Why Has the UN Security Council Been So Unsuccessful in Its Attempts at Managing World Order - Essay Example

? WHY HAS THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL BEEN SO UNSUCCESSFUL IN ITS ATTEMPTS AT MANAGING WORLD ORDER? Task: Why has the UN SecurityCouncil been so unsuccessful in its attempts at managing world order? Introduction The intention of the UN Chapter was to build a complete system that maintains the international peace. Therefore, it sets principles for the conducts of states by not using force in global force and not meddling with domestic affairs. It also provides directions for settling global disagreements by creating international police force. To achieve the United Nation’s objective, significant effort has been evident. Nevertheless, in most cases, the results have fallen far short from the goals. In order to meet its goals, the UN has regularly held global conferences to address the security issues. Several factors have contributed to the UNSC’s unsuccessful management global order. One of the factors is the lack of transparency of the council. There have been conflicts regarding the restructuring of the council (Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, 2005). The members cannot agree on whether to expand the council or let it remain the same. Additionally, lack of democracy in the council has made some states to have a negative attitude towards it. Some of these states do not trust it, and this makes it difficult for it to maintain peace among the conflicting states. The UNSC cannot settle the dispute among the sates that fail to trust it because they will not give it permission to do it. Lack of implementation of resolutions According to Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly (2005), in recent years, the United Nations Security Council has adopted resolutions, but relevant persons fail to implement them basing on their ignorant nature. For this reason, violation of international laws has been evident; hence, conflicts worsening (Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, 2005). The violators manage to avoid the pressure applicable by the global society. Additionally, the desecration of human rights and law are apparent. Another factor that has contributed to the difficult management of the global order is the lack of trust for the security councils. This is because there has been human violation for many years. Therefore, people do not believe that the UN can bring them peace. Craving for power According to Karen (2011), The UN has not achieved much as far as peace is concerned because of the craving for power. Craving for power has made the governing class in all countries to be hostile to the inadequacy of the nationwide autonomy. The powerful minorities influence the masses, and many of them already have an objective for destructions (Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, 2005). This has hindered the United Nation Security Council from achieving it goal of maintaining the world order. UK and US war against Iraq According to Karen (2011), The United Nations suffered a great setback when UK and US announced war against Iraq. They declared war against Iraq claiming that it posses huge quantities of mass-destructive arms. The US defined its actions as ‘pre-emptive’ measure, but until now, no WMD existent and they US still carry out its activities in Iraq. The third world counties are opposing the US’s actions against the Iraq, and are blaming the United Nations Security Council for failing to prevent this. Hence, this has lowered the relevance of the UN Security Council globally. The individuals who believe in the collective response to global security issues could see the difficulties that the UN underwent because of the Iraq war. This is because the war made the confidence in the multilateral system to be undermined. Disagreements in reformation According to Knight (2001), the UN General Assembly has been debating for many years regarding the council reformation but has never reached an agreement. The G4 proposed to be the permanent members of the Security Council. Their permanent membership would augment the Council members. This proposal was opposed by states like Italy, and China but the UK supported it. Some region organizations also have their proposal. For instance, the African Union proposes that the permanency of members should be on a regional basis. The UN High Panel Reform Committee proposed that the UNSC could be more effective if there would be the inclusion of one or more permanent associates and eight non-members (Knight 2001). According to (Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly 2005). Additionally, there are more disagreements because the proposal has to be ratified by the 75% of the members of the General Assembly and five permanent members of the UNSC. Hence, it is clear that the growth of the Security Council is hard without the support of the permanent members particularly the US. The p5 wants to monopolize the council. The US opposes the expansion of the council because it thinks that the action would reduce its efficiency. However, in reality, the expansion can result in the difficulty of the US to work through the council and hence, it will be difficult for the US to expand its activities in West Asia (Pandey 2007). The reason for the expansion of the UNSC is to increase its efficiency by making it autonomous and more powerful in performing its actions. The global security depends on the permanent members and some states consider it unfair. Moreover, the US domination is what is even making it harder for the United Nations Security Council and it does not create a good environment in the UN. All this disagreements have contributed to the difficulties of the Security Council in trying to manage the global order (Pandey 2007). Poor representation Another reason why the United Nations Security Council has been irrelevant is its inability to represent the emerging world order. Some nations are poorly represented and do not get their due, in the Security Council (O’Neill & Rees 2005). Presently, democracy is the best system in states. In the year 1970, many states tried to employ democracy but it was difficult for some countries to assume democracy. For this reason, the United Nations is trying spread democracy in every part of the world. However, this is intricate since some states think that the UN itself lacks democracy. Hence, for proper representation, the UNSC should enlarge and change as circumstances change in the global politics (O’Neill & Rees 2005). Conflicting view of the Soviet Union and the United Nations According to Clemens (2004), the UNSC has been trying to upgrade and strengthen the global security for many years. In 1940s, the Soviet Union and the United Nations had views that conflicted and this