E-book : "the United Nations Security Council And War" - Repository UNIKOM

  THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL AND WAR

  The Changing Character of War Programme is an inter-disciplinary research group located at the University of Oxford, and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

  

....................................................................................................................................................

  

THE UNITED

NATIONS SECURITY

COUNCIL AND WAR

....................................................................................................................................................

  

The Evolution of Thought

and Practice since 1945

Edited by

  

VAU G H A N LOW E

A DA M R O B E RT S

J E N N I F E R W E L S H

D O M I N I K Z AU M

  

1

3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

  

It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,

and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi

  

Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi

New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece

  

Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore

South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press

in the UK and in certain other countries

  

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

_ß

The several contributors 2008

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

  

First published 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate

reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction

outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,

Oxford University Press, at the address above

  

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover

and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

  

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Data available

Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India

Printed in Great Britain

on acid-free paper by

CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

  

ISBN 978–0–19–953343–5

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  

A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s

.....................................................................................................

  This volume originated in a seminar series on ‘The UN Security Council and War’, held at Oxford University under the aegis of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War in 2004 and 2005. In light of the high quality of the papers, and the range of new questions they raised about the relationship between the Security Council and war, we decided to continue the project, to commission further research and contributions, and to publish the best of the resulting material.

  We are very grateful to Sir Frank Berman for his generous comments and his contribution of the section on accountability to the introduction, and to Sir Michael Wood, whose comments on a range of chapters and on the introduction have been enormously helpful. Col. Christopher Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, has provided valuable help on Appendix 7. We also thank Tarun Chhabra, Par Engstrom, Carolyn Haggis, Taylor Owen, Miriam Prys, and Matias Spektor, all doctoral students at the Department of Politics and Inter- national Relations at Oxford, who provided valuable research assistance for some of the chapters and for the appendices, as well as Emily Paddon, who translated the first draft of Chapter 20 from French into English. For his work on several of the appendices, we also thank John Dunbabin. Special thanks go to Devika Hovell, a doctoral student at Balliol College, who has done more than we could have asked of her in helping to prepare the chapters for publication. Finally, we would like to thank all those who participated in the seminar series and commented on the papers, including Chaloka Beyani, Jeremy Carver, Valpy FitzGerald, Yuen Foong Khong, Charles Garraway, Ian Hurd, Andrew Hurrell, Laura James, Neil MacFarlane, Priyanjali Malik, Jochen Prantl, Henry Shue, and Stefan Talmon.

  Our work for this book benefited from much help from the library staff in four major libraries in Oxford: the Law Library, the Social Sciences Library, the Codrington Library at All Souls College, and the Bodleian Library – the latter being a depositary library for UN papers as well as holding valuable archives in the United Nations Career Records Project.

  Finally, we would like to acknowledge the generous financial support that this project received from the Centre for International Studies and the Oxford Lever- hulme Programme on the Changing Character of War, both of which are at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. Without their support, this volume would not have been possible.

  

J a c k e t I l l u s t r a t i o n

......................................................................................................

  The Security Council Chamber,

  31 January 1992 At the Council’s first summit-level meeting, the fifteen member states were represented by thirteen heads of state and government, plus two foreign ministers.

  This gathering, at a high point of optimism about the UN, issued a declaration on the central role of the Council in maintaining world peace and upholding the principle of collective security. The declaration also invited Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to make recommendations on strengthening the UN’s capacity in peacekeeping, peace-making, and preventive diplomacy. This led to the publication in June 1992 of An Agenda for Peace, with a set of ambitious proposals to enhance the capacity of the UN to respond to the challenges of the post-Cold War world.

  The mural, by the Norwegian artist Per Krogh (1889–1965), encapsulates an earlier vision of a reformed world. It depicts a phoenix rising from its ashes, as a symbol of the world being rebuilt after the Second World War. Above the dark sinister colours at the bottom, different images in bright colours illustrate hopes for a better future. Equality is symbolized by a group of people weighing out grain for all to share (UN Photo/Milton Grant).

  

C o n t e n t s

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   contents viii

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   contents ix

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   contents x

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

...................................................

  These acronyms are used in the text of the book. Certain other UN bodies, with their acronyms, appear in the appendices.

