for disputes already on the agenda of the Security Council. However, it is
largely a propaganda arena and ideological battlefield to which few nations in
conflict pay any attention. The most important work of the UN, other than the
peace-keeping of the Security Council, is done by the specialized agencies, and
by the direct personal diplomacy of the administrative head, the secretary-
general. The secretaries-general have nearly all been extremely-widely
respected international statespeople whose personal interventions have often
been of great help. The specialized agencies like the World Health Organiza-
tion and the International Labour Organization (which actually began under
the League of Nations) have, along with other agencies affiliated to the UN
such as the regional commissions, made major contributions to international
social welfare and economic development. Others, like the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, or the International Court of Justice,
though dependent on political consensus for their work, have often been able
to minimize the human suffering that would have been consequent on political
conflict that the UN has not actually been able to avoid. The internal budget of
the UN has frequently been the subject of controversy, however, largely
because major contributors, particularly the USA (liable for 25% of the budget
in the years 1989–91) and the former Soviet Union (liable for 11.6%), objected
to the level of their financial burden compared to the weight of their voice in
the General Assembly, whereThird Worldnations tend to dominate.
The greater effectiveness of the UN compared with the League of Nations is
shown mainly in its ability on several occasions to put military forces in the
field which have either stopped international aggression (as eventually in the
Korean War, and more swiftly in the Gulf War) or minimized it, as with the
peace-keeping forces in Cyprus and the Belgian Congo. This competence, and
its general ability to function as an international safety valve, is due to the fact
that while the League of Nations lacked two of the most important powers, the
USA and, from 1933, Germany, the UN has had both the USA and the Soviet
Union/Russia firmly entrenched in the Security Council. (Though it must be
noted that UN action against the communist North Korean forces invading
South Korea was only possible because the Soviet Union was, at that time,
boycotting the UN. It would otherwise undoubtedly have used its veto in
support of North Korea.) Already the longest lasting and most universal
international political body, its new found strength in the post-cold warera
has already revitalized the UN, and it may play an ever increasing role.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is the moral, social and political theory originated by Jeremy
Benthamand JamesMill, and further developed by John StuartMill. At its
core is a simple equation between ‘the good’, and ‘happiness’ or pleasure. The
Utilitarianism