eliminating the anachronism of war would free up enormous resources for more constructive uses

Peace and Security

Since the establishment of the League of Nations in 1920, the goal of global governance has been to ensure peace among nations. However, the international system currently lacks the resources and the will to effectively fulfill this mandate. A comprehensive solution including staged disarmament and an International Peace Force with legal authority to act on behalf of the international community would empower the UN to provide reliable global peace and security.
Since the establishment of the League of Nations in 1920, the goal of global governance has been to ensure peace among nations. However, the international system currently lacks the resources and the will to effectively fulfill this mandate. A comprehensive solution including staged disarmament and an International Peace Force with legal authority to act on behalf of the international community would empower the UN to provide reliable global peace and security.

Since World War II, international warfare has seen a trend of increased costs and diminishing returns. Nuclear weapons have infinitely magnified the cost of violence and the spread of democracy has decreased its utility. There is also a growing awareness of the wastefulness of warfare. According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, between 2001 and 2020 the United States has spent about $6.4 trillion on warfare in the Middle East. This vast sum—not to mention the loss of lives—has resulted in very few tangible gains.

The History of UN’s Modus Operandi on Peace and Security Mandate

 

           The UN’s attempts in fulfilling its security mandate in having a standing army have a long history. The creation of such an international military force to empower the League of Nations to secure the peace was actively discussed in the period leading up to the adoption of the League’s Covenant. Former French Prime Minister Leon Bourgeois who drafted the Covenant specified the military sanctions that would be applied against countries that disturbed the peace, an early attempt at developing a collective security mechanism. The French Minister for War, Andre Tardieu, proposed that all major weapons systems of all member countries be set aside and used only under a League mandate and that an international police force be placed under the jurisdiction of the Council of the League of Nations, in a regime that would also involve compulsory arbitration and a more robust sanctions regime.

            The peaceful settlement of disputes was seen as an essential element of avoiding armed conflicts. However, at the insistence of the Big Four during the drafting stage of the UN Charter, Article 2(3) narrowed the scope of dispute settlement to international cross-border disputes, with internal disputes falling within the sovereignty of states, as most governments were unwilling, in 1945, to have an international organization interfering in internal disputes. Article 33 of the Charter identifies the various mechanisms that are to be used by the parties to a dispute seeking to peacefully settle their differences. Article 51, however, allows for the interim use of countermeasures and a narrow but inherent right of self-defense by states, with an obligation to report such cases immediately to the Security Council so that it may take the necessary measures to secure international peace and security, in line with its authority and responsibility. In time, the United Nations developed a range of instruments aimed at resolving conflicts between and within states entailing aspects of preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping, disarmament, sanctions, and the like. It also sought to define and operationalize some of these instruments in a formal way, typically in the context of General Assembly resolutions. The Charter encourages the involvement of regional agencies in the settlement of disputes under Article 52. Such regional bodies may include the Arab League, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Organization of American States (OAS), the African Union (AU), the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union (EU), as well as others. When regional efforts fail, the situation may be referred to the Security Council, where the most vital question then becomes whether the dispute threatens international peace, thus falling within the Security Council’s mandate.

            Though Article 43 was considered to be absolutely fundamental to the new centralized collective security mechanism of the Charter, these Chapter VII provisions were never implemented and thus, the Security Council has not actually had armed forces at its disposal even though Article 24(1) establishes that the Security Council bears “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security” when parties are unable or unwilling to settle their disputes peacefully, or other situations arise. The development of the idea of an international peace force was given a boost in 1950 when Grenville Clark published A Plan for Peace, which contains a first set of fairly detailed proposals for the creation of a Peace Force attached to the United Nations.

            Article 47 of the UN Charter calls for the establishment of a Military Staff Committee to “advise and assist the Security Council on all questions relating to the Security Council’s military requirements for the maintenance of international peace and security, the employment and command of forces placed at its disposal, the regulation of armaments, and possible disarmament.” Yet, due to the onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s, the Committee has never played the role foreseen in the Charter and, thus, Chapter VII operations remained silent for several decades.

 

            The end of the Cold War prompted a more active approach to peace enforcement and conflict management and prevention by the UN. In particular, it boosted in a major way the role of the Security Council in this area and led to a sharp increase in the number of peacekeeping missions mandated by the Council. Furthermore, the Security Council has broadened the scope of its attention beyond conflict prevention and management to include humanitarian issues, monitoring human rights abuses, terrorism, democratization, the promotion of gender equality, the building up of court systems, and so on.

            An Agenda for Peace in 1992 was an early attempt to give new life to the United Nations’ role in this area, with Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali putting forth a range of proposals, including a possible return to the spirit and the letter of Article 43. In 1993 Brian Urquhart, called for a revival of Trygve Lie’s idea of a 5000 strong UN Guard in 1948, while acknowledging then current limitations including the abuse of vetoes, inability to carry through decisions, and the poorly trained and equipped peacekeeping forces.

            The events in Rwanda in 1994 when, over a period of four months 800,000 people were killed further highlighted the human costs associated with the lack of an International Peace Force and highlighted the tensions between state sovereignty and the defense of human rights.

            Upon taking office in early 1997, Secretary General Annan placed conflict prevention at the top of the UN agenda and spoke of shifting the United Nations from a “culture of reaction to a culture of prevention,” stating that “one of the principal aims of preventive action should be to address the deep-rooted socioeconomic, cultural, environmental, institutional, and other structural causes that often underlie the immediate political symptoms of conflicts.”

 

            The controversy over the establishment of an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan highlighted the limitation or drawback of interventions led by a country or group of countries in the absence of a UN force under the jurisdiction of the Security Council. An impression can be created that the operations are mainly serving the strategic interests of the country or countries contributing troops and equipment, rather than the interests of the international community as reflected in the will of the United Nations. This, in turn, may contribute to undermine the legitimacy of the intervention.

 

            The failures in Somalia, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda in the first half of the 1990s greatly undermined the credibility of traditional peacekeeping. Secretary General Annan made a case for a redefinition of state sovereignty that was consistent with the rights of individuals to peace and security. This thinking underpinned the justification used by NATO for its intervention in Yugoslavia in 1999, with peace enforcement for the protection of populations leading to the development of the concept of the “responsibility to protect” (“R2P”), reflected in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document of global leaders. The R2P norm has been the subject of very substantial civil society engagement and support, with a convened International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP). The doctrine has informed multiple resolutions of the Security Council and other UN organs since its adoption by the World Summit in 2005.

 

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