  AFSOUTH Allied Forces South Europe AMIB African Union Mission in Burundi AMIS African Union Mission in Sudan APEC Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASF African Standby Force AU African Union BELISI Peace-Truce Monitoring Group in Bougainville CAR Central African Republic CAS Close Air Support CENTO Central Treaty Organization CFA French Community of Africa CFI Court of First Instance of the European Communities CFL Cease Fire Line CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy CIA Central Intelligence Agency CIS Commonwealth of Independent States Civpol Civilian Police CNRT National Council of Timorese Resistance CSCE Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe CTBT Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTC Counter Terrorism Committee CTED Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate DDR Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration DPA Department of Political Affairs DPKO Department of Peacekeeping Operations DRC Democratic Republic of Congo EC European Commission EC European Community ECMM European Community Monitoring Mission

  ECOMICI ECOWAS Mission in Cote d’Ivoire ECOMIL ECOWAS Mission in Liberia ECOMOG ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EO Executive Outcomes ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque separatist terrorist group) EU European Union EUFOR European Union Force in Bosnia FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office F-FDTL Timor Leste Defence Force FNLA National Liberation Front of Angola FPI Ivorian Patriotic Front FRAPH Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti Fretilin Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor FRY Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FYROM Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia G7 Group of Seven G-77 Group of Seventy-seven G8 Group of Eight GA General Assembly GIA Governors Island Agreement GRULAC Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries HQ Headquarters

  IDEA International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

  IPTF International Police Task Force

  IPA International Peace Academy

  INTERFET International Force in East Timor

  IMF International Monetary Fund

  IFOR Implementation Force

  IFIs International financial institutions

  IEC Independent Electoral Commission

  ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

  IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency

  ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

  ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross

  ICJ International Court of Justice

  ICISS International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty

  ICFY International Conference on the former Yugoslavia

  ICC International Criminal Court

  ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

  ISAF International Security Assistance Force xii acronyms

  KFOR Kosovo Force KLA Kosovo Liberation Army LoC Line of Control LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy MFO Sinai Multinational Force and Observers Sinai MICIVIH International Civilian Mission in Haiti MINUCI United Nations Mission in Coˆte d’Ivoire MINUGUA United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala MINURCA United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara MINUSTAH United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti MISAB Mission Interafricaine de Surveillance des Accords de Bangui MJP Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix MLO Military Liaison Officer MNF Multi-National Force MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia MONUA United Nations Observer Mission in Angola MONUC United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic

  Republic of Congo MOU Memorandum of Understanding MPIGO Mouvement Populaire Ivorien du Grand Ouest MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola MPRI Military Professional Resources Inc.

  NAM Non-Aligned Movement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NFZ No-Fly Zone NGO Non-governmental organization NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty NWFP North-West Frontier Province OAS Organization of American States OAU Organization of African Unity OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

  Affairs OFF Oil-for-Food Programme OIC Organization of the Islamic Conferences OLA Office of Legal Affairs OMV Ongoing Monitoring and Verification ONUB United Nations Operation in Burundi ONUC United Nations Operation in the Congo ONUCA United Nations Observer Group in Central America acronyms xiii ONUSAL United Nations Observer Mission to El Salvador ONUVEN United Nations Mission for the Verification of Elections in

  Nicaragua OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe P5 The five Permanent Members of the Security Council PDCI Democratic Party of Coˆte d’Ivoire PDK Democratic League of Kosovo PLO Palestine Liberation Organization PMC Permanent Mandates Commission PMCA Pre-Mandate Commitment Authority PMCs Private military companies PRC People’s Republic of China PRT Provincial Reconstruction Team PSCs Private Security Companies RAMSI Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands RDC Research and Documentation Center RDTL Democratic Republic of Timor Leste ROE Rules of Engagement ROK Republic of Korea RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front RPR Rally of Republicans RRF Rapid Reaction Force RUF Revolutionary United Front S-5 Switzerland, Costa Rica, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Singapore SADF South African Defence Force SAM Sanctions Assistance Mission SAMCOMM Sanctions Assistance Mission Communications Centre SC Security Council SEATO South-East Asia Treaty Organization SFOR Stabilization Force SG Secretary-General of the United Nations SHIRBRIG Standby High Readiness Brigade for UN Operations SLA South Lebanon Army SLA Sierra Leone Army SOFA Status of Forces Agreement SPO Serbian Renewal Movement SRSG Special Representative of the Secretary-General SWAPO South-West Africa People’s Organization TNI Indonesian National Army UDT Timorese Democratic Union UN United Nations xiv acronyms UNAMET United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor UNAMI United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq UNAMIR United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda UNAMIR II Second United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda UNAMSIL United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone UNASOG United Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Group UNAVEM I United Nations Angola Verification Mission UNC United Nations Command UNCC United Nations Compensation Commission UNCIP United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan UNCRO United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia UNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer Force UNEF United Nations Emergency Force UNEF I United Nations Emergency Force to the Middle East UNEF II Second United Nations Emergency Force to the Middle East UNFICYP United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus UNGA United Nations General Assembly UNGCI United Nations Guards Contingent in Iraq UNGOMAP United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and

