Military Staff Committee

The Military Staff Committee (MSC) is the United Nations Security Council subsidiary body whose role, as defined by the United Nations Charter, is to plan UN military operations^[1] and assist in the regulation of armaments.^[2] Although the Military Staff Committee continues to exist, negotiation efforts between the United States, the Soviet Union and other nations in the late 1940s failed, and the committee has since been largely defunct, only serving in an advisory capacity.

The greatest purpose of the MSC, arising from Article 45 of the UN Charter, was intended to provide command staff for a set of air-force contingents.^[1] These contingents, provided by the permanent five members of the Security Council (the Republic of China (now the People's Republic of China), France, the Soviet Union (now Russia), the United Kingdom, and the United States), were to be held at ready for the discretionary use of the United Nations.