In 1942, the Atlantic Charter led to the development of the United Nations at the end of World War II for the maintenance of international peace and security, tolerance among nations, and social development of all peoples. The Preamble begins with the words, "We the Peoples of the United Nations. " While the world civic community is growing more and more vocal in the international community and at the United Nations, the organization itself remains an organization of governments.Thus, it is only as powerful as the member nations allow it to be. Its role in multilateral relations is to produce harmonious settlement of disputes and to help provide methods of developing sustainable human development. 
The UN's major organs are supported by hundreds of subsidiary or complementary organizations. Two of major organs include the democratic but weak General Assembly with 190 nations all represented in the autumn of 2002. and the reasonably strong but undemocratic Security Council. It has fifteen members, five of which have veto power on substantive issues or resolutions with which they disagree: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The World Court settles disputes between states which will recognize its jurisdiction in the matter. The Secretariat is the international civil service for the entire organization.
Some argue that the United Nations should be a world government. That, however, has never been the goal of the United Nations as conceived by its founding fifty-one members, or by its membership throughout its more than fifty-five years history. Several reforms have been demanded over the last decade or so, and many have been initiated. A reform which was proposed for the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations in 1995, but which has never been implemented, has been the reform by adding new members and increased transparency of the Security Council.
This should have been done long ago. Its implementation would have assured a greater contribution to good multilateral relations.
The UN needs to avoid mistakes such as the Security Council passing substantive resolutions without proper follow up support. The five members in the Council with veto power need to work more harmoniously to resolve conflicts that threaten international peace and security.
The Secretariat needs to be allowed to carry out the resolutions passed by the Council and the General Assembly. Since the United States has refused to pay its full annual regular and peacekeeping dues since the early 1980' s, member states need to convince the US that it must respect its obligations if it expects other member nations to respect their own commitments and obligations under the Charter.