Global Security, the United Nations Organization and the Role of the Security Council
In this matter, a key role has got the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was issued in 1948 and brought human rights in the sphere of international law. Probably the most important news in this area is to support the principle of "responsibility to protect" (RTP) by UNO’s the Member States but only with the UNOSC’s permission [...]
After the failure of the interwar League of Nations to prevent international crises and military conflicts of the 1930s which finally culminated in the next global war, the major Allied states (the USA, the USA, the UK, and China) agreed in Moscow in October 1943 to create a new, more functional, and improved international peace-keeping organization after the war under a new name of the United Nations Organization (the UNO). In other words, the UNO has evolved from a wining coalition of countries fighting against European Nazism and fascism in WWII. Following further negotiations at Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta, the charter of the UNO was discussed and drafted in San Francisco in spring 1945 and signed as an international treaty called the United Nations Charter on June 26th, 1945 in San Francisco (California, the USA). There was at that time an idea that it is necessary to create an international environment, in which states will avoid armed conflicts and will resolve political disputes by diplomatic means but not by the force.
The UNO was officially established on October 24th, 1945, when the UNO’s Charter came into force. Originally, the UNO was established by 51 nations (states). Its task was to replace the League of Nations, which had the same aim but failed to prevent WWII. The UNO gradually accepted the other Member States, but enlargement was hampered by the beginning of the Cold War. That is the reason why a large increase in the number of the Member States was registered since the late fifties and then after the dissolution of the USSR and the destruction of ex-Yugoslavia when the new states emerged and for whom the UNO’s membership was final proof of the global recognition of their formal political independence. Some of the quasi-states are still on the waiting list for the UNO’s membership like, for instance, Kosovo.
The administration of the UNO is headed by a Secretary-General, among whom was, for instance, the Austrian Kurt Waldheim (the fourth Secretary-General from 1972 to 1981) – a Nazi Wehrmacht’s officer whose military unit was accused of the war crimes against Serbian civilians in North Montenegro (the district of Pljevlja) during WWII.
The UNO and its activities
The UNO is an international organization whose aim is to maintain international peace and security and ensure international cooperation. Since 2011, the UNO has 193 Member States. The last member joined the UNO on July 14th, 2011 was South Sudan. The UNO’s membership is based on the principle of sovereign equality. The Member States have got their representation called “permanent missions” at the UNO’s Headquarters in New York (the USE) but also in Geneva (Switzerland) or Vienna (Austria). The membership in the UNO is open to all countries based on the conditions laid down in the UNO’s Charter. Each potential Member State must declare that it is committed and able to meet the required obligations of the membership.
The United Nations Organization has been repeatedly awarded by the Nobel Peace Prize (however, like Barack Obama, for instance, probably for the constant bombing of the Middle East and North Africa?). The first was awarded for the work of the UNO’s High Commissioner for Refugees in 1954 (received the award again in 1981), followed by the UNO’s Children’s Fund in 1965, the International Labour Organisation in 1969, the UNO’s and Kofi Annan as the Secretary-General in 2001, and 2007 this recognition was given to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was also founded by the UNO.
The UNO has a broad field of endeavor as the only global organization covers the activities practically in all sectors of universal security and peace-keeping.
The declarative areas of its activity can be summarized into five fundamental categories:
1) Protection of international peace and security:
The UNO was originally established exactly for this purpose and, therefore, is why this area of activities is the most important for the organization. More precisely, it includes conflict prevention, peace-keeping, and if the conflict occurs the organization tries to peacefully solve it and after that to protect the peace. If necessary, the UNO’s peacekeepers are deployed on the blue line which separates the conflicting actors (example: Cyprus after 1974).
2) Promotion of economic and social development.
The UNO wants to improve the lives of people everywhere. To achieve this task it tries to support prosperity and economic opportunity, greater social well-being, and protection of the environment.
3) Protection of human rights.
In this matter, a key role has got the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was issued in 1948 and brought human rights in the sphere of international law. Probably the most important news in this area is to support the principle of “responsibility to protect” (RTP) by UNO’s the Member States but only with the UNOSC’s permission. The concept called “Humanitarian intervention”, as well as only under the UNOSC’s permission should provide the ability to respond effectively to genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other gross and massive violations of human or/and minority rights.
