C.S.R. Murthy

New Phase in UN Reforms

The expectations about UN reforms in the wake of the end of the Cold War are dampened due to the strongly held divergent viewpoints among various groups of governments. In contrast to the euphoria generated by official and non-official panels churning out scores of ideas and proposals, the reforms actually carried out have remained cosmetic and minimal. The exception to this dismal trend is the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2005 that provide the first exercise of reforms of an inter-governmental nature. There are several unique and innovative features associated with both these newly created bodies—their ambitious mandate, varied ways of composition, parallel structural supervision and so forth. The Asian and European regional groups have espoused often contrasting perspectives in negotiations on the creation of PBC and HRC, while the outcome of the bargaining showcases an interesting balance sheet of the gains and losses of principal organs of the UN, especially the General Assembly and the Security Council. Start-up and follow-up issues like sufficient funding of peacebuilding operations, efficacious coordination with an array of agencies and the independent and impartial scrutiny of human rights track record of countries are substantive and could stand between the success and failure of these innovations. Either way, the actual performance of these bodies may significantly influence the later stages of UN reforms.

‘Our identity is our currency’: South Africa, the responsibility to protect and the logic of African intervention

Heavyweights of South Africas ruling African National Congress claim that the responsibility to protect citizens in the case of an unwilling or unable government is an African concept, owned by the continent: rooted in the security–development crisis of the past few decades, Pretoria stresses that there is an intellectual and political history of intervention, separate from Western conceptions of R2P. While the conception of an African responsibility to protect has come to constitute a major pillar of South African foreign policy, this is not without its critics—domestic or abroad—and, as the Libya case exemplifies, often presents decision-makers in Pretoria with tough real world dilemmas. South Africa shares the intense scepticism of China and Russia about Western claims of value-based foreign policies. But much as anti-imperialist ideology and growth-centred relations with other emerging powers inform South African foreign policy, it would be a mistake to see Pretorias scepticism about Western interpretations as a sign of profound normative convergence with Russian and Chinese critiques of liberal peace-building: the South African critique of the responsibility to protect is more procedural than substantive.

Assessing India at the United Nations in the Changing Context

The United Nations (UN) has been a useful instrument for India not only in pursuing its foreign policy goals effectively, but also for the progressive and peaceful transformation of the global political system. The changing priorities of the country’s political leadership, the challenge of reconciling subjective interests with objective principles, the nuanced pursuit of non-alignment and sensitivity to the existing international system have historically worked as factors to create a mix of effects in India’s performance in the world body. In the intricate agenda of the new century, India’s participation highlights concerns on reinforcing the core strengths of the UN in managing non-traditional security threats, including transnational terrorism, mobilizing collective action in the era of globalization for minimizing the economic inequities, both within and between countries, and lastly revitalization of the UN structures including, in particular, the Security Council’s composition through comprehensive reforms by common agreement. As for future strategy, the hope of replaying its past leadership role may be a less appropriate and acceptable option than building pragmatic and issue-based partnerships with all relevant countries in multilateral negotiation settings.

US and the Third World at the UN: An Ambivalent Relationship

The author is Associate Professor, Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. For more than four decades, the interaction between the US (United States of America) and the Third World** at the UN (United Nations) has been marked by mutually exclusive political, ideological and tactical approaches towards issues that the world body confronted from time to time.’ But at least in the early years of the post-Cold War period, the influence of the US, the single remaining super power, in the UN increased tremendously.2 Although after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Third World countries, individually and collectively, have lost much of their clout, they have continued to present their perspectives at the

Reforming the Un Security Council: an Asian View

that the problems and prospects of permanent representation to Asian region in the expanded Security Council become worth examining in depth. How distinctive is the Asian region and its case for greater permanent representation? What impinges on the Asian countries in agreeing on who, why and how the new permanent members should be named? What are the linkages between the claims/strategies of the various aspirants from the region, especially Japan and India? To what extent is the diversity of views in Asia comparable to other regions? How valid is the apprehension that lack of agreement in Asia could thwart the prospects of expansion of the Council? This paper explores these concerns.

Book Reviews : Diplomacy G.R. BERRIDGE, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. Pp. xv + 234. Paperback. Price not indicated

revolve around mainly the functions and also the modes of diplomacy. For the former, the focus is on negotiation, while the latter theme dwells on bilateral diplomacy, role of telecommunications, multilateral diplomacy, summitry and mediation. The emergent analytical insights are recapitulated concisely in the conclusion (pp. 207-10). The book correctly asserts that in the modem world, negotiation encompasses considerably more than the work of resident missions. It manifests in any and all modes of diplomacy-multilateral diplomacy, summitry and mediation. Further-

Book Reviews : World Government: JAYANTANUJA BANDYOPADHYAYA, World Government for International Democracy and Justice (Howrah: Manuscript India, 2002). Pp. 152. Price Rs 100.00

Bandyopadhyaya is a renowned Indian scholar in international relations with four decades of experience in writing on a breathtaking variety of themes ranging from international relations theory, nationalism and internationalism, making of India’s foreign policy, North-South polarization, arms race, to ecology and so on. The present monograph offers an emancipatory perspective on international relations as an ethically and morally better alternative to the conservative discourse

India's Participation in the United Nations: Patterns and Problems

The need to ensure effective national participation in the United Nations has never been given adequate attention in India. Nor is any serious attempt made to analyze how far patterns and problems, if any, of national participation account for lack of sufficient political support in the United Nations to Indias positions on some of the questions with a bearing on its vital interests. Such an assessment forms an integral part of the larger question of making use of the United Nations forum for the purpose of safeguarding the countrys interests more satisfactorily. Accordingly, a section of this article is devoted to examine the working of Indias mechanism—mainly its Permanent Mission at New York—from the personnel and functional angles and the emergent patterns and problems. The subsequent section illustrates Indias interactions in a couple of important political questions, so as to facilitate a general evaluation.