The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United

Nations (UN)[2] and is charged with ensuring international peace and security,[3]

recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly,[4] and

approving any changes to the UN Charter.[5] Its powers include establishing peacekeeping

operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The UNSC is the

only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on member states.

Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created after World War II to address the

failings of the League of Nations in maintaining world peace. It held its first session on 17

January 1946 but was largely paralyzed in the following decades by the Cold War between the

United States and the Soviet Union (and their allies). Nevertheless, it authorized military

interventions in the Korean War and the Congo Crisis and peacekeeping missions in Cyprus,

West New Guinea, and the Sinai Peninsula. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, UN

peacekeeping efforts increased dramatically in scale, with the Security Council authorizing

major military and peacekeeping missions in Kuwait, Namibia, Cambodia, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Credits: Wikipedia