Britain and France used the League was for their own benefit. In the UN they are no longer the only major powers and thusly unable to control it so. The League of Nations call for disarmament went virtually unheard and Germany, Japan, France, and Italy continued to build up their armies. By failing to make countries feel safe, the League of Nations was unsuccessful in its goal of disarmament which led to more soldiers and set the stage for another global conflict. This failure was also ineffective at preventing war. The UN has learned that not all war is preventable and now focuses more on sending in peacekeeping forces to get the two sides off of the battlefield and into the boardroom. As previously mentioned collective security failed miserably because all the member states acted in accordance to their own agendas which ruined any chance that the League had to becoming a cohesive international power. While this problem sometimes occurs in the UN thanks to some countries veto power, for most part it is not a problem.

In addition, when push came to shove, the League never managed to mobilize troops allowing aggressor nations to face no resistance or consequence. The UN has proved its willingness to mobilize forces many times, with Korea and the Congo being notable examples. When China appealed to the League of Nations to help them fend off their Japanese attackers they never did send help. When Korea was under attack from the north, the UN was quick to intervene. The League of Nations was effective in solving minor power disputes and improving global welfare, but pales in comparison to the United Nations whose efforts brought humanity through the Cold War virtually unscathed and whose humanitarian works have literally affected everyone on this Earth. To conclude, although the UN has the same weakness of depending too much on the co-operation of the great powers, it is an improved and a more effective organization than the League of Nations.