Success of the United Nations
Halle Seydel
030:060:A01 Intro to International Relations
Introduction
Ronald Regan once said that “Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means”. Although created 35 years before Regan’s Presidency, the United Nations supports a similar ideal. The UN Charter, signed on June 26, 1945, states the following main purposes: 1.) To maintain international peace and stability 2.) To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples 3.) To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems 4.) To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations (un.org, 2014). This paper will address …show more content…
Because the Security Council often leaves troops with insufficient power and resources, UN forces have had little affect in many countries. Two examples prove this. As mentioned previously, UN soldiers were forced to watch as the Hutu killed more than 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda. The documentary Ghosts of Rwanda shows how the UN forces were told to refrain from force even as innocent citizens were being slaughtered right before them (Frontline, 2004). In Bosnia, UN forces set up safe zones for Muslims, but then could do little to protect them. Serbs slaughters thousands in Srebrenica (Boot, 2000, pg.1). Not only is it important to note the failures of UN peacekeeping missions, but also to recognize the international crises in which the UN failed to step in. For example, in 2012 the Security Council attempted to intervene and prevent mass genocide in Syria, but China and Russia vetoed the movement. Without help from the UN, an estimated 60,000 civilians have been killed in the Syrian Civil War (Boot, 2000, pg.1). The conditions in which the UN has been particularly ineffective at peacekeeping is obviously when the threat of a veto exists, but also when genocide is occurring. The worst failures of the UN seem to occur when a country is experiencing genocide, as seen in the Rwanda, Srebrenica and Syrian crises. UN forces cannot control the killing. As a whole, the UN has not been successful in using the …show more content…
When Stalin ignored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established by the UN, they were essentially left helpless. The Security Council was unaccustomed to handling issues in which a dictator was disrupting peace among his own people. After the Cold War ended, the UN adjusted by expanding its range of operations from missions involving generally observational tasks performed by military personnel to complex “multidimensional” tasks. According to the UN website, “these multidimensional missions were designed to ensure the implementation of comprehensive peace agreements and assist in laying the foundations for sustainable peace” (un.org, 2014). Meaning, the UN would attempt to address the problems within a state, as they had failed to do during the Cold War. They would also have to keep the peace in a world that had lost its bipolar structure. Within years of the Post Cold War era, the UN experienced multiple disasters. In 1993, the Security Council decided to withdraw troops from a failed mission in Somalia (un.org, 2014). In 2002 the efforts of the UN in Bosnia collapsed. It became clear that the UN’s adjustments Post- Cold War were not working. The ability of the UN to successfully carry out functions of peacekeeping, peace enforcement and collective security was still less than
Halle Seydel
030:060:A01 Intro to International Relations
Introduction
Ronald Regan once said that “Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means”. Although created 35 years before Regan’s Presidency, the United Nations supports a similar ideal. The UN Charter, signed on June 26, 1945, states the following main purposes: 1.) To maintain international peace and stability 2.) To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples 3.) To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems 4.) To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations (un.org, 2014). This paper will address …show more content…
Because the Security Council often leaves troops with insufficient power and resources, UN forces have had little affect in many countries. Two examples prove this. As mentioned previously, UN soldiers were forced to watch as the Hutu killed more than 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda. The documentary Ghosts of Rwanda shows how the UN forces were told to refrain from force even as innocent citizens were being slaughtered right before them (Frontline, 2004). In Bosnia, UN forces set up safe zones for Muslims, but then could do little to protect them. Serbs slaughters thousands in Srebrenica (Boot, 2000, pg.1). Not only is it important to note the failures of UN peacekeeping missions, but also to recognize the international crises in which the UN failed to step in. For example, in 2012 the Security Council attempted to intervene and prevent mass genocide in Syria, but China and Russia vetoed the movement. Without help from the UN, an estimated 60,000 civilians have been killed in the Syrian Civil War (Boot, 2000, pg.1). The conditions in which the UN has been particularly ineffective at peacekeeping is obviously when the threat of a veto exists, but also when genocide is occurring. The worst failures of the UN seem to occur when a country is experiencing genocide, as seen in the Rwanda, Srebrenica and Syrian crises. UN forces cannot control the killing. As a whole, the UN has not been successful in using the …show more content…
When Stalin ignored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established by the UN, they were essentially left helpless. The Security Council was unaccustomed to handling issues in which a dictator was disrupting peace among his own people. After the Cold War ended, the UN adjusted by expanding its range of operations from missions involving generally observational tasks performed by military personnel to complex “multidimensional” tasks. According to the UN website, “these multidimensional missions were designed to ensure the implementation of comprehensive peace agreements and assist in laying the foundations for sustainable peace” (un.org, 2014). Meaning, the UN would attempt to address the problems within a state, as they had failed to do during the Cold War. They would also have to keep the peace in a world that had lost its bipolar structure. Within years of the Post Cold War era, the UN experienced multiple disasters. In 1993, the Security Council decided to withdraw troops from a failed mission in Somalia (un.org, 2014). In 2002 the efforts of the UN in Bosnia collapsed. It became clear that the UN’s adjustments Post- Cold War were not working. The ability of the UN to successfully carry out functions of peacekeeping, peace enforcement and collective security was still less than