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Dictionary definition: United Nations Security Council
- Article from:
- A Dictionary of World History
Copyright© A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information)
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United Nations Security Council
One of the six principal organs of the United Nations, based at UN headquarters in New York, whose prime responsibility is to maintain world peace and security. The Security Council, which first met in January 1946, consists of five permanent members (the USA, Russia, China, France, and the UK), and ten non-permanent members elected by the United Nations General Assembly for two-year terms on a rotating basis. With the changes in the economic and political balance of power since the end of the cold war, a change in the permanent membership to admit Germany, Japan, the EU, or other regional powers, is likely to come under discussion. The Security Council can ...