4) Humanitarian activities.
The UNO helps in all cases where the consequences of a natural or man-made disaster exceed the ability of affected countries to respond effectively. Nowadays, the United Nations Organization is (or it should be) the focal provider of emergency and long-term assistance, to initiate an action of Governments and humanitarian organizations and to defend the interests of disabled people.
5) Upholding international law.
The UNO’s Charter in its Preamble set an objective to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained. This activity can be implemented by courts, tribunals, multilateral treaties. There is also one body – the Security Council, which can accept peacekeeping missions, impose sanctions, or permit the use of force when there is a threat to international peace and security. However, and unfortunately, in many cases, the use of force on the international scene was not formally permitted by the UNOSC as it was the case, for instance, with the NATO’s military intervention against Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, i.e., in fact, with the NATO’s military aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The role of the Security Council
The Security Council (the UNOSC) bears (under the UNO’s Charter) responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. It has 15 members, including five permanent – China (Taiwan until 1971, then the People’s Republic), France, USSR/Russia, the USA, and Great Britain – and ten non-permanent (temporary), which are elected by the UNO’s General Assembly for two-year periods. Each member of the UNOSC has one vote. To approve the decisions in ordinary matters are required at least nine votes from fifteen. However, to accept decisions on fundamental issues is needed nine votes plus the approval of all five Permanent Members with the veto right. This rule called “powers unanimity” often refers to the veto. If one of the Permanent Members disagrees with a draft decision, it can vote against the proposal and reject it by the use of the veto right. If a Permanent Member does not agree with the proposed resolutions or decisions but does not exercise the veto right, it may abstain (a restrained voice). In such a case, the resolution can be taken up with a minimum of nine votes.
As a result of the veto right, for example, the UNOSC was relatively ineffective during the Cold War, when unanimity was difficult to establish between the USA and the USSR. As a matter of example, the UNO could only intervene in the Korean War because of a temporary Soviet boycott of the UNOSC which made it impossible for the USSR to exercise the veto. On the other hand, it is known how many veto rights used the USA in the UNOSC in the favour of Israel in its dealing with the Palestinian question in the Middle East.
According to Article 25 of the UNO’s Charter, all Member States agree that they will respect and fulfill decisions of the UNOSC. While other UNO’s bodies give recommendations to the Governments, the UNOSC takes decisions which are for the Member States legally binding. This is the very reason why the role of the UNOSC is in the practice of extreme importance. In other words, if the state fails to comply with the decision of the UNOSC the latter is eligible to force the same state (i.e., its Government) to abide by its provisions. On one hand, the coercive measures can faster help to resolve the conflict but on the other hand, it would have a large negative impact on the state’s population. Therefore, the UNSC should have very carefully considered the use of any coercive measure taking into account its possible negative impact on the civilian population. The use of military intervention as well as the suspension of economic activities (import/export) or cash flow will suffer mainly the economy of the state and its citizens. Nevertheless, the UNOSC possesses the possibility to decide which coercive measure should be used – either different kinds of sanctions or classic military intervention.
In the case that the UNOSC decides to use the sanctions, no military force has to be used. The sanctions are measures which can include complete or partial interruption of economic and trade contacts, the severance of diplomatic negotiations, to impose an arms embargo, suspension of financial flow into the country, travel bans, a ban on the export and import of luxury goods, etc. Such sanctions have been in previous years imposed for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, or Eritrea.
The military action can be undertaken only if diplomatic negotiations, embargoes, and sanctions fail. However, legitimate military action should be only in extreme and emergency cases. After formally ending the conflict, the UNO tries to help states with economic, political, economic, and social reconstruction. Nevertheless, the use of force is clearly defined in the UNO’s Charter what NATO in 1999 overpassed by the means of classic gangsters in international relations.
