ABSTRACT
The Cold War’s end found the United Nations in greater demand than ever before to deal with peace and security issues as well as environmental and development issues, population growth, humanitarian disasters, and other problems. By 1995, however, the early post–Cold War optimism about the United Nations had diminished substantially. The establishment of the United Nations in the closing days of World War II was an affirmation of the desire of war-weary nations for an organization that could help them avoid future conflicts and promote international economic and social cooperation. At the United Nations the earliest and most obvious effect of nuclear weapons was to restore the issue of disarmament to the agenda. The nuclear threat not only transformed world politics itself but also made the UN the key place where statespersons sought to persuade each other that war had become excessively dangerous, that disarmament and arms control were imperative, and that they were devoted to peace and restraint.
