Sam Daws

The Oxford handbook on the United Nations

L’Oxford Handbook on the United Nations est un ouvrage de reference indispensable qui offre un contenu varie et des analyses approfondies. Mais ce n’est pas seulement un guide. Il contient des essais qui mettent en evidence le talent et l’experience de 47 auteurs, universitaires, analystes et auteurs patentes. Leurs connaissances variees et surtout accessibles auraient pu remplir plusieurs volumes. Comme les editeurs l’ont mentionne dans l’introduction, ce n’est pas tant un guide sur les Nations Unies qu’un hommage a la variete et la substance du contenu. Il est donc difficile d’en faire un compte rendu. Pour faciliter cette tâche, j’ai pense que le meilleur moyen etait d’avoir une conversation critique avec des personnes bien informees.

An Economic and Social Security Council at the United Nations

Hans Singer has contributed more than perhaps any other individual to the development of the United Nations as we know it today and to proposals for its reform. His most recent proposals for reform, ‘Revitalising the United Nations: Five Proposals’, argued for improved global economic management, including the creation of an Economic Security Council. In this paper we develop further the case for such a Council. (Singer, 1995b).

UN operations: The political‐military interface

The dilemmas raised by UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Somalia have focused attention on the political‐military interface. This article places recent experiences in the context of the history of the United Nations’ enforcement action and its relationship with UN peacekeeping. It is divided into three parts which address UN enforcement measures from 1945 to 1991, the use of Chapter VII resolutions in the mandates of peacekeeping operations, and the challenges ahead. Through a detailed examination of case histories, specific problems are identified, remedies suggested and future options explored.

The oxford handbook on the United Nations

Handbook is something of a misnomer for a work of this genre. The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations’ contents and informed analysis are on a scale that makes it invaluable to hand for learned reference. But a handbook, as such, it is not. Rather it contains essays, drawing on the writing skills and participatory experience of 47 well-established practitioners, academics, analysts and writers. Their seams of varied and above all readable knowledge might have filled several volumes. It is, as the editors point out in their introduction, above all a handbook on, not of, the United Nations. It is a tribute to the variety and substance of its content, which makes it hard to read for review. To ease this task, this reviewer has been influenced by a fine idea to help reach conclusions through an informal critical conversation with the well-informed.

Diplomacy and Debate

Looks at diplomacy and debate at the UN Security Council, and the role of procedural rules and practice in these activities. The first four sections of the chapter describe the rules for: the order of speakers; interrupting the speaker; the right of reply; and motions, proposals and suggestions — the various types of these are all defined. The next section discusses precedence motions (Rule 33), which are techniques available to the Council by which debate can be suspended or terminated, either to facilitate positive purposes, or to frustrate negative ones (such as filibustering); these include: suspension of the meeting; adjournment of the meeting either sine die or to a certain day or hour; reference of any matter to a committee, the Secretary‐General of the UN, or a rapporteur; postponement of the discussion to a certain day, or indefinitely; and introduction of an amendment; all of these are described separately. The remaining sections of the chapter discuss amendments, and statements before or after the vote.

Has the UN a Future

We have not, in the earlier chapters, dealt with criticisms now voiced about the political role of the United Nations, except incidentally. But the UN has faults, like any human institution. Are these faults those one would expect to find in a large and complex multi-purpose intergovernmental organization at the end of its fifth decade, or are they faults which could have been prevented if only the states of which the UN is composed had been more altruistic or more far-sighted?

Peace and Security

The UN organ with primary responsibility for maintaining peace and security is the Security Council (Article 24 of the Charter).This Council has varying degrees of coercive power. It can place a matter on its agenda, debate the issue, conduct an investigation, recommend procedures or terms of settlement or other provisional measures. The Council may also authorize peace-keeping, for which there is no express provision in the Charter, but Dag Hammarskjold once called it Chapter Six-and-a-half. Peace-keeping operations have been especially appropriate for policing demilitarized zones, disputed frontiers, or for maintaining law and order in areas of tension. A more coercive procedure, for which the Charter expressly provides, requires measures not involving military action, often known in UN circles as sanctions (Art. 41). ‘These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.’ If such measures would be or have proved to be inadequate, the Security Council may take such military action as may be necessary (Art. 42).

Groups and Blocs

Some of the more optimistic speeches at San Francisco in 1945 seemed to suggest that the United Nations, simply by existing, would put an end to all international conflict. While it is legitimate to hope for the best, it is only realistic to assume that disputes between nations and between groups of nations will continue to disturb world peace. The leaders of most countries believe that such disputes are inevitable, so they arm accordingly in the hope that military capabilities backed by resolute leadership will deter war. But deterrence alone is never enough.