The United Nations is an institute of global governance established on October 24, 1951 with the aim of maintaining world peace and developing friendly relations between nations. and work with Member States to help people “live better lives” by eliminating global poverty, disease and illiteracy and encouraging respect for the rights and freedoms of everyone. The UN was created to reflect the power structures that emerged from World War II. The permanent members of the Security Council are therefore the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China. Each of these nations has a veto over Security Council decisions, and in recent years this has significantly reduced the UN's power to achieve its own goals. One of the main objectives of the UN is the maintenance of international peace and security in accordance with the UN charter, and this is primarily the domain of the security council. As such, the UN's ability to achieve this goal has been largely overshadowed by members of the Big Five applying the veto power in accordance with their national interests. When these Big 5 members use their veto power in such a way, it undermines the power of the UN to maintain international peace and security, because the UN cannot act on the issues it should be called upon to solve. The civil war in Syria is an example. As Russia, one of the Big 5 members, is closely allied with the Assad regime and its only Mediterranean naval base is located in Syria, it has used its veto power to block any UN involvement in Syria . This is regardless of the fact that the civil war poses a threat to international peace and security, for example by becoming a breeding ground for terrorist groups...... middle of paper ......, the North and South Sudan are still at odds over the separation and independence of the south from the north in 2011 and in Israel and Palestine, fighting has been weak since 1967, when Israel absorbed Palestine into its nation, and the UN seems powerless to stop. has enjoyed its greatest successes in achieving goals in areas not associated with international peace and security, such as eradicating polio in Africa or aiding disaster-stricken countries. This is because the UN has been able to act in response to these issues through means such as the General Assembly, which is less influenced by the national interests of the big five nations. This allowed the UN to circumvent the veto power of these nations, which limited UN interventions in response to threats to international peace and security, as seen in Crimea or in Syria..