made it impossible to implement article 43. The article provides the placement of the armed force in the arms of the United Nations Security Council. The placement of the armed force in the hands of the Security Council would enable it to maintain international security with the aid of Military Staff Committee representing the permanent members. The Military Staff Committees still hold meetings on a regular basis, which no substantive questions are put into consideration (Clemens 2004). Difficulties in implementing peacekeeping forces In 1956, the UN got an idea of the peacekeeping force. The peacekeeping was purportedly an effective way of promoting peace since the UN would act as an interposing force to create peace but only with the consent of the conflicting parties. Recently, the peacekeeping forces have helped in the maintenance of order. However, the method does not solve the disagreements between the parties and it only creates circumstances where by peaceful settlements are sought by others. The peacekeeping method can only be effective if the parties give the UN permission to solve their conflicts. Therefore, the scope and viability of the method is limited. For instance, for the conflicts in Vietnam and Afghanistan, the application of peacekeeping method by the Security Council was difficult. This is because it was not easy to get consent from the Arab states (O’Neill & Rees 2005). According to O’Neill & Rees (2005), in the precedent years, the United Nations General assembly called for the implementation of article 43 many times. Recently, it has emphasized on the strengthening of peacekeeping functions. However, there has been no elaboration on the methods of doing it. In 1964, the General Assembly tried to look for ways of strengthening it and it came up with a committee in order to upgrade the peacekeeping operations. The committee has functioned for 18 years but the outcome showed no progress and if there was any, it was very little. Again, the proposed guidelines were not precise in elaborating the implementations Years later, the General Assembly decided to set up another committee in order to strengthen the Security Council’s roles. (O’Neill & Rees 2005) The committee worked for some time and its work had a direct bearing reading the problems associated with global security. However, even after working for several years, still there was little progress or almost not progress was observable. Apart from the governments’ efforts, there have been scholars who have brought forward their ideas regarding the strengthening of the UN peacekeeping and peacemaking functions. Nevertheless, their efforts have also been uncoordinated (O’Neill & Rees 2005). Hindrance from its members The United Nations Security Council has been unsuccessful in managing the global order because its permanent members prevent it from doing it. For instance, three permanent associates of the council prevented it from applying helpful measure against South Africa in the discharge of its responsibilities for the maintenance global peace (Clemens 2004). Lack of transparency and consistency Another factor that has contributed to the ineffectiveness of the United Nations Security Council is the lack of transparency. There has been no clearness in the administrative process of the Sanction committee. Additionally, no reasons are evident for the divergent categories decisions and this has created an impression that the UN Security Council is not liable, and is unresponsive towards human rights. The situation becomes dire by lack of permanence within the different Sanction Committees (O’Neill & Rees 2005). The committees’ representatives come from the permanent missions that exposed it to the irregularity of the personnel. This lack of permanency results to the frustration in attempts to devise with a rational human rights policy within the different Sanction committees. This leads to the perception of irregularity in the monitoring of human rights, which exudes a bad image of the Security Council making it seem indifferent towards the human rights that it claims to protect (Wet 2004). Hence, the Security Council needs to upgrade by replacing the present Sanction system with a body that is single and consistent. This monitoring system ought to review the implications of the human rights regularly while focusing on the vulnerable groups. Moreover, there should be the introduction of some form of transparency into the sanction checking system. This can be done by giving a complete report to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly (Clemens 2004, p. 420). Conclusion The major factor that has contributed to the undermining of the UN reputation is its attitude towards its decisions. To make it powerful, it should reinstate democracy and human rights to make people trust it. The councils should demand the reformation of the United Nations and the Security Council. The early people overcame inhuman forces by joining to fight against them. The laws originated when the communal power fought against people’s violation. However, if a community jointed forces against only one giant threat, it would quickly dissolve. Thus, people should permanently unite to enact rules in order to meet the risk of possible revolts. The UN must set up ways of ensuring that its laws are observable to stop any kind of violence. There should also be the expansion of the United Nations Security Council to raise it efficiency. However, it is fundamental to expand the council with a reasonable number of representatives from the major countries globally. For the effective operation of the Security Council, there should be the maintenance of global harmony and the dangers of should be reduced (Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, 2005). Hence, there should be the implementation of parallel actions. This can be tenable using the UN system more consistently than in the past. The consistency can help in augmenting the confidence of countries. List of references Clemens, C, 2004, Dynamics of International Relations: Conflict and Mutual Gain in an Era of Global Interdependence, Rowman & Littlefield, New York. Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly, 2005, Official report of debates: 2004 ordinary session (second part), 26-30 April 2004, Vol. 2: Sittings 9 to 16, pages 319 to 625, Council of Europe. Karen, A 2011, The United Nations in the 21st Century, Westview Press, New York. Knight, W, 2001, Adapting the United Nations to a postmodern era: Lessons learned, Palgrave, New York. Pandey, N 2007, Expansion of Security Council is the Demand of Time, Pratiyogita Darpan. O’Neill, J, & Rees N 2005, United Nations Peacekeeping in the Post-Cold War Era, Taylor & Francis, New York. Wet, E 2004, The chapter VII powers of the United Nations Security Council, Hart Pub, Oxford. Read More