ABSTRACT
Since its creation in 1945, the United Nations has shared with the United States many of the same interests and goals in the Middle East. Both the international body and the US, the world’s primary economic and military power, have sought to maintain stability and peace in the region and, at various times, to promote democracy and human rights. Although the United States was able to use the UN to legitimize various interests and goals in the immediate post-Second World War era, the increasing bipolar rivalry of the Cold War, combined with Arab nationalism, diminished the utility of the world body for successive US administrations. The UN has also served as a forum for states, particularly Arab nations to criticize US policy.
