Editing United Nations Security Council (section)

=== Post-Cold War ===
[[File:Colin Powell anthrax vial. 5 Feb 2003 at the UN.jpg|thumb|US Secretary of State [[Colin Powell]] holds a model vial of [[anthrax]] whilst giving a presentation to the Security Council in February 2003.]]

After the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in ten years than it had in the previous four decades.{{sfn|Meisler|1995|p=286}} Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold.<ref>{{harvnb|Fasulo|2004|p=43}}; {{harvnb|Meisler|1995|p=334}}.</ref> The UN negotiated an end to the [[Salvadoran Civil War]], launched a successful [[United Nations Transition Assistance Group|peacekeeping mission in Namibia]], and oversaw democratic elections in post-[[Apartheid in South Africa|apartheid]] South Africa and post-[[Khmer Rouge]] Cambodia.{{sfn|Meisler|1995|pp=252–256}} In 1991, the Security Council demonstrated its renewed vigor by condemning the Iraqi [[invasion of Kuwait]] on the same day of the attack and later authorizing a [[Gulf War|US-led coalition]] that successfully repulsed the Iraqis.{{sfn|Meisler|1995|pp=264–277}} Undersecretary-General [[Brian Urquhart]] later described the hopes raised by these successes as a "false renaissance" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.{{sfn|Meisler|1995|p=334}}

Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s, the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as Haiti, Mozambique and the former Yugoslavia.{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|pp=66–67}} The [[United Nations Protection Force|UN mission to Bosnia]] faced "worldwide ridicule" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing.<ref>For quotation "worldwide ridicule", see {{harvnb|Meisler|1995|p=293}}; for description of UN missions in Bosnia, see {{harvnb|Meisler|1995|pp=312–329}}.</ref> In 1994, the [[United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda]] failed to intervene in the [[Rwandan genocide]] in the face of Security Council indecision.{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|p=104}}

In the late 1990s, UN-authorized international interventions took a wider variety of forms. The [[United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone|UN mission]] in the 1991–2002 [[Sierra Leone Civil War]] was supplemented by British [[Royal Marines]] and the UN-authorized [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|2001 invasion of Afghanistan]] was overseen by [[NATO]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|pp=110–111}} In 2003, the US [[Iraq War|invaded Iraq]] despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness.{{sfn|Kennedy|2006|p=111}} In the same decade, the Security Council intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the [[War in Darfur]] in Sudan and the [[Kivu conflict]] in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2013, [[Secretary-General's Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka|an internal review]] of UN actions in [[Alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War|the final battles]] of the [[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]] in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered "systemic failure".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.firstpost.com/world/un-failed-during-final-days-of-lankan-ethnic-war-ban-ki-moon-1133061.html |title=UN failed during final days of Lankan ethnic war: Ban Ki-moon |agency=Press Trust of India |date=25 September 2013 |work=FirstPost |access-date=5 November 2013 |archive-date=30 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030080724/http://www.firstpost.com/world/un-failed-during-final-days-of-lankan-ethnic-war-ban-ki-moon-1133061.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
In November/December 2014, [[Egypt]] presented a motion proposing an expansion of the NPT ([[non-Proliferation Treaty]]), to include [[Israel]] and [[Iran]]; this proposal was due to increasing hostilities and destruction in the Middle-East connected to the Syrian Conflict as well as others. All members of the Security Council are signatory to the NPT, and all permanent members are [[nuclear weapons states]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPTtext.shtml|title=UNODA – Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)|publisher=United Nations|access-date=29 June 2017|archive-date=2 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502153934/http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPTtext.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>