Hilderbrand explains why, with the Second World War moving toward an Allied victory in the summer of 1944, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China began to give greater priority to protecting their own sovereignty than to preventing another global conflict. At Dumbarton Oaks, therefore, they essentially turned away from the organization of a forceful and active United Nations, creating a world body that created only the illusion of a powerful peacekeeping agency.