The Warsaw Pact was a treaty that was signed in Warsaw, Poland. This treaty was also known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. This alliance was established in 1955 and was signed by the Soviet Union and nations in Eastern Europe. The original members of the alliance included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact was established to counterbalance the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a post-WWII alliance between the US, Canada, and Western Europe.
There were two parts of the Warsaw Treaty’s organization. This Political Consultative Committee, which focused upon diplomacy and politics, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces, which handled the military division. The main goal of the Warsaw Pact was to enable the Soviet Union to control Eastern and Central Europe, and to serve as a global balance to NATO's political and military power and influence.
Albania was the first nation to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, doing so in 1968, shortly after Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia, one of the pact's own member countries. The Warsaw Pact began to fall apart more completely during 1989, when revolutions sparked in nearly every member nation, including Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. East Germany withdrew in 1990 upon its reunification with West Germany, and the pact was formally dissolved in February 1991. This was followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself in December 1991. Several former Soviet states and Warsaw Pact members have since joined NATO.
The United Nations, or the UN, is a global organization that was originally founded in 1945. The original members of the United Nations are Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Since it was founded, the organization now has 193 member states as of October 2018. Nations are admitted to the UN following recommendation by the Security Council and a decision made by the General Assembly.
The member states of the United Nations have several goals. These include: maintaining international peace and security, delivering humanitarian aid, protecting human rights, promoting sustainable development, and upholding international law. Most of the sovereign states in the world are part of the United Nations. However, there are a few that are not members. Vatican City and Palestine are not members, but they have permanent status as observer states.