Legal Definitions - United Nations Security Council

The United NationsSecurity Council (UNSC, or UN Security Council) is a group of countries that work together to keep the world peaceful. It was created in 1946 and has five countries that are always members: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France. These countries have special powers called veto power, which means they can stop any decision the council makes. There are also ten other countries that are members for two years at a time.

The UNSC makes decisions that all countries in the United Nations have to follow. For example, if two countries are fighting and it might cause a bigger war, the UNSC will try to make them stop fighting. They might send in peacekeepers to help keep the peace or they might stop trading with the countries that are fighting. If things get really bad, they might even use military force to stop the fighting.

One example of the UNSC in action is when they sent peacekeepers to help stop a war in Bosnia in the 1990s. The peacekeepers helped keep the peace and made sure that people were safe. Another example is when the UNSC put sanctions on North Korea to try to stop them from building nuclear weapons. This meant that other countries couldn't trade with North Korea, which made it harder for them to get the things they needed to build the weapons.