Since the first decade of its existence the United Nations has devoted much time and effort to the achievement of two objectives, namely decolonisation and universality. Both have now, to all intents and purposes, been achieved. The European empires have disappeard, giving way to an array of newly independent States in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The founding membership of the United Nations in 1945 of 51 States has risen to the present total of 159. Where there were originally twelve African and Asian member State, there are now no fewer than 90. With the exception of one or two disputed territories and unresolved problems of self-determination such as the two Koreas and Namibia, it is true to say that every State in the world which feels itself capable, in terms of economic base and size of population, of sustaining the obligations of membership, is now part of the international community.

It can therefore be assumed that, in the decades to come, there will be no significant change in the composition of the United Nations. By the same token it can also be assumed, although with less absolute certainty, that the present politico-economic groupings into which the world is divided will persist, namely the Group of 77 (G77) (which comprises 127 developing countries, including all 101 members of the politically important Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)), Group B (roughly speaking the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)), and Group D (the Soviet Union and the States of Eastern Europe).