  Pakistan UNGOMIP United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNICOI United Nations International Commission of Inquiry UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group UNIOSIL United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone UNIPOM United Nations India-Pakistan Observer Mission UNITA National Union for the Total Independence of Angola UNITAF Unified Task Force UNMEE United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea UNMIBH United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina UNMIH United Nations Mission in Haiti UNMIK United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNMIL United Nations Mission in Liberia UNMIS United Nations Mission in Sudan UNMISET United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor UNMIT United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor Leste UNMOGIP United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan UNMOP United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka UNMOT United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan acronyms xv UNMOVIC United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission

  UNOCA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian and Economic Assistance Programmes in Afghanistan

  UNOCI United Nations Operation in Coˆte d’Ivoire UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNOGIL United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon UNOMIG United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia UNOMIL United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia UNOMSIL United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone UNOMUR United Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda UNOSOM I United Nations Operation in Somalia UNOSOM II Second United Nations Operation in Somalia UNOTIL United Nations Office in Timor Leste UNOWA United Nations Office for West Africa UNPA United Nations Protected Area UNPREDEP United Nations Preventive Deployment Force UNPROFOR United Nations Protection Force UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNSAS United Nations Standby Arrangements System UNSC United Nations Security Council UNSCO United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for the

  Occupied Territories UNSCOM United Nations Special Commission UNSCOP United Nations Special Committee on Palestine UNSMA United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan UNSMIH United Nations Support Mission in Haiti UNTAC United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia UNTAES United Nations Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia,

  Baranja, and Western Sirmium UNTAET United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor UNTAG United Nations Transition Assistance Group UNTEA United Nations Temporary Executive Authority UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization UTA Union des Transports Ae´riens WEU Western European Union WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction WTO World Trade Organization xvi acronyms

  

......................................................................

  Adekeye Adebajo is Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Building Peace in West Africa (Lynne Rienner, 2002), and Liberia’s Civil War (Lynne Rienner, 2002); and co-editor of West Africa’s Security Challenges (Lynne Rienner, 2004), and A Dialogue of the Deaf: Essays on Africa and the United Nations, (Fanele, 2006). He served on UN missions in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq.

  Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He was formerly Director of Studies at the Inter- national Institute for Strategic Studies. He is co-editor with Spyros Economides of United Nations Interventionism 1991–2004 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  Jane Boulden holds a Canada Research Chair in International Relations and Security Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. Previously, she was a MacArthur Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. She is co-editor with Thomas Weiss of Terrorism and the UN: Before and After September 11th (Indiana University Press, 2004).

  Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations at Oxford University and a fellow of Linacre College. He is the author of International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2005) and Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

  Peter Carey is Laithwaite Fellow in History at Trinity College, Oxford, specializing on the history and politics of South East Asia. He is the author (with G. Carter Bentley) of East Timor at the Crossroads: The Forging of a Nation (Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 1995); and (with Steve Cox), Generations of Resistance: East Timor (London: Cassell, 1995). He has recently published a major biographical study of the Indonesian national hero, Prince Dipanagara, The Power of Prophecy, Prince Dipanagara and the End of an Old Order in Java, 1785–1855 (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2007). James Cockayne is an Associate at the International Peace Academy. An inter- national lawyer who has worked in Sydney, Paris, Arusha, Freetown, and New York, James is Chair of the editorial committee of the Journal of International Criminal Justice, and former Director of the Transnational Crime Unit, Australian Attorney- General’s Department. contributors xviii David Cortright is President of the Fourth Freedom Forum and a research fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His fifteen books include Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism (Paradigm Press, 2006).

  Gilles Dorronsoro is currently Professor of Political Science in the University of Panthe´on-Sorbonne (Paris). He has recently published Revolution Unending, Afghanistan: 1979 to Present (Hurst and Columbia University Press, 2005), and is editor of La Turquie conteste. Re´gime se´curitaire et mobilisations sociales, (Editions du CNRS, 2005).

