The UN’s principal crisis-management body, the Security Council, has the authority to impose binding obligations on its 193 member states to maintain international peace and security. It is also empowered to deploy peacekeeping missions to conflict zones. But its effectiveness has been marred by poor management, misguided mandates and a tendency to play favorites with major powers.
The Security Council’s most powerful weapon is the veto, which allows its five permanent members (the P5) – the U.S., Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom – to block resolutions that they view as hostile to their own strategic interests. The mechanism has been used hundreds of times since the end of World War II, most often by the U.S. and Russia in an attempt to shield Israel from criticism or to thwart action against rogue regimes in the Middle East.
The veto has loomed large in recent crises, particularly during the 2024 Israel-Gaza war. Its use has sparked criticism that the UN is no longer effective at responding to the challenges of our time. While the veto is one of the UN’s most controversial tools, there are many other ways the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies take formal actions to address issues. In addition to resolutions, these bodies adopt decisions, which are often numbered and refer to the year and session in which they were adopted. For example, Resolution 3068 is the resolution that declared 1975 as International Women’s Year, while Resolution 3379 revoked Resolution 3068.