scholarly journals THE UN AT SIXTY THREE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF REFORMING A VETERAN

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneek Chatterjee ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
International Politics ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Power Calculations ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Consensus ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

The United Nations Organization has completed more than sixty-three years of existence. In these six decades, the world has moved far ahead, and power calculations have changed. The days of bi-polarity ended with the demise of the Cold War. International politics, though unipolar in nature at present, is showing tendencies of multi polarity. Globalization has introduced a new economy of free trade in the world. In this altered international political and economic milieu, demands for restructuring the United Nations, which is guided by an old, mostly outdated charter, have been gaining ground, particularly after the end of the Cold War. But reforming the United Nations would not be very easy, because amending the Charter is extremely difficult, and requires political consensus among members, which is not easily achievable. However, minor reforms that do not require the amendment of the Charter may be introduced to make the United Nations more adept to face today's challenges. The present paper analyzes the problems and prospects of the reform proposals, and shows that there is a gap between the hope and the reality.

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.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Palestinian Problem and the ‘Right Strategy’ for Palestinian Liberation

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Summer 2021) ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Berdal Aral
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War

The Palestinian tragedy is not simply a matter of one nation-state suppressing another nation that has been deprived of its legitimate right to establish its own state. It is also an ‘international problem’ granting that it has regional, international and global dimensions which implicate the hegemonic world system. Besides, Israel’s aversion to a peaceful posture vis-à-vis the outside world is a threat to international peace and security as defined in the Charter of the United Nations. An emancipatory approach to the Palestinian problem requires that the narrative about the ‘two-state solution’ be abandoned given that it has become a rhetorical shield for international society’s silence in the face of the Israeli fait accomplis in occupied territories. The Arab and the Muslim world, alongside the rest of international society, should no longer view Israel as a ‘normal’ state. Rather, the world ought to consider acting collectively to impose economic, financial, military, political/diplomatic, and cultural embargo against this aggressive, expansionist, and racist state through the United Nations and a host of other international and regional organizations, as was the case vis-à-vis the Apartheid South Africa during the Cold War.

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.

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.

scholarly journals A EVOLUÇÃO DO PEACEKEEPING: SUEZ, RUANDA E REPÚBLICA DEMOCRÁTICA DO CONGO

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fernanda Affonso Leal ◽  
Rafael Santin ◽  
David Almstadter De Magalhães
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

Since the first peacekeeping operation was created until today, the UN has been trying to adapt them to the different contexts in which they are deployed. This paper analy- ses the possibility of a bigger shift happening in the way the United Nations, through the Security Council, operates their Peacekeeping Operations. The change here ad- dressed includes, mainly, the constitution of more “robust” missions and the newly introduced Intervention Brigade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By presenting three missions (UNEF I, UNAMIR and MONUSCO) deployed in different historic periods, we identified various elements in their mandates and in the way these were established which indicate a progressive transformation in the peacekeeping model since the Cold War - when conflicts were in their majority between States – until present days, when they occur mostly inside the States.

Democratic Fantasies vs. Cold War Realities

2018 ◽  
pp. 131-146
Author(s):  
Laurence R. Jurdem
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
White House ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
National Review ◽  
The World ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War

The strain of Black Nationalism that existed within the United Nations also worried conservatives as they monitored the evolution of events in Southern Africa. In their intense desire to rid the world of communism, other issues, such as race, were either marginalized or ignored. The chapter analyzes the three publications’ view of race as it relates to the issue of Rhodesia during the height of the Cold War. In ignoring the suppression of an entire race of people, Human Events and National Review contrasted what they perceived to be a stable, anticommunist, biracial society with the militarism and lawlessness that they argued defined the 1960s and 1970s. While the two conservative publications viewed Rhodesia as a model of biracial success, Commentary focused on the Carter administration’s dismissive attitude about the dangers of Soviet encroachment within the African hemisphere. The Right argued that the Carter White House, in its refusal to endorse Rhodesia’s 1979 parliamentary elections due to a lack of representation of militant nationalist groups, and its belief in the policy of détente, continued to send a message of American weakness and indifference to totalitarianism around the world.

‘Second to None in the International Fight’: Australian Seafarers Internationalism and Maritime Unions Against Apartheid

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 442-464
Author(s):  
Diane Kirkby ◽  
Dmytro Ostapenko
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
World Federation ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
New Research

The participation of trade unions in the anti-apartheid movement is a subject which arguably merits more attention. This article brings into focus a group of unionists whose activism against apartheid was in the forefront of key initiatives. Drawing on new research the argument recounts the role of Australian seafarers on the international stage, particularly its association with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and shows how knowledge of events in South Africa passed from the WFTU to educate the union membership. By the 1980s, Australian seafarers were taking the lead in bringing European unionists together in united action to enforce the United Nations' embargo on oil supplies to South Africa by founding a new organization, the Maritime Unions Against Apartheid (MUAA). Reconstructing these events demonstrates two aspects of significance: the growing importance of monitoring shipping as an anti-apartheid strategy coordinated and led by European unions, which we point out relied on ships’ officers and crews for knowledge, and the breaking down of the ideological divide between the WFTU and the anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) working together in the MUAA. The article contributes new understanding of connections between anti-apartheid activism and its Cold War context.

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.

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