For best results: Why countries group together, despite the UN

The earliest of these groupings – NATO – dates to just four years after the United Nations was formed. What role does the UN play, amid these alliances?

Within four years of the formation of the United Nations — the institution meant to keep the peace and help member states peacefully resolve disputes — came the birth of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in 1949. This military alliance had 12 member countries across Europe and North America. (It now has 32.)

A child on a swing outside a Kyiv building bombed by a Russian missile. When fading or dysfunctional multilateralism doesn’t meet a country’s interests, it will find other ways to exert influence or extract resources. This is where the role of the UN becomes vital. (Getty Images)

By 1955, the Warsaw Pact, between the Soviet Union and members of the Eastern Bloc, had come to life as a countermeasure to NATO.

And there