Crisis of the United Nations Security Council

  • Valeriu MIJA PhD, Security Policy Expert Pro Marshall Center

Abstract

               The research presents an empirical analysis of the United Nations Security Council weakness and deficiencies. The study was focused on the UN Security Council performance in the period of an international crisis or of necessity to functionally solve an international conflict or humanitarian catastrophe. The analysis demonstrates that the UN is perceived as the primary global collective security organization to safeguard security and preserve stability in the world. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has demonstrated deficiencies during latest important international crises to be solved by joint international effort, which almost approached current international order to revision. The analysis demonstrated that the UN formation overcame deficiencies and weaknesses of the previous international collective security organizations – the Concert of Europe and the League of Nations. Meanwhile, the principal decision-making mechanism of the UN – Security Council with the veto right of five permanent members– periodically undermines collective security principles. Several important factors amplify this weakness: lack of common identity among the UN Security Council members, domination of the neo-realism paradigm provisions in their foreign policies, and different views on international law provisions: internal sovereignty versus necessity of humanitarian intervention. Therefore, powerful actors of international order should consider these deficiencies and launch a comprehensive reform of the UN decision making process to better react at least in international humanitarian crises. Otherwise, the UN may experience the fate of the League of Nations.

References

1. Bull, Hedley. The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. London: Macmillan, 1997,335 p
2. Charter of the United Nations and Statue of the International Court of Justice. San Francisco, 1945,p.1. http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/preamble/index.html (accessed 06.02.2017).
3. Charter of the United Nations and Statue of the International Court of Justice. San Francisco, 1945,p.9. http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/preamble/index.html (accessed 06.02.2017).
4. Charter of the United Nations and Statue of the International Court of Justice. San Francisco, 1945,Charter 1, p.9. The UN Official Web-page. http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/preamble/index.html (accessed 06.02.2017).
5. Cohen, Richard; Mihalka, Michael. Cooperative Security: from Theory to Practice. The MarshallCenter Paper, no. 3, 2001, p. 47.
6. Goldstein, Judith; Keohane, Robert (eds), Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and PoliticalChange. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, p.16.
7. Greico, Joseph. “Anarchy and Limits of Cooperation: a Realist Critique of the Newest LiberalInstitutionalism.” International Organizations, vol. 42, nr. 3, summer 1988, p. 499.
8. Finnemore, Martha. National Interests in International Society. New York: Cornell University Press,1996, 154 p.
9. Henkin, Louis. How Nations Behave. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979, Ch. 5.
10. Meisler, Stanley. United Nations. The First Fifty Years. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995, p. 209.
11. United Nations Official Web-page. http://www.un.org/en/about-un/index.html (accessed06.02.2017).
12. “US funding cuts to UN agencies would be costly for peace and security”. The Guardian. 31.01.2017.https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jan/31/un-funding-cuts-us-trumpadministration(accessed 07.02.2017).
13. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN Official Web-page. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed 08.02.2017).
14. United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor background. The UN Official Web-page. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/unmiset/background.html (accessed 07.02.2017).
Published
2018-02-05
How to Cite
MIJA, Valeriu. Crisis of the United Nations Security Council. Eastern Europe Regional Studies, [S.l.], feb. 2018. ISSN 2587-456X. Available at: <https://test.psage.tsu.ge/index.php/Easternstudies/article/view/75>. Date accessed: 25 dec. 2024.
Section
Articles

Keywords

Key-words: UN Charter, Security Council, international security, collective security, international organization, international community.