To what extent is the UN effective in ensuring peace and security? (45 Marks) |
To what extent is the UN effective in ensuring peace and security?
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The maintenance of international peace and security is the central aim of the United Nations, with responsibility being placed in the hands of the Security Council. The UN can be seen to be effective in promoting peace and security for a number of reasons, including the following:
• The decisions of the Security Council are binding on all member states. Through the Security Council, the UN can define and respond to security threats and enforce its decisions through mandatory directives to UN members.
• Peacekeeping, involving the establishment of a UN force under UN command in postceasefire circumstances, has been used since 1956 in places such as Suez, Cyprus and the Golan Heights. During the 1990s there was a rapid expansion in UN peacekeeping operations, with the development of classical peacekeeping into multidimensional peacekeeping, sometimes called peacebuilding or peace enforcement. This was in line with the report, An Agenda for Peace (1992) and reflected an increase in humanitarian intervention.
However, the UN’s performance in these areas has also been criticised for a number of reasons. These include the following:
• The UN Security Council has often been paralysed as a result of great power disagreement. Concerted action to ensure peace and international security have therefore been the exception rather than the rule. This particularly applied during the Cold War period when the Security Council was paralysed by US-Soviet hostility. However, great power rivalry has somewhat reduced since the end of the Cold War.
• UN peacekeeping operations have widely been criticised. In some cases, the UN has effectively stood by as massacres and genocide have occurred. In other cases, peacekeeping forces have been ill-equipped and under-resourced to deal complex situations shaped by ethnic strife and breakdown of civil order. Peacekeeping mandates have also been unclear. The proliferation in peacekeeping operations is not, therefore, necessarily evidence of their success.
The intellectual skills that are relevant to this question are as follows:
• The ability to analyse and explain how the UN seeks to carry out its responsibility of maintaining international peace and security.
• The ability to evaluate the UN’s effectiveness in ensuring international peace and stability.
Synopticity in this question refers to the following:
• The ability to recognise that there is significant debate about the effectiveness of the UN in ensuring peace and security, UN operations having been subject to praise as well as criticism.