Presiding Over a Divided World: Changing UN Roles, 1945-1993
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Description
In the half century since its foundation in 1945, the United Nations has been a central institution in the conduct of international relations. Liberated from the particular constraints imposed by the Cold War, the UN has undertaken much more in the past few years than ever before. Yet the flush of post-Cold War enthusiasm only temporarily masked its underlying limitations. Several fundamental problems that are now resurfacing require attention, and the UN faces a number of critical decisions about its future role and direction. Key subjects of concern include its control and management of the use of force; its difficulties in coping with problems of deeply divided societies; conflicts between sovereignty and the enforcement of international standards; problems of representation on the Security Council; slow progress on South-North issues; and the question of possible revision of the Charter. These issues cannot be confronted effectively unless there is a core of common understanding of the nature of the UN and its place in international relations. Building such an understanding is particularly problematic because, throughout its history, the UN has been beset by conflicting and overly simple interpretations: * The UN is a talking-shop backed by a bloated bureaucracy that achieves little of value, wastes a great deal of money, is not answerable to a democratic electorate, and will always lack the significance of governments of sovereign states. * The UN is effective principally as a convenient instrument of avoidance, in which discussion is a cosmetic substitute for action and which states use to avoid blame for their own inaction. * The UN is a thinly disguise servant of the interests of the North in general and the United States in particular. This description applies to the operation of the Security Council and to such agencies as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). * The UN represents a higher set of standards for the conduct of international relations transcending the narrow interests of states, and if allowed to function properly it offers the best hope of eliminating the scourge of war. * The UN is at last free of the paralysis imposed upon it by the Cold War and finally offers the prospect of realizing the original Charter vision, or even of moving beyond that vision to a new world system of peace and security, in which obstacles arising from state sovereignty are eventually overcome. This paper picks up elements of these reductionist interpretations but argues that policy must be based on a much more nuanced evaluation. It suggests that while the UN has achieved much, it has not, and very likely will not, overcome many of the problems that have in the past bedeviled efforts at collective security and global organization. The United Nations has played important roles that individual states or regional organizations could not themselves perform. It can be most effective if the design and management of the UN as an institution take adequate account of the heterogeneity of the international system, the perennial character of many of the problems with which it is confronted, and the realities and constraints of the international society within which it operates. The UN has only a limited capacity to challenge the wills of particular states: many of its instruments for doing so—including condemnations, sanctions, and war crimes tribunals—are problematic. It can only act effectively where its actions are broadly consistent with the policies of most member states centrally involved in any particular issue. In the confused circumstances of the post-Cold War era, the UN faces new opportunities but also new hazards. The East-West divide was only one of several fundamental divisions in international society. The removal of this constraint offers scope for more effective action, but not for the rapid realization of a utopian vision of international organization: overreaching will result in failure and the disappointment of inflated expectations.
Publication Date
1994
Recommended Citation
Roberts, Adam and Kingsbury, Benedict, "Presiding Over a Divided World: Changing UN Roles, 1945-1993" (1994). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 432.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/432
