What is the importance of United Nations? The essay on this page answers this question.
Introduction
United Nations is an international organization, established in 1945 after the Second World War following the dire consequences of the First and the Second World Wars. Although the First World War led to the establishment of the League of Nations in order to promote international peace and security, it failed to prevent the occurrence of the Second World War. To overcome the flaws in the League of Nations, the United Nations was formed on 26 June 1945, when the Charter of the United Nations was signed by member states.
The functions of the United Nations as stipulated in the Article 1 include maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, promoting international cooperation in problem solving and harmonization of the collective responsibility of the nations (Auden, 1997, p. 50). This essay examines the role of the United Nations in maintenance of international peace and security, and its effectiveness as empowered by the charter.
The United Nations Provisions
The Charter of the United Nations Article 24 empowers the Security Council to exercise the functions of the United Nation. According to the International Court of Justice (2010), the United Nations members “confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf.”
The Security Council has prerogative of determining peace and security status of the member states by ensuring that every member has equal rights of protection. The Security Council should discharge its functions as stipulated in chapters VI, VII, and XII in the Charter of the United Nations.
Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter deals with Pacific Settlement of Disputes. This chapter empowers the Security Council to call disputing parties to solve any dispute “by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice” (Browne, 2003, p. 16).
The Security Council identify, investigate and recommend appropriate procedures of addressing situations that may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security to the International Court of Justice (Novak, 2001, p. 5).
In chapter VII, the United Nations Charter gives powers to the security to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Article 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security” (Miller, 1999, p. 67). The Security Council will use all means to make sure that all its members are protected against any threat to peace or an aggression.
In chapter VII, the United Nations Charter empowers the Security Council to ensure that any regional arrangements that involve maintenance of the international peace and security should comply with the United Nations purposes and principles.
According to the Article 52, “the Security Council shall encourage the development of pacific settlement of local disputes through such regional arrangements or by such regional agencies either on the initiative of the states concerned or by reference from the Security Council” (Brader, 2005, p. 78).
The Security Council should be updated “at all times about the activities undertaken or in contemplation under regional arrangements or by regional agencies for the maintenance of international peace and security” (Smith, 2002, p. 33). Since the United Nations Security Council is responsible for the maintenance of peace and security worldwide, then any issues related to peace and security are of great concern lest they threaten peace and security of others.
Effectiveness of the United Nations
Political nature of the General Assembly and the Security Council hinder the effectiveness of the United Nations in fostering international peace and security. Simon (2009) argues that, ‘the United Nations’ efforts to preserve international peace and security are the most contentious aspect of its entire work, because of the inherently political nature of its role” (p. 23). The resolution of conflicts and disputes depend on the political orientation of the General Assembly, Security Council and member states thus complicating the issues.
The decision to invade Iraq was formulated politically by George Bush and Tony Blair to deceive the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Prados and Ames (2010), argue that, “the evidence indicates the decision was made very early, long before ultimatums to Iraq or other diplomatic action.”
This shows that the main reason for Iraq invasion was political rather than a security reason. Another case is the cold war between the United State and Soviet Union where Baruch describes it as “the most important political and diplomatic issue of the early post war period” (2007). The split of the Soviet Union was due to political influence of the United Nations.
Conclusion
The main reason for the establishment of the United Nations was save the world against horrible consequences of war. Horrible experiences of First and Second World War made the world leaders to come together and think of various ways of preventing the future occurrence of war.
The United Nations in its Security Council arm is fostering international peace and security through legal procedures, diplomacy and military peacekeeping. With this noble responsibility, the United Nations experiences undue political pressure as they maintain international peace and security.
References
Auden, H. (1997). The United Nations Charter. Human Rights Journal, 22(3): 45-53. Print.
Baruch, B. (2007). Cold War. Global Security. Web.
Brader, S. (2005). International Relations: Peace and Security. New York. Norton. 78.
Browne, M. (2003). United Nations Peacekeeping: Issues for Congress. The Library of Congress, 6(2): 1-16.
International Court of Justice, (2010). The Charter of the United Nations. Web.
Miller, T. (1999). Peace Treaties and the United Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 67.
Novak, G. (2001). The Security Council: United Nations. Journal of Human rights, 3(1): 5.
Prados, J., & Ames, C. (2010). The Iraq War: U.S. and British Documents Give No Indication Alternatives Were Seriously Considered. National Security Archive. Web.
Simon, T. (2009). International Peace Security: Basic Charter Provisions. United Nations Review, 34(9): 23.
Smith, P. (2002). The Charter of the United Nations. The Expositional Journal, 12(1): 32-33.