ABSTRACT
The Security Council deals with crisis situations that are determined to constitute a threat to the peace. The UN Charter outlines provisions for the establishment and operation of a Military Staff Committee (Article 47) that would "consist of the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives." The UN Operation in the Congo began in 1960 soon after Belgian forces left the new state after granting it independence. The record of the United Nations in responding to threats to the peace has been uneven. William Zartman discusses the vital issue of timely intervention in conflict situations to prevent them from becoming unmanageable crises. Ambassador Juan Somavia, former permanent representative of Chile to the United Nations and currently the director-general of the International Labor Organization, is concerned with the way the United Nations deals with the kinds of threats to the peace that seem to characterize the post-Cold War world.