As it is already mentioned above, the focal task of the UNOSC is to preserve international peace and security. In order to successfully preserve the peace, it is required effort to participate in the settling conflict by all the warring parties. It also requires, however, efforts from neighboring, foreign countries, and other international organizations to participate in the process. There must be also provided sufficient financial and human resources for such activity. The great merit of the restoration and maintenance of international peace has to have UNO’s peacekeeping missions which in many cases failed to fulfill their duties like on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The UNO’s peacekeeping missions have to constitute one of the most important means for ensuring international peace and security. The deployment of peacekeeping missions is decided by the UNOSC. However, the countries in which peacekeeping missions should be deployed must agree with it, otherwise, it cannot go on. Peacekeeping missions are directed by the Secretary-General or his authorized representative. The UNO’s peacekeeping missions have to work closely with the regional organizations.
As a matter of fact, the UNO does not have its own military forces and equipment. It is provided on voluntary basis decisions by the UNO’s Member States. In peacekeeping missions can participate soldiers, police, and civilians from various countries. Peacekeeping missions are financed from a special budget for peacekeeping missions, which is formed from the financial contributions by individual Member States (but not on an equal basis). Funds from the special budget are by the predetermined conditions distributed among the Member States, which provided the UNO’s military equipment. In the context of peacekeeping operations, the military observers, who are unarmed, can act with the right only to supervise compliance with the peace. Nonetheless, there are also the UNO’s military units that are indeed armed but only for their self-defense.
According to the UNO’s Information Centre in Prague, from 1948 to 2005 it was a total of 60 peacekeeping operations, which was attended by more than 81,000 military observers and members of the military units. A total UNO’s spent on the peacekeeping operations in 2005 is estimated at 36 billion USD. In recent years, there is a need to figure out the issue of how is to better organize peacekeeping missions for the sake to be more flexible, readier, and quicker, to have secured political and financial support, and to have more powers on the ground.
Conclusion
To understand the UNO, its functioning and the real impact on global affairs and security is of particular significance to understand firstly what this organization is not. In other words, the UNO is not a global domination institution, the Secretary-General is not the President or the Chairman of a Global Government. The UNO does not seek such a role and is not able to pursue such a role. The UNO is no substitute for the sovereignty of the nation-states. The UNO, therefore, cannot replace or completely cure the current international system based on the coexistence of independent and sovereign states.
However, the UNO is rather a mirror of the contemporary world in which national interests still prevail over common interests. However, some issues and problems are common to all and require common solutions. From poverty, AIDS, water scarcity, despite a changing climate, drugs, COVID-19 to migration – these are all issues that do not recognize national boundaries, and which require international cooperation. Without the UNO’s structures and its Security Council as the main security body responsible for maintaining international peace, such cooperation is very difficult.
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.
Read our Disclaimer/LegalStatement!
DonatetoSupportUs
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.
The collective West is busy showing what it thinks of Serbia’s determination to conduct an independent policy through an old-fashioned show of force.The weekend of March 27-28, thousands of vehicles from neighboring countries formed lines waiting to enter Serbia. The reason? Vaccines. For free. Lots of them, from both East and West. Sputnik V, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Pfizer. More than the rest of the ex-Yugoslav republics combined. And Serbia decided to open its doors to those among its former compatriots who have lost all hope that their Western-approved “democracies” would obtain them in respectable quantities any time soon.So, does this humane ...
When the Warsaw Pact ended, after the collapse of communism, some optimists might have expected Nato to be broken up too.After all, the Labour Party in Britain had been opposed to Nato in the mid-1980s. But that was not to be. The US, which had always dominated Nato, quickly began to reinvent Nato and furthermore to expand it.Following the end of the Warsaw Pact many central and east European governments wanted to join Nato.This of course was music to the ears of the US military manufacturers. Indeed, the chair of the expand Nato committee, Bruce Jackson, was technical director of ...
The following text is a point by point thematic summary of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky‘s presentation at the Science for Peace Conference, Academy of Sciences, Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, 15-16 August 2016.IntroductionHistorically, science has supported the development of the weapons industry and the war economy. “Science for Peace” indelibly requires reversing the logic whereby commissioned scientific endeavors are directed towards supporting what President Eisenhower called “The Military Industrial Complex”.What is consequently required is a massive redirection of science and technology towards the pursuit of broad societal objectives. In turn, this requires a major shift in what is euphemistically called “US Foreign Policy”, namely ...
