Politics in the Security Council

1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Dennett

Official international organizations are mechanisms which states join because they believe that membership will enable them more effectively to achieve the broad goals of their respective foreign policies. While there is no question that there has been a considerable element of idealism in its creation, the countries which have joined the United Nations have done so because they believe – or hope – that one or another of the instrumentalities provided by United Nations machinery can be used to their advantage. They may wish to improve their standard of living, to provide some increased measure of security either through implementation of the idea of world organization or through other specific policies, or to promote, perhaps, an expansion of their influence. With fifty–nine different Members, it would hardly be surprising to find fifty–nine differing points of view, and it should not be surprising to find these countries playing practical politics to get out of the United Nations precisely what they joined it to achieve, or, since there may be differences, what they desire to achieve after they have once been admitted. Each Member is, in short, using – or trying to use – United Nations machinery to further its own foreign policy.

Author(s):  
Bakare Najimdeen

Few years following its creation, the United Nations (UN) with the blessing of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to establish the UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO), as a multilateral mechanism geared at fulfilling the Chapter VII of the UN Charter which empowered the Security Council to enforce measurement to maintain or restore international peace and security. Since its creation, the multilateral mechanism has recorded several successes and failures to its credit. While it is essentially not like traditional diplomacy, peacekeeping operations have evolved over the years and have emerged as a new form of diplomacy. Besides, theoretically underscoring the differences between diplomacy and foreign policy, which often appear as conflated, the paper demonstrates how diplomacy is an expression of foreign policy. Meanwhile, putting in context the change and transformation in global politics, particularly global conflict, the paper argues that traditional diplomacy has ceased to be the preoccupation and exclusive business of the foreign ministry and career diplomats, it now involves foot soldiers who are not necessarily diplomats but act as diplomats in terms of peacekeeping, negotiating between warring parties, carrying their countries’ emblems and representing the latter in resolving global conflict, and increasingly becoming the representation of their countries’ foreign policy objective, hence peacekeeping military diplomacy. The paper uses decades of Pakistan’s peacekeeping missions as a reference point to establish how a nation’s peacekeeping efforts represent and qualifies as military diplomacy. It also presented the lessons and good practices Pakistan can sell to the rest of the world vis-à-vis peacekeeping and lastly how well Pakistan can consolidate its peacekeeping diplomacy.


Author(s):  
Manu Bhagavan

This chapter discusses India’s association with the United Nations. Guided by the vision of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the country initially had a highly successful grand strategy guiding its foreign policy that placed that UN at the centre of its diplomatic efforts. Things took a sharp downward turn, however, during the administration of Indira Gandhi, and the relationship has lacked cohesion and meaningful direction ever since. In recent times, India has sought to become a permanent member of the Security Council and has relatedly but unsuccessfully attempted to wield influence, though large questions about its purpose and goals remain. Contemporary crises, though, now make the answers ever more urgent.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-187
Author(s):  
Jessica Pressler

This chapter deals with the rising deployment of private military and security companies (pmscs) in peacekeeping operations of the United Nations and the demand for an increased willingness on part of the international organisation to take on responsibility for potential wrongdoings by its contracted personnel. It aims to demonstrate that the un is vested with a legal obligation to ensure that the conduct of private contractors under its command complies with obligations under international law and identifies possibilities to formulate a new regulatory framework in light of the recent Montreux Process and the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations. The chapter further outlines ways for remedial mechanisms for potential victims of pmsc peacekeeper wrongdoings and offers an insight into the general tension between the organization’s immunity and its accountability. While the un’s reliance on pmscs in peacekeeping operations is an efficient mean to secure troops, it must go hand in hand with the compliance of international legal obligations and institutional responsibility so as to ensure its legitimacy and credibility as a world organization mandated to maintain peace and security and to respect human rights.


2020 ◽  
pp. 097359842094343
Author(s):  
Anupama Ghosal ◽  
Sreeja Pal

The issue of Human Rights features as a prominent agenda of the United Nations and its related international organizations. However, when it comes to precise formulation of a country’s foreign policy in bilateral or multilateral forums, the issues of trade and national security find priority over pressing human rights violations occurring within the countries engaged in the diplomatic dialogue. An often-employed reason behind such an approach is the need to respect sovereignty and non-interference of a country in diplomacy. This article aims at analysing the potential which diplomacy holds to pressurize recalcitrant regimes to respect human rights. In doing so, the article tries to explore the ambit of Human Rights Diplomacy and the relationship between agenda of politics and human rights.


Author(s):  
Villalpando Santiago

In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights issued a landmark decision on the admissibility of two applications (Behrami and Saramati) concerning events that had taken place in Kosovo subsequent to Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999). This note examines the two main legal findings of this decision, namely (i) that the impugned actions and omissions were, in principle, attributable to the United Nations, and (ii) that this attribution implied that the respondent states could not be held accountable for such actions and omissions under the Convention. The note deconstructs the reasoning of the Court on these points and assesses the legacy of this precedent in the field of the responsibility of international organizations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Yadi Kusmayadi

ABSTRAKTindakan Indonesia dalam pengunduran diri sebagai anggota PBB pada tanggal 7 Januari 1965 ketika Malaysia dinyatakan menjadi anggota tidak tetap dewan keamanan PBB. Tujuan penulisan ini untuk menganalisi peristiwa terjadinya politik nuar negeri pada tahun 1963-1966. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan historis. Politik luar negeri Indonesia pada masa konfrontasi Indonesia dengan Malaysia tahun 1963-1966 melenceng dari garis politik luar negeri bebas aktif. Namun jika dilihat dari sisi positif, tindakan Presiden Soekarno melakukan konfrontasi kepada Malaysia sangat tepat. Sesuai dengan garis kebijakan politik luar negeri Indonesia yang bebas aktif, Indonesia tidak menghendaki negara tetangganya menjadi antek-antek negara kolonialis dan imperialis. Apabila sebuah negara di Asia Tenggara dapat dikuasai oleh kekuatan kolonialis dan imperialis, maka wilayah tersebut akan dijadikan basis bagi penyebaran pengaruh mereka dan bahkan penguasaan mereka atas bangsa-bangsa dan negara-negara di sekitarnya. Jika dilihat dari sisi negatif, konfrontasi ini telah menyebabkan bangsa Indonesia melenceng dari garis kebijakan politik luar negeri bebas dan aktif. Terbukti pada waktu itu Indonesia menyatakan keluar dari keanggotaan di PBB, dan setelah itu ada kesan bahwa bangsa Indonesia dikucilkan dari pergaulan dunia internasional. Selain itu pula, peristiwa konfrontasi Indonesia-Malaysia ini dimanfaatkan oleh PKI untuk kepentingannya mendekatkan negara Indonesia dengan negara-negara komunis seperti USSR, Korea Utara dan RRC.Kata Kunci: Politik Luar Negeri, konfrontasi Indonesia dan MalaysiaABSTRACTIndonesia's actions in resignation as a member of the United Nations on 7 January 1965 when Malaysia was declared a non-permanent member of the UN security council. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the occurrence of national politics in the year 1963-1966. This research method uses a historical approach. Indonesia's foreign policy during the Indonesian confrontation with Malaysia in 1963-1966 deviated from the line of active free foreign policy. However, if viewed from the positive side, the action of President Soekarno to confrontation to Malaysia is very appropriate. In accordance with the line of active foreign policy of Indonesia, Indonesia does not want its neighbors to be agents of the colonialist and imperialist countries. If a country in Southeast Asia can be dominated by colonialist and imperialist forces, then the region will serve as a basis for the spread of their influence and even their control over the surrounding nations and nations. If viewed from the negative side, this confrontation has caused the Indonesian nation deviated from the line of free and active foreign policy. Evident at that time Indonesia declared out of membership in the United Nations, and after that there is the impression that the Indonesian nation is ostracized from the international community. In addition, Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation event is utilized by the PKI for its interests to bring the country of Indonesia with the communist countries such as the USSR, North Korea, and the PRC.Keywords: Foreign Policy, confrontation of Indonesia and Malaysia


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-281
Author(s):  
Stefano Recchia

Abstract Research suggests that military interveners often seek endorsements from regional international organizations (IOs), in addition to approval from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to reassure international and domestic audiences. Toward that end, interveners should seek the endorsement of continent-wide regional IOs with the broadest and most diverse membership, which are most likely to be independent. In practice, however, interveners often seek endorsements from subregional IOs with narrow membership and aggregate preferences similar to their own. This should weaken the reassurance/legitimation effect significantly. I argue that such narrower regional endorsements are sought not so much to reassure skeptical audiences, as to pressure reluctant UNSC members to approve the intervention by putting those members’ relations with regional partners at stake. To illustrate this argument and probe its plausibility, I reconstruct France's successful efforts to obtain UNSC approval for its interventions in Côte d'Ivoire (2002–2003) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2003) at a time when the United States was hesitant to support France because of the two countries’ falling-out over the Iraq War. For evidence I rely on original interviews with senior French and US officials.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew DiLorenzo ◽  
Bryan Rooney

Abstract Recent studies demonstrate that turnover in domestic political leadership is associated with change in states’ foreign policies. While domestic changes matter even after controlling for international factors, many argue that international factors should overwhelm the effects of domestic turnover on foreign policy change. Yet existing studies tend to focus on other domestic-level variables (e.g., regime type) as constraints on domestic turnover. We consider how three sets of international factors that scholars have argued might outweigh the influence of domestic changes—security environment, socialization, and economic dependence—moderate the effects of domestic coalition changes on variance in voting patterns in the United Nations. To do this, we interact a measure of domestic coalition turnover with various proxies for international context in a statistical model of voting consistency. We find that many international factors are associated with greater consistency in voting behavior. Yet the effects of domestic change on foreign policy are remarkably resilient. We find only limited evidence that the effect of domestic change attenuates as states face more international constraints. The results reinforce the importance of understanding the role of both domestic political factors and international context in shaping foreign policy.


Author(s):  
А.А. Синдеев

Актуальность статьи определяется востребованностью на нынешнем этапе осмысления опыта современной России исследований, посвященных процессам, явлениям, принципам и подходам, сопровождавшим формирование ее внешней политики. При этом речь идет как об универсальном, так и об индивидуальном (личностном) уровнях. Об актуальности выбранной темы свидетельствуют совпавшие в 2020 году два юбилея — Организации Объединенных Наций, ее Совета Безопасности и юбилей министра иностранных дел России Сергея Викторовича Лаврова. С учетом последнего факта данная статья не носит свойственного юбилейным статьям характера. Ее цель состоит в том, чтобы проанализировать, какие принципы и подходы в конце ХХ — начале XXI века были положены в основу российской внешней политики. Для реализации заявленной цели автор использовал открытые источники — послания Президента РФ В. В. Путина Федеральному собранию с 2000 по 2004 год, а также все протоколы заседаний Совета Безопасности ООН за вышеуказанный хронологический период, и выделил для статьи те из них, которые касались борьбы с терроризмом, поскольку эта проблематика была востребована в 2000–2004 годах и предоставляла хорошие шансы для объединения усилий различных партнеров. Данные материалы потребовали применения системного подхода, историко-генетического, историко-типологического и сравнительно-исторического методов. Результатами проведенного исследования стали систематизация официальных внешнеполитических установок, анализ принципов и подходов, использованных С. В. Лавровым на посту постоянного представителя России в Совбезе ООН. Полученные результаты необходимо воспринимать как предварительные. Работа над проблемой должна быть продолжена. The relevance of the article is accounted for by the necessity to analyze and reassess research works devoted to the processes, phenomena, principles and strategies that have shaped the foreign policy of modern Russia. The article treats the issue on both universal and individual (personal) levels. The relevance of the issue is accounted for by two anniversaries we celebrate in 2020, namely the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council and the 70th birth anniversary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov. It should be noted, however, that the tone of the article is not celebratory. It is aimed at the analysis of principles and strategies of the foreign policy adopted by the Russian Federation in the late 20th — early 21stcenturies. To achieve the aim of the research, the author of the article analyzes open sources, such as Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation given by the Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2000–2004, and all the minutes of meetings of the United Nations Security Council in 2000–2004. The author focuses attention on speeches devoted to the struggle against terrorism, for the issue was highly relevant in 2000–2004 and demanded that partners should coordinate their efforts to combat common challenges. To analyze the abovementioned data, the author of the article employed systemic approach, history and genetic approach, historical-typological approach, comparative-historical approach. The research enabled the author to systematize official guidelines of Russian foreign policy and to analyze the principles and strategies used by S. V. Lavrov as permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Security Council. It should be noted that the findings of the research are preliminary and require further analysis.


1949 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-98
Author(s):  
Robert E. Elder

The model session of an organ of the United Nations, whether it be the Security Council or the General Assembly, is probably the most dramatic method available today for teaching American students the practical problems of postwar international relations. Dormant during the war, model councils and assemblies have been reactivated and are now playing an important rôle in the international relations programs of many colleges and universities. Typical of the model international organizations are the Model General Assembly of the United Nations, sponsored by the American Association for the United Nations, and the Model Security Council of the United Nations, sponsored jointly by the colleges and universities of central New York State. Between forty and forty-five institutions in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey participate in the model assembly, while eleven send delegates to the model security council.The reaction of students who have participated in sessions of such model international organizations has been enthusiastic. Not only do such sessions stimulate general interest in international relations, but in addition they build a knowledge of procedure and structure of international organizations, a familiarity with reports and documents of the United Nations, an understanding of international problems currently influencing relations of the Great Powers, and a recognition of the difficulties under which the United Nations must labor. The model security council or assembly is not just a rehearsal of past events in the Security Council or General Assembly of the United Nations, although such events must provide the foundation for all action taken by the model group. Instead, the sessions of the model international organs are creative and develop initiative, for they start with what has been done to date and attempt to arrive at new decisions, all the while functioning within the general framework of the over-all foreign policies of the states involved.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document