United Nations

A

Maintenance of International Peace and Security

The UN has three primary ways to maintain international peace and security. All directly involve the Security Council. Under chapter 6 of the UN charter, the UN can assist in the peaceful resolution of international disputes. This authority has evolved into the use of UN authorized peacekeeping forces. Under chapter 7 of the UN charter, the UN can authorize military action to enforce its resolutions. Finally, the UN can serve as a forum for international deliberations on long-term solutions to pressing security issues, such as arms control and terrorism.

A

1

Peacekeeping

Peacekeeping is the nonaggressive use of military force to help nations in conflict reach a settlement. The UN charter does not mention peacekeeping forces, although chapter 6 of the charter does establish guidelines for peaceful resolution of international conflicts.

The UN’s first peacekeeping effort took place in the Middle East in 1948. The UN sent unarmed observers to help maintain the truce negotiated after five Arab countries attacked Israel earlier in the year. The UN first used armed peacekeepers during the Suez Crisis of 1956, when England, France, and Israel fought Egypt for control of the Suez Canal. The peacekeepers oversaw the withdrawal of French, British, and Israeli troops and acted as a buffer between the warring parties.

Today, the UN’s peacekeeping forces play a neutral role, working to calm regional conflicts in several ways. They can go into an area of conflict as observers, making sure agreements reached between opposing sides are being followed. They can provide a buffer between warring parties by physically interposing themselves in the middle. They can negotiate with military officers on both sides, providing a channel of communication. They can also monitor ceasefires, supervise elections, and provide humanitarian aid.

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Peacekeepers are lightly armed. They travel in armored vehicles with automatic rifles, but lack artillery, tanks, or other heavy weapons. Their work can be hazardous, especially if one of the warring sides doubts their neutrality. They are often caught in the middle when ceasefires collapse and they sometimes have been deliberately attacked. By 2007 more than 2,300 peacekeepers had died in the line of duty.

The Security Council grants authority for peacekeeping missions, usually for several months, although the Council can reauthorize missions for many years. The UN does not have its own army, so the Security Council borrows forces for each mission from the military and police personnel of member countries. The Security Council also chooses a single commander, and the forces operate under UN command. The forces operate only if the parties in conflict agree to their presence. Thus, the success of a peacekeeping mission depends upon the cooperation of the opposing parties.

Peacekeeping forces are funded by special fees paid by UN members. The General Assembly must approve the funds. Today, lack of funds is the single greatest constraint in the use of peacekeeping forces. As peacekeeping operations have expanded, they have required more and more money.

UN peacekeepers won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988 in recognition of their successes. In the early 21st century the UN had nearly 90,000 troops from 112 countries in almost 20 separate peacekeeping missions in regions of the world including South Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa. In July 2007 the UN Security Council authorized a peacekeeping force of 26,000 for the Darfur region of Sudan. It became the UN’s largest peacekeeping force.

See also United Nations Peacekeeping Forces.

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2

Peace Enforcement

In addition to peacekeeping missions, the UN can also authorize peace enforcement operations. Unlike peacekeeping missions, which help willing parties maintain an existing peace agreement, peace enforcement operations seek to repel international aggression, using military force if necessary. Under chapter 7 of the UN charter, the Security Council may authorize member countries to take military action in response to international breaches of the peace. The UN’s founders initially envisioned chapter 7 as the teeth in the UN charter.

An early example of the UN’s role in peace enforcement came in 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. The UN Security Council condemned the invasion and authorized a multinational force, led by the United States, to repel the attack. This resolution was only possible because the USSR boycotted the Security Council meeting to protest the UN’s refusal to recognize the communist government of China. When the USSR returned to the Security Council, it used its veto to protect its ally, North Korea. After the Korean War, the Cold War prevented further UN peace enforcement operations.

The UN again authorized a peace enforcement mission in 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. After Iraq refused to comply with UN demands to withdraw, the UN launched a military operation to expel Iraq from Kuwait. This operation was again led by the United States, and it included a vast coalition of forces from many UN member countries (see Persian Gulf War). UN-sponsored peace enforcement operations remain rare, however, because of the difficulty of getting all five of the veto-wielding great powers to agree to military action.

A

3

Arms Control

The UN charter authorizes the Security Council to plan for worldwide disarmament and arms control. To help achieve those goals, the UN has sponsored arms control negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, for decades. The General Assembly also held a special session on disarmament in June 1982. None of these UN activities have had much direct effect on actual arsenals.

Instead, during the Cold War, the most important arms control agreements were reached by countries negotiating directly with each other, particularly by the United States and Soviet Union. At that time, arms control was dominated by the nuclear arms race between the superpowers. The United States and the Soviet Union reached several important agreements, and then other countries signed on. Examples include the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1968 Nonproliferation Treaty, and the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. In some instances the General Assembly ratified these agreements. But in none of these cases did the UN play a major role.

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, UN agencies assumed a lead role in enforcing a Security Council resolution to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. IAEA inspectors uncovered and dismantled Iraq’s secret nuclear weapons program, and other UN weapons inspectors monitored the destruction of stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. However, in 1998 Iraq announced it would no longer cooperate with the UN. In 2002, in response to renewed U.S. efforts to enforce Iraqi disarmament, the Security Council approved a resolution warning of “serious consequences” if Iraq did not disarm. Weapons inspections resumed, but U.S. authorities charged that Iraq was not cooperating fully and was hiding banned weapons. In March 2003, after diplomatic talks broke down, the United States led a military assault on Iraq. However, U.S. forces failed to find any evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and subsequent investigations revealed that much of the prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs was flawed. See U.S.-Iraq War.

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Economic and Social Development

The second major function of the UN is to promote economic and social development worldwide. The UN engages in a myriad of activities and sponsors a large number of agencies to meet this goal. The UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) oversees these activities.

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