Why the Olive Appears on the UN Flag
The flag of the United Nations shows a map of the world cradled between two olive branches. It is such a familiar image that few people stop to ask why — of all the world’s plants — the olive was chosen to frame the planet. The answer runs back thousands of years.
Almost everyone recognises the UN emblem, and almost nobody clocks the deliberate choices in it. The plant is an olive, not the laurel you might assume; the map is drawn from the North Pole so no country sits at the centre; and the two branches meet at the bottom and open upward to hold the world. Each of those decisions was made in 1945 to say one thing as plainly as possible — peace — and the olive was reached for because, by then, it had been saying exactly that for three thousand years.
The oldest symbol of peace
The olive branch has stood for peace and reconciliation across the Mediterranean since antiquity. In ancient Greece it was tied to Athena and offered as a token of goodwill; in the biblical flood story a dove returns to Noah carrying an olive leaf, a sign the waters had receded and peace was restored. Romans, too, used the branch as a gesture of truce. By the time nations came to design modern emblems, the olive branch was already the single most legible shorthand for peace in Western culture — no caption required. When the UN was founded in 1945, reaching for it was almost inevitable.
Olive, not laurel — a telling edit
Here is the detail most people miss. The very first draft of the emblem, made for the 1945 San Francisco conference, framed the map in laurel — the classical wreath of victory. Someone realised the problem: an organisation founded to end war should not open with a symbol of military triumph. The laurel was swapped for olive, the symbol of peace, before the design was finalised. It is a tiny change with a huge meaning, and it is why the UN speaks of peace rather than victory every time its flag is raised.
Framing the whole world
On the finished emblem, two olive branches curve up around a polar azimuthal projection of the world map, meeting at the bottom — the branches of peace embracing all the world’s lands, drawn from a pole so no single country sits at the centre or on top. The symbolism is deliberate and plain: an organisation founded after a catastrophic war, declaring peace as its first purpose, and choosing the most ancient peace symbol it could to say so. The same branch a Greek might once have offered a rival, or a dove carried to Noah, now wraps the entire planet. Of all the olive’s meanings across history, this is the one that climbed highest.
| Adopted | 1945, at the founding of the United Nations |
|---|---|
| The plant | Olive branches — chosen for peace |
| First draft | Used laurel (victory); swapped for olive |
| The map | World seen from the North Pole (polar azimuthal) |
| Why polar | So no country sits at the centre or top |
| The message | Peace embracing all the world’s lands |
What to notice next time
- The plant is an olive, not laurel — a deliberate swap from victory to peace.
- The branches meet at the bottom and open upward to hold the world.
- The map is drawn from the North Pole, so no nation is centred.
- It is the same branch from Greek myth and Noah’s dove, carried to a modern emblem.
The olive on the UN flag: common questions
Why are there olive branches on the UN flag?
Because the olive branch is the oldest and clearest Western symbol of peace, and the UN was founded in 1945 to prevent war — so it framed the world in olive.
Are they olive or laurel branches?
Olive. The first 1945 draft used laurel — the wreath of victory — but it was swapped for olive so the emblem would speak of peace, not military triumph.
Why is the map centred on the North Pole?
It is a polar azimuthal projection so that no single country sits at the centre or top — a deliberately neutral way to show the whole world.
What do the branches meeting at the bottom mean?
They open upward to cradle the world map — peace embracing all the world’s lands, which is the emblem’s core message.
How old is the olive branch as a peace symbol?
Thousands of years — it appears in ancient Greek custom, Roman truces and the biblical dove returning to Noah, long before the UN adopted it.
Next time you see the UN flag, notice two things. First, it is olive, not laurel — the designers deliberately swapped the wreath of victory for the branch of peace before finalising it in 1945. Second, the branches meet at the bottom and open upward to hold a world map drawn from the North Pole, so no country sits at the centre. It is the same olive branch from Greek myth and the story of Noah’s dove, carried all the way to a modern emblem — one quiet tree, thousands of years of standing for the same idea.
Based on the documented design and symbolism of the United Nations emblem and the olive branch’s history as a peace symbol.