\ -138- \ two great powers, the U.S.S.R. and Britain, were accused of endangering the peace of the world, But, so long as the veto survives, the ultimate external deterrent operating on the five permanent members of the Security Council will be the prospect that a violation of their agreements will bring down upon then retaliation which the United Nations Organization cannot order under the present terms of the Charter. The legal position being what it is--and the legal position corresponds to the political difficulty of establishing a world government strong enough to coerce great powers—there will be a natural tendency‘onthe part of states tp fearing conflict with one of the great powers, to seek assurance of help outside the provisions of the Charter. They may find this ay biiateral treaties of alliance, or in regional pacts, or in both, The search for reinsurance against the possible breakdown of a general security system was a familiar phenonenon during the life of the League of Nations, and it was well under way again before the end of World War II. The San Francisco Charter gives formal recognition to those realities in world politics which provide the motive for this search; and the advent of atomic weapons has done nothing to check the tendency. It may, however, do something to change the direction in which states will look for supplementary guarantics, The overall trend that seems most likely will be for states to group them. selves around that neighbor who combines the greatest capacity to launch atomic attack with the greatest capacity to survive it. This trend will probably not alter the constellation of hemispheric security in the Americas; but it may radically change the shape of things in Europe, The present movement there is towards an Eastern grouping around the Soviet Union, and a Western grouping around Britain and France. But even if France soon wins the secret of manu- facturing atomic weapons, and if she and Britain merge any productive capacity which they may be able to develop, they will find themselves, as soon as the Sovict Union is in production, in a position which at least on the defensive side