  J. P. D. Dunbabin was from 1963 to 2004 Fellow and Tutor at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, latterly also University Reader in International Relations. His publications include International Relations since 1945, i: The Cold War (rewritten edition, Pearson Longman, 2007), ii: The Post-Imperial Age: The Great Powers and the Wider World (Longman, 1994), and an article on the League of Nations.

  Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf is Research Director of the Fourth Freedom Forum in Goshen, Indiana. She contributes to the work of the joint Fourth Freedom Forum/ Kroc Institute Sanctions and Security Project and the Center on Global Counter- Terrorism Cooperation.

  Christine Gray is currently Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St John’s College. She has been at Cambridge since 1997 and before that she was a lecturer at the University of Oxford from 1980.

  Sir Jeremy Greenstock, GCMG, is the Director of the Ditchley Foundation. Between 1969 and 2004, he held numerous positions in the British diplomatic service, including Political Director of the FCO (1996–8), UK Permanent Repre- sentative at the United Nations in New York (1998–2003), and the UK Special Envoy for Iraq (September 2003–March 2004).

  Bruce D. Jones is Co-director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, where he leads research on multilateral security institutions and the UN and is series editor of the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations, and Consulting Professor at Stanford University. Previously, he was Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary-General, and Chief of Staff to the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

  Nico Krisch is a lecturer in law at the London School of Economics and has been a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, New York University Law School, and the Max Planck Institute for International Law in Heidelberg. He is the author of a monograph on Security Council powers and the right to self-defence (Selbstverteidigung und kollektive Sicherheit (Springer, 2001) ) and of articles on the law on the use of force, on hegemony in international law, and on the legal framework of global governance. contributors xix

  George A. Lopez holds the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Chair in Peace Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the Univer- sity of Notre Dame. His research on United Nations economic sanctions includes the application of targeted sanctions against transnational terrorism. With David Cortright, he most recently published Uniting Against Terror (MIT Press, 2007).

  Wm. Roger Louis is Kerr Professor of English History and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin and a past president of the American Historical Association. He is an honorary fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His books include Imperi- alism at Bay (Clarendon Press, 1977) and The British Empire in the Middle East (Clarendon Press, 1984). His collected essays were published by I. B. Tauris in September 2006: Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and Decolonization.

  Vaughan Lowe is Chichele Professor of Public International Law, and a fellow of All Souls College, in the University of Oxford. He also practices in the field of international law as a barrister from Essex Court Chambers, London, and has appeared in cases before English and International courts, and sits on international tribunals.

  Edward C. Luck is Vice President and Director of Studies at the International Peace Academy, as well as Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Respon- sibility to Protect (designate). He is currently on public service leave from Colum- bia University, where he is Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs and Director of the Center on International Organization of the School of Inter- national and Public Affairs. His most recent book is The UN Security Council: Practice and Promise (Routledge, 2006).

  David M. Malone is Canada’s High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to Nepal and Bhutan. A former Canadian ambassador to the UN, he oversaw Canada’s multilateral and economic diplomacy with its Foreign Ministry, 2004–6.

  He was President of the International Peace Academy in New York, 1998–2004. His most recent book is The International Struggle over Iraq: Politics in the UN Security Council, 1980–2005(Oxford University Press, 2006). Georg Nolte is Professor of Law at the University of Munich. In 2003/4 he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He has published on many issues of public international law and comparative constitutional law. He is a member for Germany of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the ‘Venice Commission’).

  Sarah V. Percy is University Lecturer and Fellow in International Relations at Merton College, Oxford. She has written widely about mercenaries, private mili- tary, and private security companies, including, The Regulation of the Private Security Industry (Routledge and the IISS, 2006), an article in International contributors xx Organization entitled, ‘Mercenaries: Strong Norm, Weak Law’ (61, no. 2), and Mercenaries: The History of a Norm in International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2007). Sarah was awarded the CAMOS Dissertation Prize at the 2006 American Political Science Association Convention for her dissertation, upon which her book is based.

  Sir Adam Roberts, KCMG, was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, and a fellow of Balliol College, from 1986 to 2007. His books include (edited with Benedict Kingsbury), United Nations, Divided World: The UN’s Roles in International Relations, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 1993) and (edited with Richard Guelff), Documents on the Laws of War, 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2000). He lives in Oxford.

  Rahul Roy-Chaudhury is Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. He has served in the National Security Council Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office in India. He has also been a senior research fellow at the International Policy Institute at King’s College, London. He writes regularly on South Asian security issues for IISS publications.

  Dan Sarooshi is Professor of Public International Law in the University of Oxford, and also practices as a barrister from Essex Court Chambers, London. His books have been awarded the 2006 Myres S. McDougal Prize by the American Society for the Policy Sciences, the 2001 and 2006 American Society of International Law Book Prizes, and the 1999 Guggenheim Prize by the Swiss Guggenheim Foundation. David Scheffer is the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law. He served as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1997–2001) and as Senior Counsel to the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1993–6).

  General Sir Rupert Smith, KCB DSO OBE QGM, retired from the British Army in January 2002 after forty years’ service in East and South Africa, Arabia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Malaysia. His last appointment was Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe. Prior to that he was the General Officer Commanding in Northern Ireland; Commander UNPROFOR in Sarajevo; and General Officer Commanding 1 (UK) Armoured Division, in the Gulf War 1990–1.

  William Stueck has written extensively about the Korean War, most notably in The Korean War: An International History (Princeton University Press, 1995) and Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and Strategic History (Princeton University Press, 2002). Both emphasize the UN role, the first in greater detail. He is currently a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia.

  Charles Tripp is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His publications contributors xxi include (with S. Chubin) Iran and Iraq at War (Tauris, 1989); The Iraqi Aggression against Kuwait (edited with W. Danspeckgruber) (Westview, 1996); Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2006); and A History of Iraq, 3rd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  Pat Walsh has worked with the UN in East Timor since 2000 and is currently Advisor on Transitional Justice to President Jose Ramos-Horta. From 2001 to 2005 he was seconded by the UN as Special Advisor to the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CVAR). Prior to going to East Timor, he was Director of Human Rights for the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, and represented the Council at many UN sessions and meetings on human rights and the question of East Timor.

  Jennifer M. Welsh is Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Somerville College. She is the author, most recently, of At Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century (HarperCollins, 2004

  ) and editor of Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2004). She was recently named a Trudeau Fellow, and is currently on a Leverhulme research grant working on a project on ‘sovereignty as responsibility’.

  Susan L. Woodward is Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (1990–99) and at King’s College, London (1999–2000); and Head of the Analysis and Assessment Unit for UNPROFOR in 1994. Her writings include Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War (Brookings Press, 1995), and Socialist Unemployment: The Political Economy of Yugoslavia, 1945–1990 (Princeton University Press, 1995).

  Dominik Zaum is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading, and author of, The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has previously been a research fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

  This page intentionally left blank

  

  

  

The Central Theme

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

  Under the United Nations (UN) Charter, the Security Council has a theoretically impressive range of powers and duties. Most signiWcant is its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Unlike the General Assembly it can in principle take decisions that are binding on all members of the UN. The Council meets throughout the year, mainly to consider armed conXicts and other situations or disputes where international peace and security are threatened. It is empowered to order mandatory sanctions, call for ceaseWres, and authorize military action on behalf of the UN. The Council also has a role, with the General Assembly, in the admission of new members to the UN, the appointment of the Secretary-General, and the election of judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has also assumed certain other roles not speciWcally laid down in the Charter, such as the self- conferred role of choosing judges and prosecutors for ad hoc war crimes tribunals.

  This book describes and evaluates the UN Security Council’s part in addressing – and sometimes failing to address – the problem of war, both civil and international, in the years since 1945. The central theme is obvious, simple, and sobering.1 While the Council is a pivotal body which has played a key part in many wars and crises, it

  

1 This central theme in respect of the Council is similar to that in respect to the UN more generally as

evidenced by many of the contributors to Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws (eds.), The Oxford Handbook

on the United Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Weiss and Daws accept (p. 4) that ‘state

sovereignty remains the core of international relations’ and they seek to contribute to ‘greater analytical

precision and historical reXection about the balance between change and continuity within the United

  2 the editors is not in practice a complete solution to the problem of war, nor has it been at the centre of a comprehensive system of collective security. It never could have been. The UN’s founders, despite their idealistic language, did not see it in such terms; and in practice, both during the Cold War and subsequently, the Council’s roles have been limited and selective.

  This central theme is not so much a conclusion as a starting point. It puts into focus a series of key questions, addressed in each of the sections: What have been the actual roles of the Security Council, and have they changed over time? Has the Council, despite the many blemishes on its record, contributed overall to the maintenance of international order through its response to particular threats and crises? Why has the Council fallen short of some of the expectations held out for it? Are particular countries to blame for such failures? Has it reacted constructively to the changes in the character of war – including the prevalence of non-international armed conXicts and the rise of terrorism – and to broader transformations in international society, such as the rise of post-colonial states and the increase in the number of powers with nuclear weapons? Is the Council simply a meeting place of sovereign states, or does it put in place certain limits on the unfettered sovereignty of at least some states?

  In this book we have sought the services of historians, lawyers, diplomats, and international relations specialists to explore the Security Council’s actual and poten- tial roles. The book seeks to present an accurate picture of what the Council has achieved, and not achieved, in regard to the continuing phenomenon of war. It analyses the extent to which the UN Charter system, as it has evolved, replaces older systems of power politics and justiWcations for the use of force. It also considers how the functions and responsibilities of the Council have shifted since the creation of the UN in the concluding months of the Second World War. Among the many conclusions reached on the basis of this study, three stand out: that the Council was not created to be and has not in practice been a pure collective security system; that the constant interplay between the Charter’s provisions and the actual practice of states (both within and outside the Council) has produced not only some disasters, but also some creative variations on the Council’s roles and responsibilities; and that when compared with other international institutions, the Council has a unique status both in terms of its authoritativeness and accountability vis-a`-vis member states.

  

The Charter Scheme

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

  This book is based on the proposition that the actual practice of the Security Council is richer, more complex, and more paradoxical than can be captured by any single prescriptive document or theory. Yet an assessment of the Council’s roles necessarily

  1: introduction

  3 involves reference to the basic rules by which it operates. The United Nations Charter, concluded at San Francisco in June 1945, is a remarkable amalgam of realism and idealism. It appears, at least at Wrst sight, to be the harbinger of a radical transform- ation of the international system – especially in its handling of the problem of war. The Wrst lines of the preamble set the target high:

  WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS determined

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has

brought untold sorrow to mankind . . .

  The Preamble goes on to outline the UN’s purposes, and in so doing proclaims what appears to be a highly collective approach to the use of armed force:

  to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force

shall not be used, save in the common interest . . .

  The Charter establishes six ‘principal organs of the United Nations’. These are: ‘a General Assembly, a Security Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trustee- ship Council, an International Court of Justice, and a Secretariat’.2 The Security Council is thus just one part of this architecture for international order, but it has always been seen as having a central role in the Charter scheme.

  The general principles of the UN and the detailed provisions governing the structure of the Security Council (SC) and its management of international security are laid down in Wve chapters (Chapters I and V–VIII) of the Charter.

  Chapter I: Purposes and Principles Chapter I, which consists of just two articles, sets the framework for the later provisions,

  including those for the Security Council. Article 1 is a ringing statement of purposes:

  The Purposes of the United Nations are:

  1

. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take eVective collective

measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of

acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and

in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement

of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

  2

. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal

rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to

strengthen universal peace;

  3

. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an eco-

nomic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging

  4 the editors

  

respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to

race, sex, language, or religion; and 4

. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these

common ends.

  Article 2, on Principles, is mainly concerned with questions of international peace and security. Its provisions have been cited frequently in debates about the powers of the Security Council.

  

The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in

accordance with the following Principles.

  1

. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

  2

. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and beneWts resulting from

membership, shall fulWl in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with

the present Charter.

  3

. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a

manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

  4

. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force

against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other

manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

  5

. All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in

accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state

against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.

  6

. The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations

act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of

international peace and security.

  7

. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to

intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or

shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter;

but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under

Chapter VII.

  Chapter V: The Security Council Chapter V (Articles 23–32) sets out the Security Council’s composition, functions,

  powers, voting, and procedure. The Council’s composition is speciWed in Article 23 (as amended in 1965) as follows:

  1

. The Security Council shall consist of Wfteen Members of the United Nations. The

Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent

members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of

the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council, due regard

being specially paid, in the Wrst instance to the contribution of Members of the United

Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of

the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution.

  1: introduction

  5

  2

. The non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of two

years. In the Wrst election of the non-permanent members after the increase of the member-

ship of the Security Council from eleven to Wfteen, two of the four additional members shall be

chosen for a term of one year. A retiring member shall not be eligible for immediate

re-election.

  3 . Each member of the Security Council shall have one representative.3