The UN or United Nations has the power to order interventions, for example to send peacekeeping military forces into a country to try and prevent fighting or provide safety for people or groups under attack. However, it can only act if all the permanent members of the UN security council agree. There are 5 of these permanent members and they are Russia, China, France, the United States and the United Kingdom. These 5 countries have very different political systems and form allegiances with very different states, and to get them all to agree on a course of action is often extremely difficult. In the recent conflict in Syria, for example. The US, UK and France have wished to support the opposition, while Russia and China continue to support the government, so no decisive action has been taken although Syria has made certain concessions (however, the outcome of these has been inconclusive).