U.N.C.L.E. is an organization consisting of agents of all nationalities. Responsible for "maintaining political and legal order anywhere in the world", it is multinational in makeup and international in scope, protecting and defending nations regardless of size or political persuasion. U.N.C.L.E. operates in Communist and Third World countries the same way that it does in the Western nations. In the episode entitled "The Shark Affair," (episode 4 from season 1, from 1964) enforcement agent of U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo reveals that U.N.C.L.E. is sponsored by the US, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Italy and Yugoslavia. Its primary opponent is the independent international criminal organization, .