Ever since the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco in 1945, its legal framework has been seen as offering a bulwark against expansionism and international aggression. The insistence in the Charter on sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of member-states allowed ex-colonial states to enshrine their independence from their former masters. The UN also facilitated mobilisation to defend the independence of its member states. It was through the international body, for example, that the US organised an enormous coalition to reverse the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.
