Introduction
Political turmoil in different countries endangers peace and stability. In many instances, armed conflicts between different warring groups in a given country require international intervention to prevent bloodshed and deaths of innocent civilians. In the last two decades, the world has witnessed a lot of violent conflicts in Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. The conflicts have resulted in the deaths and displacements of many people from their homes. The conflicts have redefined the manner in which different countries in the world relate with one another.
The international community has developed various organizations like the UN, whose main purpose is to provide mechanisms of preventing conflicts between societies in different countries by helping the affected governments to deal with the underlying issues. The international organizations depend on the efforts of member nations to help affected nations to deal with conflicts, but over the past several decades, the international community has failed in solving conflicts in various nations.
This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current system of global governance in addressing political and social conflicts that affect various countries in different geographical regions.
Discussion
Many regional organizations play an important role in monitoring various political and economic issues likely to create tensions between different segments of the population in a particular country. Conflict warning systems established by regional organizations enable the member nations to take urgent measures to stop tensions between the armed groups from escalating (Fanon and Farrington 372).
This approach allows member states of specific regional bodies to address issues relating to unequal allocation of resources, human rights violations and various forms of humanitarian assistance to be offered to refugees fleeing from conflicts.
For instance, during the first gulf war, early warning systems helped the U.S. and other countries to intervene, which prevented Iraqi forces from committing serious human rights violations in Kuwait. As a result, the U.S. government relied on Middle Eastern states’ support to challenge Saddam Hussein’s regime, which wanted to annex Kuwait to make it part of Iraq.
The increase in fundamentalist terrorism activities in different parts of the world has encouraged more countries to come up with joint counterterrorism strategies to protect their citizens from violent insurgents. However, more countries have learnt from mistakes made by the U.S. military’s during its invasion of Iraq in 2003. The unilateral approach used by the U.S. administration without seeking the permission of the U.N.
Security Council made Iraq more unstable than it was in the past. As a result, more countries have realized that adopting multilateral agreements enable them to come up with legitimate resolutions to protect civilians from danger in conflict zones. In Iraq, the U.S. invasion reawakened long standing tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the country.
There was an increase in sectarian violence between militant groups in the country targeting innocent civilians and this made it difficult for U.S. forces in the country pacify the situation (Huntington 523).
The United Nations’ role in safeguarding world peace and stability has come under a lot of scrutiny in the last three decades because of an increase in wars and political instability in different places across the world. However, it must be noted that the UN has taken part in various peacekeeping efforts in East Timor, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. Peacekeeping efforts by the UN have managed to reduce violence in various conflict regions where its troops have been deployed (Davies 483).
In addition, various UN agencies offer humanitarian assistance to civilian populations that are affected by unending cycles of violence in various regions. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, has ensured leaders responsible for different types of human rights violations are made to account for their crimes.
In regions like the Central African Republic, human rights issues are the main cause of the conflicts between Christians and Muslims, but the responsibility to protect provided by the U.N is challenged by sovereignty issues in the region. The international community has failed to provide viable solutions to regional conflicts because of the complex policies guiding intervention efforts.
Human rights are designed to protect freedoms for members of the society, but the selective provisions of the human rights results to internal conflicts as viewed through the lens of the eye of the Central African Republic (McCarty 320). Smith claims that the UN should advocate for states to use “the concept of responsibility to protect as a core component of states’ national interests…” (178).
Some countries do not have open systems of governance, and this issue denies their citizens an opportunity to take part in important government affairs. As a result, this causes some segments of the population to become disenfranchised with their political leaders which result in violence.
Therefore, negotiations undertaken by regional bodies to resolve the political turmoil in different countries need to address the conflicts. In many instances, the international community does not take the time to understand social, political, religious and economic issues that cause disagreements between different warring parties in conflict zones (Kaldor 618).
The current system of global governance lacks the ability to enforce different laws which relate to human rights, discrimination of minorities and democratic rights. The five permanent UN Security Council members prefer to veto any proposal that does not favor their geopolitical interests.
As a result, this makes it difficult for the international community to come up with effective resolutions that can end wars and political squabbles in different countries. For instance, the conflict in Syria has dragged on for more than three years with no end in sight, due to the inability of the U.S., U.K. and France to agree with Russia and China. Ideological and political differences have created mutual suspicion between countries that have a lot of power and influence internationally (Winant 585).
Non-governmental organizations working in conflict zones find it difficult to offer humanitarian support to civilians exposed to violence between the armed groups. In some instances, authoritarian regimes accuse such NGO’s of taking part in seditious activities, which weaken their hold on power.
Restrictive laws apply in countries such as Venezuela, Ethiopia, Egypt, Russia and Myanmar to punish NGO’s which are perceived to advance the interests of opposition groups (Holmen and Jirstrom 503). This opposition shows that the global system of governance is not well equipped to deal with different forms of repression carried out by the government against its own citizens.
Conclusion
Even though, the global system of governance has increased multilateral ties between various countries, it has failed to address different problems which are directly related to poor governance, inequalities and human rights. Global governments need to work together to address these issues to reduce political and social disagreements which lead to armed rebellions in different regions.
This effort will protect vulnerable members of such societies from being exposed to various forms of human rights violations such as genocide, rape, abduction and forceful evictions from their homes.
Works Cited
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Holmen, Hans, and Magnus Jirstrom. “Look Who’s Talking! Second Thoughts About NGOs as Representing Civil Society.” Integrated Perspectives in Global Studies. Ed. Phillip McCarty. New York: Cognella, 2013. 495-518. Print.
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Winant, Howard. “The New Imperialism, Globalization, and Racism.” Integrated Perspectives in Global Studies. Ed. Phillip McCarty. New York: Cognella, 2013. 577 -596. Print.