The stars came out in Hollywood on November 2nd, or at least some of them did. The gala event celebrated the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and raised funds to support its mission in Israel itself and on the occupied West Bank. The organization being fêted was the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), which has fourteen regional offices in the United States and operates under the slogan “Their job is to look after Israel. Our job is to look after them.” In attendance were Arnold Schwarzenegger and actor Gerald Butler. Entertainment was provided by the singer Seal.Hollywood Jewish royalty ...
NATO - The North Atlantic Treaty - was formed by the US and European countries after WW2 as a defensive alliance with the simple goal of deterring a Soviet Russian attack or invasion of western democracies. However, ever since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO has been used in several aggressive and offensive military campaigns against countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. NATO bombed a European country, Serbia (as part of then Yugoslavia), invaded an Asian country, Afghanistan, and attacked and destroyed a Middle Eastern country Libya.In 1995 NATO launched its first offensive bombing campaign ...
President Obama’s final foreign policy speech at MacDill air force base in Tampa, betrayed its purpose through the venue. The Tampa, Florida, base is home to Special Operations Command and Central Command — Special Operations playing an ever increasing role in counter terrorism.The gist of the speech seemed to assert that the US is and should stay true to its values when fighting terrorism. An assertion when at the same time Congressman Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, has written a letter to Secretary John Kerry warning him the US could be charged with war crimes in aiding Saudi Arabia’s bombing ...
The Six Day War of June 1967, a series of battles fought by the armed forces of the state of Israel against a combination of Arab armies, is one of manifold significance. From a military standpoint, it presented a model strategy of how to prosecute and win a war waged on several fronts.The stunning victory also created a sense of euphoria among communities in the Jewish Diaspora: Among American Jews, a segment of Jewry David Ben Gurion viewed with disdain because of their failure to migrate en masse to Israel, a new sense of commitment in both emotional and financial ...
With Monday’s procedural vote in the U.S. Senate to allow Montenegro into NATO, the Washington elite proved once more that heightening tensions with Russia might not just be inevitable, but actually desirable. With the exception of Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the entire 100-strong body of the Senate rallied behind the motion that would see the tiny Adriatic state admitted into the Atlantic alliance over the objections of many Montenegrins . The vote set off a 30-hour countdown, during which Senators will debate before putting the issue to a final vote.If you needed more proof that US foreign ...
One of rock's greatest albums is Pink Floyd's 1973 Dark Side of the Moon.This somber, surrealistic album paints a picture of what society has become, both 44 years ago and now. Such is this present American Empire, replete with our phony wars, excessive militaristic mindset and of course the drive for super wealth by greedy corporations and equally greedy individuals.Those of us who "knew better" foresaw the economic bubble burst of 2008 years before it occurred. So many of our friends and neighbors cared not a damn about the phony wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and later on against Libya and now proxy ...
The European Parliament has asked yesterday (25 October) for an immediate embargo on the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, hence sanctioning the Kingdom of rogue Saudi Arabia which is joining the United States and Israel as the main purveyor of crime throughout the Middle East and the world. France still said they will apply sanctions only if it is proven that Riyadh was indeed involved in the killing of the controversial Saudi journalist. Madame Merkel at least days ago said that Germany would no longer supply the Saudis with arms – as a result of the heinous crime committed ...
Accused of War Crimes: The British Prime Minister Tony BlairWAR CRIMES CHARGES FOR THE HAGUE AGAINST THE NATO LEADERS – ONE OF THE INDICTMENTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIANOTICE OF THE EXISTENCE OF INFORMATION CONCERNING SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE TRIBUNAL;REQUEST THAT THE PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATE NAMED INDIVIDUALS FOR VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND PREPARE INDICTMENTS AGAINST THEM PURSUANT TO ARTICLES 18.1 AND 18.4 OF THE TRIBUNAL STATUTE.TO:Madam Justice Louise Arbour, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Churchillplein 1, 2501 EW, The Hague, Netherlands.AND TO: President William J. ...
