Questions whether the UN has been successful in establishing and maintaining international peace and security. Uses examples of Rwanda and Iraq.
Abstract
The writer of this paper argues that the United Nations, although having achieved minor accomplishments in the area of maintenance of peace and security, can generally speaking not be considered a successful international organization. Instead, the United Nations has failed on a number of times throughout the past to maintain international peace and security. These failures were in situations where peace and security were reasonable outcomes. So therefore the UN is obviously not working to the best of its ability. To argue this point the paper begins with an extensive analysis of the United Nations and its failures in the maintenance of international peace and security through two specific case studies, Rwanda and most recently Iraq. It then discusses the limited successes of the UN and examines the possible reasons for its overall failure to address the maintenance of international peace and security adequately and consistently. Finally the writer briefly proposes possible reforms that the UN could adopt in order for the organization to operate more effectively in the international environment.
From the Paper:
“The UN has many areas in which it could improve through reform. Due to the limited word count, I have chosen to not discuss this topic in too much depth. The areas of reform seem obvious from the problems I have mentioned previously. For the UN to succeed, the world community must match the demands made on the organisation by the resources given to it . Strong and sustained political support from Member States , rapid deployments of all peacekeeping and peacemaking troops with a robust force posture and sound peace-building strategies are all necessary in improving the UN. There have been a number of attempts at addressing the issue of reform. These include the Brahimi report, which was commissioned by the UN Secretary General to address the past weaknesses and failures of the UN with regard to peace and security and An Agenda for Peace, written by Boutros Boutros Ghali, the former Secretary General. Both reports recognised problems with the UN’s capacity to maintain world peace but many of the recommendations that were suggested were not implemented. In order for the UN to be successful in maintaining international peace and security, reforms have to not only be recognised, but also implemented.”