An effectively defunct United Nations body, the Military Staff Committee is established by articles 45-47 of the UN Charter. It consists of representatives from the military staffs from the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, The United Kingdom, The United States of America, and The Soviet Union). The role of the MSC is ostensibly to plan UN military operations. Although these powers still officially appoint members from their military to the Military Staff Committee, it has had very limited activity in its over fifty years of existence. Mostly, this been the result of Cold War tensions preventing serious planning and cooperation between the Warsaw Pact and NATO countries.