What you can see here, as the example: Serbian shrine Bogorodica Ljeviška (Virgin Mary of Ljevishka) is a cathedral church in the city of Prizren in the western part of Kosovo & Metohija region. The city was a capital of medieval Serbia. This church is built by Serbian king Milutin between 1307-1309. This church belongs to one of four masterpieces of Serbian sacral architecture in the Middle Ages in Kosovo & Metohija that was a central part of Serbian medieval state. The video is in the Serbian language.Rachak Village in Kosovo 1999- Lies and the truth from Vladislav B. Sotirovic ...
Americans are outraged by allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an intelligence service to hack email accounts of the Democratic National Committee. How inexpressibly heinous that one country, Russia, would try to influence elections in another sovereign country, in this case the United States! How unprecedented! How diabolical! How uniquely Russian!In response, the Obama administration has expelled Russian diplomats, hinted at economic sanctions, and promised further retaliation using America’s “world-class arsenal of cyber weapons.” (NYT Dec. 16, 2016) Obama’s Republican opponents, for their part, have demanded “rocks” instead of Obama’s “pebbles.”But does the USA meddle in the presidential elections ...
BALTOPS 16 is a military exercise now taking place between June 3 and June 18 in the Baltic Sea region which is in close proximity to Russia. The U.S. Naval Institute (www.usni.org) released an article titled ‘Analysis: Larger NATO Baltic Sea Exercise Sends Important Message to Russia’ stated what BALTOPS 16 will consist of:Over the next three weeks BALTOPS 16 will draw together some 6,000 personnel, 45 warships, and 60 aircraft from 17 nations, including the United States, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, along with the littoral states of the Baltic States who are NATO members (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, ...
The corporate media presents Russia as militaristic but ignores Canada’s invasion of that country.100 years ago today a popular revolt ousted the Russian monarchy. Enraged at Nicholas II’s brutality and the horror of World War I, protests and strikes swept the capital of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg). Within a week the czar abdicated. Later in the year the Bolsheviks rose to power in large part by committing to withdraw from the war.The English, French and US responded to the Bolshevik’s rise by supporting the Russian monarchists (the whites) in their fight to maintain power. Six thousand Canadian troops also invaded. According ...
Grenada is an independent state, a member of the U.N., located in the southern portion of the Caribbean Sea very close to the mainland of the South America (Venezuela). The state is composed by southernmost of the Windward Islands combined with several small islands which belong to the Grenadines Archipelago, populated by almost 110,000 people of whom 82% are the blacks (2012 estimations). The state of Grenada is physically mostly forested mountains’ area (of volcanic origin) with some crater lakes and springs. In the valleys are bananas, spices and sugar cane grown. The country is out of any natural wealth ...
Fourteen years ago the U.S. Government de-classified the now famous “La Vista Report” of May 15, 1947, a top-secret U.S. Army Intelligence report documenting the Vatican’s role in aiding the escape of numerous high-ranking Nazi war criminals, among them Ante Pavelic, fascist leader of wartime Croatia; Franz Stangel, Commander of Treblinka; Eduard Roschmann, “the Butcher of Riga”; Klaus Barbie, “the Butcher of Lyon”; SS General Walter Rauff, inventor of the mobile gas truck; Adolf Eichmann, “architect of the Holocaust”; and tens of thousands of others. Writing about the document prior to its release, internationally renowned Nazi hunter Charles R. Allen ...
Yesterday’s leak of the flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt has already hit the international media headlines. In short, it turned out that the US officials were coordinating their actions on how to install a puppet government in Ukraine.In this flagrant telephone talk between the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt agreed to nominate Bat’kyvshchina Party leader Arseniy Yatseniuk as Deputy Prime Minister, to bench Udar Party leader Vitaly Klitschko off the game for a ...
A map of historical spreading of the Ukrainian territorial imperialistic project. A nation which occupied and annexed parts of ethnohistorical lands of all its neighbors. A historical map of evidence:Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]A Crimea census of 1926 (done by anti-Russian USSR's authorities): ...
The magazine is covering the research gaps uncovered by global Western hoax mainstream media platforms and academic teaching & research institutions.
This is an alternative information & academic research digest platform with the purpose to offer an alternative “another side of the truth”.
The magazine is independent, private, and free of any influence by any institution, organization, government, or pressure group. URL: www.global-politics.eu
Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović
