Part V Global and Regional Security Mechanisms, Ch.59 The Role of the United Nations in Shaping Global Security Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Day Adam ◽  
Malone David M
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Willingness To Intervene ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter argues that the United Nations (UN) has contributed to the international law of global security in three related ways: (1) as a lawmaker, or something very much like it, with the UN Security Council (UNSC) empowered through the Charter to adopt decisions binding on all Member States; (2) as an interpreter of international law, with significant impact on the law of global security; and (3) as an agenda-setter, establishing norms and shaping international responses to new security challenges. In all of these, the role of the UNSC has predominated, particularly in the post-Cold War period when the pace of its engagement and its willingness to intervene in a wide range of settings increased dramatically. This does not mean that the UN is always the best, or even the appropriate, actor when it comes to making, shaping, and enforcing international law. The chapter then considers the political limitations of the UN as an actor shaping global law, and the attendant risks this contested role poses to effective management of international peace and security. Just as it adapted in the post-Cold War period to new conflict dynamics and power constellations, the UN is likely to remain a key player in the global legal order in some respects and will need to calibrate its decisions accordingly, which it has not always done in the past.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Cold War

This book examines the role of the United Nations in the confounding geopolitical tensions arising from key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, including the hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. It explores how the UN has been shaped by the Palestine question and how the struggle over Palestine produced the institutions of “peacekeeping” and of the “UN mediator.” It also discusses the politics around the UN and shows that it is always constrained by geopolitics despite serving as a site of struggle over legitimacy claims by warring factions. The book is divided into four sections dealing with themes that are considered the most important elements of UN work in the Arab world: diplomacy, enforcement and peacekeeping, humanitarianism and refugees, and development. This introduction provides an overview of the literature on the UN that emerged in the post-Cold War period in line with the complexity and reach of various UN missions and agencies.

Land of Blue Helmets

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Mediation

Born in 1945, the United Nations (UN) came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume includes chapters on the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states.

Part 2 The Post-Cold War Era (1990–2000), 38 The Gulf War—1990–91

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
de Wet Erika
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Charter ◽  
The Military

This contribution discusses the Gulf War of 1991-1991. It sets out the facts and context of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, followed by the adoption of United Nation Security Council Resolution 678 (1990) and the subsequent military reaction by the United States-led international coalition. It assesses the reaction of the main protagonists and that of the broader international community to these events. In doing so, it also assesses the legal basis of the military response by the international coalition of the ‘willing and able’ against Iraq. It determines whether it was based on Article 42 of the United Nations Charter, or collective self-defence in terms of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The final section examines if and to what extent this case has had an impact on (the legal basis) of military measures taken in the interest of collective security in the post-Cold War era.

3. Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Universal Periodic Review ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations

How are human rights put into practice? What does it mean when governments announce that their foreign policy is concerned with promoting and protecting human rights? Where is the enforcement of these rights? ‘Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations’ considers human rights in terms of foreign policy and international law and examines the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is only recently that governments have actively involved themselves in how another state treats its nationals, but enthusiasm for human rights in foreign policy ebbs and flows.

What Future for the UN Charter System of War Prevention?

2003 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Falk
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Inspection Process ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

President George W. Bush historically challenged the United Nations Security Council when he uttered some memorable words in the course of his September 12, 2002, speech to the General Assembly: “Will the UN serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?” In the aftermath of the Iraq war there are at least two answers to this question. The answer of the U.S. government would be to suggest that the United Nations turned out to be irrelevant due to its failure to endorse recourse to war against the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The answer of those who opposed the war is that the UN Security Council served the purpose of its founding by its refusal to endorse recourse to a war that could not be persuasively reconciled with the UN Charter and international law. This difference of assessment is not just factual, whether Iraq was a threat and whether the inspection process was succeeding at a reasonable pace; it was also conceptual, even jurisprudential. The resolution of this latter debate is likely to shape the future role of the United Nations, as well as influence the attitude of the most powerful sovereign state as to the relationship between international law generally and the use of force as an instrument of foreign policy.

The United Nations and International Security in the New Millennium

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-541
Author(s):  
W. Andy Knight
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
International Security ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThe end of the Cold War opened a window of opportunity for the United Nations to play a greater role in international security than it was allowed to play in the midst of the ideological conflict between the United States and the former Soviet Union. However, the expected "peace dividend" never materialized in the post-Cold War period. Instead, a number of civil conflicts erupted and new threats to security, particularly to human security, emerged. This chapter critically examines the evolution of the UN's role in addressing international security problems since 1945, including global terrorism. It also outlines recent attempts by the world body, through extension of its reach beyond the territorial constraints of sovereignty, to build sustained peace through preventive measures and protect human security globally.

Governmentalizing the Post–Cold War International Regime: The UN Debate on Democratization and Good Governance

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Zanotti
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
International Regime ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The United Nations

This article examines a range of “good governance” discourses and practices at the United Nations as elements of global governmentality. It explores the emergence of “good governance” as a political rational for the UN, the mechanisms of governmentality that have been promoted as a consequence, and some of their most important effects.

The Union Republics and Soviet Diplomacy: Concepts, Institutions, and Practices

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon V. Aspaturian
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Precise Role

Ever since the constitutional improvisations of February 1, 1944, one of the enigmatic and obscure aspects of Soviet diplomacy has been the precise role of the Union Republics in its execution, administration and procedures. Aside from the participation of the Ukraine and Byelorussia in the work of the United Nations and its affiliated bodies and conferences, little attention has been paid to the role or potential of the Union Republics in Soviet foreign policy. Their apparent diplomatic inertia, however, is misleading, for in marked contrast to their meager formal participation in external affairs is their increasing implication in the quasi-diplomatic maneuvers of the Soviet Government. Furthermore, the juridical capacity of the Republics to embark on diplomatic adventures meets the formal canons of internal and international law, and remains intact in spite of the past dormancy of their diplomatic organs. At opportune moments it may be transmuted into concrete diplomatic benefits.

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