The United States was a leader in the effort to create the United Nations and has played a major role in the institution since its founding. The UN Charter was drawn up in San Francisco in 1945, and the UN has had its headquarters in New York City for more than 50 years on land donated to the UN by the Rockefeller family.
Global interdependence is now a well-established fact of life.
Yet as these contacts increase, we are all more vulnerable to each other's problems. Every day brings potential threats to peace and security, including armed conflict, terrorism, drug trafficking, economic turmoil, disease, weapons of mass destruction, hunger, humanitarian catastrophes, abuses of human rights, and contamination of the natural environment. The UN serves as an effective, though at times imperfect, means of developing consensus and fostering collaboration. If there were no UN, we would find it considerably more difficult to resolve conflicts peacefully and to build international support for a wide range of important U.S. foreign policy objectives. The UN provides an institutional structure for countries to exchange their views, cooperate on complex tasks, and set standards that reflect common values.