Passage 6: The United Nations
In 1945, representatives of 50 nations met to plan this organization. It was called the United Nations. After the war, many more nations joined. There are two major parts of the United Nations. One is called the General Assembly. In the General Assembly, every member nation is represented and has an equal vote.
The second part is called the Security Council. It has representatives of just 15 nations. Five nations are permanent members: the United States, Russia, France, Britain, and China. The 10 other members are elected every two years by the General Assembly.
The major job of the Security Council is to keep peace in the world. If necessary, it can send troops from member nations to try to stop little wars before they turn into big ones.
It is hard to get the nations of the Security Council to agree on when this is necessary. But they did vote to try to stop wars. (156 words)
