In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations reflected the hope for a just and peaceful global community. It is the only global institution with the legitimacy that derives from universal membership. However, in the last decades there is still the debate about the role of this organization in International Relations; this essay will discuss: The United Nations is nothing more than an arena for inter-state power politics.
In order to answer this question correctly is believed two concepts most arise beforehand.
First, The United Nations: which is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for peacekeeping, peacebuilding, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance the organization works on a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, to promoting democracy, human rights, governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines, expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts for a safer world for this and future generations.[1]
Second, Power politics: is essentially a way of understanding the world of international Relations: nations compete for the world’s resources and it is to a nation’s advantage to be manifestly able to harm others. It prioritizes national self-interest over the interest of other nations or the international community.[2]
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Leave a comment | tags: China, Cold War, concept, conflict, economical, France, help, input, inter state, international, international law, international rights, logistical, military, nations, order, over-centralization, political system, politics, powers, prevention, secretary-General, Security Council, self interest, state, UK, UN, United Nations, veto, weakness | posted in British Politics, Global news, International Relations
Governments in all countries or most of them affirm their undying devotion to the United Nations and all its purposes and principles; they continually express their determination to uphold its objectives and to strengthen its effectiveness. Today, the underlying presumption has been that the UN is ‘ineffective’ because it has contributed little to the solutions of major problems in recent years. On one hand it has been argued that Security Council enlargement would make the Council more effective; in the other it has been argued that it would not since most countries today agree that Security Council needs to become more transparent, accountable and equitably representative. This essay will discuss: Would Security Council enlargement make the Council more effective?
From the beginning of the 1960’s, with the big increase in the membership of the United Nations, there had been proposals for an increase in the size of the Council. This was designed partly to reflect more accurately the composition of the Organization’s membership, particularly to provide more seats for Africans and Asians. Moreover, the proposal was resisted for some time by the Soviet Union, probably because of her objections to any amendments to the Charter.[1] By the 1980’s the Council was providing valuable assistance for the resolution of conflict and tension in the Gulf, Afghanistan, Angola and Namibia, just to mention a few. Historically, when the UN was formed there was a general desire to learn from the mistakes of the League of Nations ‘which mainly; it felt for four main reasons. First, it has no armed force. Second, it had lacked authority. Third, it has been paralysed during crises by the rule of unanimity. Fourth, the absence of several major powers had made it unrepresentative and impotent’.[2]
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Leave a comment | tags: 1960, Charter, consensus, Daniel Losada, effectiveness, enlargement, EU, European Union, G4 nations, G4 proposal, General Assembly, international peace, League of Nations, membership, P5, peace, permanent fives, permanent members, power, Security Council, self interests, the council, UN, UN reform, UNITED development, UNSC, veto | posted in Global news, International Relations
Since its beginnings armed humanitarian intervention has represented a dilemma to war, peace and international ethics because it involves the moral issue of when to intervene and if these interventions are justifiable. Moreover there are the different theories in favour and against of armed intervention. This essay will discuss: Can armed humanitarian intervention ever be justified?
In order to make this essay clearer is to believe that a couple of definitions should be made beforehand; humanitarian intervention and armed intervention. Firstly, ‘humanitarian intervention is traditionally defined as the use of force by states to protect human rights. This definition presumes that states should do the intervening in order to maintain civil rights and of course the welfare and peace in society’.[1]Nowadays, it is sometimes argued that this traditional definition is obsolete because humanitarian intervention is increasingly a matter of collective action under UN auspices, not action undertaken by states acting on their own authority and under their own law. Secondly, we speak of armed intervention when that exercise involves the use of military force. An armed intervention is humanitarian when its aim is to protect innocent people who are not nationals of the intervening state from violence perpetrated or permitted by the government of the target state.[2] Additionally, armed intervention to stop a massacre is likely to be only the first of many measures needed to restore order to a chaotic society and prevent subsequent massacres. If prevention is important, then is to believe that the challenge for humanitarian policy is to move from responding to humanitarian crises to forestalling them.
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Leave a comment | tags: arms, assistance, Balkans, believe, citizen, comminity, Daniel Losada, death, failure, fundamental, globalisation, government, Haiti, human rights, humanitarian, humankind, iam, international, International Relations, intervention, IR, just war, justification ethics, law, life, love, MIchael Walzer, moral, murder, nation, NATO, PAkistan, peace, peacekeeping, person, principle, problem, respect, right, Rwanda, Security Council, self preservation, Sierra Leone, struggle, Stuart Mills, success, sustem, target, theory, UK, UN, United Nations, universal, USA, Venezuela, violence, war, when to intervene | posted in Global news, International Relations
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