intervene in matters essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any state (UN Charter Article 2:7) is eroding, especially where governments abuse their own citizens' basic human rights. Funded by contributions from member states, the UN desperately needs larger and more secure funding. It is expected that Japan will be admitted to the Security Council, and that possibly there will be a seat for the European Union. United Nations The UN replaced the failed League of Nations after the Second World War. Wartime negotiations between Russia, America, China, and Britain produced a blueprint for a new global security institution. The United Nations came into being on 24 October 1945 with 51 member states. By 2000, there were 188. The institutions of the UN bore some similarity to those of the league, though the General Assembly was empowered to act on majority votes, rather than the principle of unanimity. But the five main powers, UK, USA, USSR, France, and China, gave themselves a power of veto in the Security Council, which Britain retains. The effectiveness of the UN in maintaining global security has rested to a large extent on the superpowers being in agreement. UN peacekeeping activities proliferated at times of relaxation during the Cold War , and after 1989, but were rarer when the two main powers were trading vetoes with each other in the 1950s or the 1980s. The UN was able to intervene in the Korean War because the USSR at the time was boycotting the Security Council. British soldiers