The UN was created as an organization primarily to help resolve conflicts without resorting to war. The League of Nations was created after the First World War with similar aims. Obviously, the League of Nations was a failure. The UN does not have a very good record in this regard, either. It has been powerless to intervene in conflicts that are defined as “internal”. It has no real means of enforcing decrees regarding other conflicts. India and Pakistan both claim the province of Kashmir. Violent warfare has not solved this problem. Currently Kashmir is divided. Paert of it is occupied by Pakistan and part by India. No real solution seems to be in sight.
The Island of Cyprus was once part of Greece. There was a large minority of Turks living on the island. When they felt their rights were being violated they appealed to Turkey. The Turks invaded the island and took military control of the Eastern half. That is still the situation today (despite the UN saying that no state should ever be allowed to take territory from another).
The Arab-Israel conflict has deeper roots. The League of Nations decided that the former Ottoman sub province of Palestine should become a Jewish homeland. Arabs were granted independent regimes in other parts of the former Ottoman Empire. Today, those Arab nations are recognized as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (plus Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, and the UAE). The Palestine mandate was given for temporary governance to the British. The British separated the Eastern part of their mandate and made it into the Kingdom of Jordan (at that time, there were no Jews living in that area). The British further ‘adjusted’ the borders of their mandate to cede territory to France that would ultimately become part of Syria and Lebanon (none of these actions were ever approved by the League of Nations! In fact, the British never even sought permission to carry out their actions).
When it came time for the British to leave (mandate expired), the local Arab population in Palestine (reinforced by a very large Arab immigration that the British never saw fit to document) had adopted their own brand of Arab nationalism and demanded control over all Palestine (leaving the Jews with nothing!). The newly formed UN managed a series of truce agreements, all of which called for some kind of separation (partition) with borders to be decided by the conflicting parties through negotiations. That never happened either. The Arabs engaged in a series of wars, all of which they lost, but despite a lot of political maneuvering no Arab group representing the Palestinians ever reached an agreement with the new Jewish state (Israel) regarding borders. This is all presented just to ensure that when I discuss further UN involvement you will all have the same historical background to refer to. More tomorrow.
Wetherhorn 