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.

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.

International Institutions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Sayward
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
World Society ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
World Culture ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Action ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter explores the role of international institutions during the Cold War. It explains that while international institutions promoted their own agendas for global action, they also provided venues for raising questions about the bipolar power contest and acted as mitigators in international conflicts. The chapter also suggests that the histories of international institutions can provide insights into the complexities of the Cold War. It furthermore discusses the role of the United Nations in creating an era of global expectations and conventions that do fit into the nation-states paradigm, and highlights the emergence of the so-called world society or world culture during the Cold War.

Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations and the Decolonisation of Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Melber
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Plane Crash ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Dag Hammarskjold

In 1953 Dag Hammarskjöld became the second Secretary-General of the United Nations—the highest international civil servant. Before his mission was cut short by a 1961 plane crash in then Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia), he used his office to act on the basis of anti-hegemonic values, including solidarity and recognition of otherness. The dubious circumstances of Hammarskjöld’s death have received much attention, including a new official investigation (which is summarized in a chapter), but have perhaps overshadowed his diplomatic legacy—one that has often been hotly contested. This book summarizes Hammarskjöld’s personal background and the normative frameworks of the United Nations. He then explores the years of African decolonization during which Hammarskjöld was in office, investigating the scope and limits of his influence within the context of global governance during the Cold War. It paints a picture of a man with strong guiding principles, but limited room for maneuver, colliding with the essential interests of the big powers as the ‘wind of change’ blew over the African continent. The book is a critical contribution to the study of international politics and the role of the UN in the African decolonization processes during the Cold War. It is also exploring the role of individuals in leadership positions of the international civil service and by doing so is a tribute to the achievements of a cosmopolitan Swede.

The Concept of Preventive Diplomacy and Its Application by the United Nations in Central Asia

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Jenča
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
International Community ◽  
Common Resources ◽  
Regional Centre ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

The century-old concept of preventive diplomacy has grown in prominence since the end of the Cold War, and was strengthened by the failures of the international community to prevent the violence in places such as Rwanda and Yugoslavia. The United Nations has undertaken a range of preventive activities in Central Asia, including in partnership with relevant regional actors. This paper considers the role of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) in terms of transboundary threats, domestic developments in Kyrgyzstan, and the management of common resources.

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.

Cold-War Commons: Tragedy, Critique, and the Future of the Illiberal Problem Space

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-488
Author(s):  
Monica Eppinger
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Problem Space ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Property Regimes

Abstract Major twentieth-century social theories like socialism and liberalism depended on property as an explanatory principle, prefiguring a geopolitical rivalry grounded in differing property regimes. This article examines the Cold War as an under-analyzed context for the idea of “the tragedy of the commons.” In Soviet practice, collectivization was meant to provide the material basis for cultivating particular forms of sociability and an antidote to the ills of private property. Outsiders came to conceptualize it as tragic in both economic and political dimensions. Understanding the commons as a site of tragedy informed Western “answers” to the “problem” of Soviet collective ownership when the Cold War ended. Privatization became a mechanism for defusing old tragedies, central to a post-Cold War project of advancing “market democracy.” Meanwhile, the notion of an “illiberal commons” stands ready for redeployment in future situations conceived as tragically problematic.

scholarly journals Informal Reform of the United Nations Security Council

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-115
Author(s):  
Mariana Pimenta Oliveira Baccarini
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Lock In Effect ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Lock In

Abstract This article analyses attempts to reform the United Nations Security Council from a historical-institutional perspective. It argues that the possibilities for reform have suffered from a ‘lock-in’ effect that has rendered the UN resistant to change. On the other hand, the UN decision-making process has evolved since its establishment, especially since the end of the Cold War, in response to new power aspirations, making it more representative and legitimate. The Security Council has also undergone continuous informal reform that has allowed it to adapt to new times.

The Development of the United Nations Law Concerning Peace-Keeping Operations

1992 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-281
Author(s):  
Robert Siekmann
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Central America ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Cold War

Especially as a consequence of the termination of the Cold War, the détente in the relations between East en West (Gorbachev's ‘new thinking’ in foreign policy matters) and, finally, the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the number of UN peace-keeping operations substantially increased in recent years. One could even speak of a ‘proliferation’. Until 1988 the number of operations was twelve (seven peace-keeping forces: UNEF ‘I’ and ‘II’, ONUC, UNHCYP, UNSF (West New Guinea), UNDOF AND UNIFIL; and five military observer missions: UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNOGIL, UNYOM and UNIPOM). Now, three forces and seven observer missions can be added. The forces are MINURSO (West Sahara), UNTAC (Cambodia) and UNPROFOR (Yugoslavia); the observer groups: UNGOMAP (Afghanistan/Pakistan), UNIIMOG (Iran/Iraq), UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’ (Angola), ONUCA (Central America), UNIKOM (Iraq/Kuwait) and ONUSAL (El Salvador). UNTAG (Namibia), which was established in 1978, could not become operational until 1989 as a result of the new political circumstances in the world. So, a total of twenty-three operations have been undertaken, of which almost fifty percent was established in the last five years, whereas the other half was the result of decisions taken by the United Nations in the preceding forty years (UNTSO dates back to 1949). In the meantime, some ‘classic’ operations are being continued (UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNFICYP, UNDOF, and UNIFIL), whereas some ‘modern’ operations already have been terminated as planned (UNTAG, UNGOMAP, UNIIMOG, UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’, and ONUCA). At the moment (July 1992) eleven operations are in action – the greatest number in the UN history ever.

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