Since its creation the UN has been beset by the big power rivalries of the Cold War which, too often, made it ineffective. Despite this, it has two major achievements to its credit. The first is to have made itself the spokesman and champion of the Third World or South - the world's dispossessed and marginalised. The second, always to undertake tasks in international peacekeeping so that it has gradually come to be seen as indispensable if we are to attain any form of world government.