During the Cold War, the contours of the U.N. agenda were shaped by East-West and North-South fault lines. While the East-West divide disappeared with the Berlin Wall, the North-South divide continues to plague the organization, undermining its relevance at times. There is evidence of a recent relaxation in North-South tensions. It must be encouraged.

Two of the United Nations' great triumphs have been the ending of colonialism and the progressive universalization of the human rights norm. If the latter has occurred mainly under Western impetus, credit for the former lies largely with the countries of the South. With the decolonization process that began in the late 1940s, the organization's membership increased dramatically and the U.N. agenda shifted to include concerns of the former colonies. The Non-Aligned Movement, or NAM, largely composed of newly independent countries, aimed to provide substantive alternatives to the positions advanced by the competing Cold War blocs.

Many of these countries also organized themselves into the Group of 77, pursuing an agenda of economic and social development and redistribution of wealth. The South sought to achieve adjustment of trade through price stabilization, the regulation of transnational corporations, increased foreign aid and reduced foreign debt. The initial success by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in boosting oil prices in the mid-1970s forced countries of the industrialized Western nations to pay heed to the political agenda of the dominant OPEC countries.