The Un Military Staff Committee

The UN Military Staff Committee is a misunderstood organ, and never really worked as it was initially envisaged. This book charts its historic development as a means to explain the continuous debate about the reactivation of the Military Staff Committee and, more generally, the unsatisfied need for the Security Council to have a military advisory body so that it does not only depend on the Secretariat to make its decisions on military and security affairs. The author takes a clear stand for the establishment of a military committee with real weight in the decision-making process of the Security Council related to peace operations. The Security Council remains the only international body making decisions in peace and security, authorizing military deployment without advice from a collective body of military experts and advisers. Recreating such a body is the missing part of all UN reform structures undertaken in past years. As the number of UN troops deployed increases, this book will be an important read for all students and scholars of international organisations, security studies and international relations.

In the 1990s the UN's potential has been reborn. Now the world must find ways to incorporate elements of that success into the UN system. No single reform or even expansion of UN military power can achieve the necessary changes; rather a series of political and military innovations are needed soon to develop a UN peace and security system. The authors make specific recommendations in the areas of the Security Council, the Military Staff Committee, the Secretary General and the Secretariat, operational elements, regional security arrangements, and financial resources. Co-published with the International Economic Studies Institute.

The actions by the United Nations Security Council in the matter of Iraq's attempt to annex Kuwait have lead some observers to conclude that the United Nations is now well positioned to play a consequential role in the maintenance of international order. The coalition formed to meet Iraq's aggression included thirty-seven member states from five continents. This successful action represented a significant precedent for future preventive diplomacy and collective security actions by the world body. As one senior Canadian official somewhat exuberantly observed, a powerful message has been sent: 'the United Nations, can as it was intended, safeguard world order and security.'

Monograph tracing the evolution of the peace-keeping concept in the UN and the role of UN in international peace-keeping operations - examines the functions of the League of Nations, covers the leadership of the 3 UN secretaries-general, government policies in respect of the military engagement of UN armed forces, the development of 'preparedness diplomacy', etc. Bibliography pp. 269 and 270 and references.

This book examines one of the most important challenges facing the United Nations today: the effective and lawful use of force by or under the authority of the UN to maintain or restore peace. It makes a significant contribution to the content of the law pertaining to the use of force by the UN and provides guidance as to the likely future developments in the legal framework governing collective action to maintain peace under the auspices of the United Nations.