The United Nations And The Maintenance Of International Peace And Security

This new edition considers the unifying legal attributes that span vastly differing inter-governmental organisations, from the UN to the EU. A law of international organisations has become established in certain areas, such as legal personality, powers, membership, finance, and decision-making. In other, newer, areas - accountability, responsibility and democracy - politics is still much rawer, and has not yet been fully converted into legal concepts and principles. As with the first edition, there are plenty of examples of organisations given in the text. Individual organisations dealing with issues such as security, health, civil aviation, finance and trade are scrutinised by way of example, to illustrate how different they can be, but also to show how it is possible to debate a set of legal principles that transcend each institution. This new edition of an established text will appeal to students and academics as well as individuals seeking a legal and political insight into international organisations.

The role of the United Nations in collective security has been evolving since its inception in 1945. This book explores collective security as practiced within the legal framework provided by the United Nations Charter, with a particular focus upon activity undertaken under the auspices of the UN Security Council, the body conferred by the Charter with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Although the book is primarily grounded in international law, where appropriate it also draws upon relevant political insights in order to present a clear picture of the UN collective security system in operation and the factors which impact upon the way in which it functions. Offering a comprehensive analysis it considers the full range of measures which can be utilised by the UN in the performance of its collective security remit including military enforcement action, peacekeeping, non-military sanctions and diplomacy. The book considers each of these measures in detail, assessing the legal framework applicable to the form of action, the main legal controversies which arise in respect of their appropriate utilisation, and the UN’s use of this collective security ‘tool’ in practice. The book draws conclusions about the main strengths and shortcomings of the various means through which the UN can attempt to prevent, minimise or end conflict.

Sutterlin gives an insider's assessment of how the United Nations can meet the new challenges of the post-Cold War era. Preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, and peace-building are all examined, along with other means of maintaining peace. This is the first authoritative book on the security role of the UN to take account of the experiences in Bosnia and Somalia and to discuss the use of military force by the UN to control internal conflict. This book examines the principal security functions of the United Nations in the changed conditions of the post-Cold War era. The main purpose of the UN under its Charter is the maintenance of international peace and security. Sutterlin begins with the premise that it is necessary to understand the meaning of international security in much broader terms now than was the case when the UN was founded. If conflict is to be prevented or resolved at present and, most likely, in the future, this means dealing with tensions within states more than between states. The UN has had to break new ground as it has intervened in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Somalia. Sutterlin describes the background of the innovations that history has imposed on the UN, and he analyzes such specific approaches as peacekeeping and peace-building. In addition, based on his extensive experience within the UN, Sutterlin makes numerous suggestions as to how the potential of the UN can be more fully realized. This volume will be of great value to scholars and others concerned with the changing role of the UN and international security issues of the late 20th century.

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.

"The notion that every state has an interest in the territorial integrity of every other state-no matter how distant they are and how slight their connections-is peculiar to the twentieth century. To be sure, poets and philosophers had perceived humanity's common interest in preventing wars, and statesmen had found that aggression from outside the community could be deterred by the mutual defense of those within it. But no one had ever tried to organize an all-embracing system that used the collective force of its members to prevent one of them from attacking another. It took the wide devastation of two world wars-and the failure of the balance-of-power systems that preceded them-to instigate the search for a more effective way to manage power. To the founders of the League of Nations and the United Nations there was nothing extravagant about the idea that peace is indivisible. Their countries had been drawn into wars that were largely not of their making: They had learned that to control their destinies they must act early, with others, to keep the peace. It is this core of national self-interest that drives collective security. If the system works at any moment in history, it is because its members believe they have enough stake in the existing order to warrant taking measures against any nation that threatens to destroy the fabric of that order. "