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Westphalia was signed by approximately 150 European ‘territorial authorities’, but at that time there were only six or seven modern states. After the Napoleonic Wars, at the beginning of the ‘imperialist age’ (1840–1914), this number increased due to the independence of American states, and at the end of the Second World War the UN Charter was signed by 50 independent states. It was in the second half of the twentieth century that the inter-state system expanded more rapidly. Today there are almost 200 sovereign states with a seat at the UN
, many of these limitations lie in the philosophical or legal foundations of the UN. They are the result of the historical processes in which the UN was founded, through which it developed and which it helped to advance. This chapter shows how these processes have shaped the conception of democracy in the making of the UN, from the early planning stages to the writing of key documents, such as the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). What emerges is a view of ‘us versus them’, in which democracies assume a higher moral place than non
possible similarities between the five operations that were carried out in this period and those executed by the UN during the Cold War. In addition, I describe the response of the international community towards Iraq after the conquest of Kuwait in August 1990 – an enforcement operation carried out in accordance with the directives of Chapter 7 in the UN Charter. Finally, I present the chain of events leading to the execution of the most ambitious operation of the UN until that time: the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). New thinking: The end
collective security system.6 Below I describe UN powers with regard to the peaceful settlement of disputes and the organisation’s powers of enforcement. In order to maintain international peace and security, the UN Charter gives the Security Council several powers, described in Chapters 6 and 7 of the Charter;7 Chapter 6 (Articles 33–38) deals with resolving disputes by peaceful means.8 Thus, all parties involved in a dispute that is likely to develop into a threat to the maintenance of international peace and security must use these tools to try to resolve 14 The UN and
time they failed to reconcile their differences. From the late 1980s, the member states expanded the spectrum of operations between the authorities of Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 in the UN Charter. However, they could not agree on an alternative to the traditional concept and principles that were agreed during the Cold War. Thus, despite the fact that new goals regarding traditional operations were raised in various UN organs between 1988 and 1991, no consensus has ever been reached among the organisation’s member states regarding an alternative model. Therefore, when
pre-9/11 system of international law and the UN Charter could operate in a post-9/11 environment. The concepts of pre-emption, imminent attack, legitimacy and the use of force are all being re-examined and reinterpreted. And it is not just the United States that is doing so. The European Security Strategy and the HighLevel Group appointed by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, each acknowledge the threats of Weapons of Mass Destruction, terrorism and failing states. MUP_Hume_Peacemaking.indd 141 11/10/2013 15:25 142 Mitchell B. Reiss But if we agree on the
Sudanese province of Darfur. Peace operations are not defined in the UN Charter. Peacekeeping developed incrementally in response to various crises starting in the Middle East in 1948. Although the first multidimensional peacekeeping operation was set up in the Congo in 1960, the superpower standoff that characterised the Cold War severely constrained the mandates of peacekeeping. However, at the end of the Cold War period, the demand for and of UN peacekeeping, enforcement and building simply exploded. The mixed successes and, some might comment, disasters of these
.7 Although many of these issues were discussed in the course of the Cold War, their importance in the new period lies in their combination with intrastate conflicts and the emphasis on the UN’s obligation to deal with these challenges. During the discourse on the new threats to the world order, many of the speakers discussed the techniques that could be used to deal with threats to the 88 The UN and peacekeeping, 1988–95 maintenance of international peace and security. The question was asked: Could the techniques defined in Chapters 6 and 7 (of the UN Charter
declaration of support for multidimensional operations in 1992, now the members of the movement expressed sceptical viewpoints. While it was agreed that peacekeeping operations are an important technique in the maintenance of international peace and security, it was emphasised that operations should not replace political settlements between the sides involved in a conflict. In this context, it was noted that all techniques must be exhausted before deciding to use enforcement methods according to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This is in accordance with the traditional
the acknowledgement of our common humanity in the universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN charter. It had never happened before. By then there had been 7,500 years of civilisation and 100,000 years of human existence had never happened. But there were words on paper because the Cold War divided us in profound ways. The Cold War ended in 1989. There has been a lot of trouble in the world since 1989, but if you compare the troubles of the world since 1989 with the slaughters of the whole twentieth century – they don’t seem too bad. And if you look at the good