The Role of Elected Members on the UN Security Council: The New Zealand Experience 2015-16

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-110
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Un Security Council

Rwanda: the Political Failure of the UN Security Council

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 17-39
Author(s):  
Ambassador Colin Keating
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Failure

This article discusses the role of the UN Security Council during the crisis in Rwanda in 1993/94. It focuses on the peacekeeping dimensions of the Council’s involvement. It is a perspective from a practitioner, rather than an academic. It also makes some observations about whether the Rwanda crisis has had an enduring influence on Security Council practice. It does not address the impact on practical aspects of peacekeeping or on the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Competence over Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Alexander Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Level ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Over Time

The UN Security Council increasingly authorizes weapons inspections to enforce nonproliferation. These are cases of indirect governance, where the Council (the governor) relies on separate bodies (intermediaries) to conduct inspections in states of concern (targets). Despite the risks, the Council often seems willing to forego control in return for gaining the benefits of a competent intermediary that can address its ambitious policy goals and capability deficits. These cases point to important differences between preexisting intermediaries (such as the IAEA and OPCW) and ad hoc intermediaries created for specific tasks (such as the inspection commissions that operated in Iraq). The latter are far more amendable to control, both ex ante and ex post. Over time, we see increasing goal divergence between the governor and intermediaries, driven mainly by the shifting interests of Security Council members, but we also see the competence of intermediaries increase as they gain on-the-ground experience, making control more difficult. The collective nature of the Security Council further complicates control efforts, creating a temptation for individual members to interfere unilaterally with intermediaries and targets. The analysis suggests that the role of sovereign, strategic targets deserves more attention in the study of indirect governance at the international level.

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.

United Nations and Regional Organizations: Complementarity v. Subsidiarity

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena F. Douhan
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Universal System ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
New System

The United Nations organization was planned to be established as a single universal system of collective security. Major efforts were supposed to be taken by the UN Security Council. Regional organizations were introduced into the system as a subordinate subsidiary means – elements of the system. Over the course of the time it has, however, appeared that the UN Security Council was not able to act in the way prescribed by the UN Charter in suppressing newly emerged threats and challenges in the sphere of security. In the contrary, the role of regional organizations has increased substantially. They do the majority of tasks in the sphere of maintenance of international peace and security, often without authorization or even informing the UN Security Council, although the legality of some of these actions may be dubious. As a result, the Council itself transfers the accent in relations between the UN and regional organizations from subsidiarity to complementarity or even partnership. It is thus necessary to re-check the meaning of the concepts of complementarity and subsidiarity as well as the UN Charter provisions in the changed circumstances and to specify principles of the new system.

scholarly journals Empirical research of the role of international law in the work of the UN Security Council

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 427-451
Author(s):  
Tatjana Milić
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Introductory Part ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Basic Features

Interest of international law scholars into an empirical research has increased in the last decade. This paper is an example of one such research. The author has empirically analyzed positions on the use of force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to test hypothesis about the operational role of international law in the work of the UN Security Council: whether it was used in the formation of positions, in the assessment of the situation, and in proposing its solution. Introductory part of the paper presented basic features and development of empirical research of international law. It is followed by the review of theoretical assumptions on the role of international law. Next sections of the paper presented hypothetical framework, methods and results of this empirical research. Finally, the author made concluding remarks on research findings, as well as emphasized necessity to develop practical knowledge on empirical research of international law and to open a discussion on the potential and limits of its application.

The accession of the Second Republic of Austria to the UN after the end of World War II (1955)

2021 ◽  
pp. 254-261
Author(s):  
Nataliya S. Kozyakova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Main Body ◽  
World War ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
Social Council ◽  
Un Security Council

We examine the problems that occupied the main place in Austria’s foreign policy in the mid-1950s of 20th century and characterized its role in international relations during the specified period. The role of Austria in the international arena has increased the country’s entry into the path of neutrality. It also opened up wide opportunities for it to participate in the activities of vari-ous international organizations extensively. Using the method of source analysis, the active partic-ipation of Austria in the work of the UN is considered, its authority and support for the sufficient work of this organization, which allowed it to be elected for three years as a member of the main body of the UN – a member of the Economic and Social Council in 1963 and 1976, in 1973 and 1974 – a member of the UN security, and in 1972 it became a permanent member of the UN Security Council. According to Austria’s first statement to the Security Council, the country planned to provide the widest possible extent of its impartial services to the UN’s main political body, using the wide opportunities given to it by its independence and neutrality. Having analyzed the main directions and aspects of Austrian foreign policy in the second half of the twentieth century, we conclude that, having adopted a justified course in foreign policy in 1955, based on permanent neutrality, the Second Austrian Republic further has provided the guarantee and basis of its independence.

Role of Leaders in Post-Conflict Societies

2018 ◽  
pp. 278-286
Author(s):  
Goran Simic
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Security Council

When Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was attacked on the 11th of July 2015 in Srebrenica on the day of the commemoration and burial of the victims of the genocide committed in that town in 1995, he characterized it as an assassination attempt. Furthermore, he stated that “hand of peace” that he was offering was rejected once more from the “Bosnian” side. Of course, he didn't mention that he, in the previous six months, together with Serbia's ally, Russia, advocated that the UN Security Council rejects the resolution that would call all sides to accept the final decisions of the ICTY and draw necessary lessons in regard of commemoration of the 20 years from the Srebrenica Genocide. He didn't mention that he is, along with the leaders of Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, among those negating the Srebrenica Genocide (sarcastically calling it “grave crime”). He also did not mention his inflammatory rhetoric in the Parliament of Serbia in 1995 when during the events in Srebrenica he said “If you kill one Serb, we will kill 100 Muslims.”

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