Between February 4th, and February 11th, 1945, the Yalta Conference was held in Crimea.[i] The conference determined the majority of the decisions made by the most powerful branch of the United Nations. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and USSR Premier Joseph Stalin secured three permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.[ii] At the United Nations Conference on International Organization in April-June 1945, the five permanent seats of the UNSC were finalized along with the Charter of the United Nations.[iii] The main argument for accepting the veto rule was, “it was unconceivable that the United Nations should undertake enforcement action against a great power.”[iv] Not undertaking that enforcement action against the holders of the five permanent seats of UNSC has determined the UN’s often inability and at times ability to protect collective international security. The most recent example of UNSC’s failure to maintain the international peace and security is the Syrian Civil War which still continues after three years since it began on March 15, 2011. [v] The Syrian Civil War and UN’s inability to halt it stands as one of the prominent failures of the UN caused by the structure of the United Nations Security Council.
The severity of the Syrian Conflict is unparalleled and has thus exacerbated the failure of the attempts to end it. According to the BBC, the conflict has claimed more than 100,000 lives and the numbers are still rising by an average of two hundred casualties per day.[vi] There still is not a humanitarian intervention of any sort by the UN to protect civilians; however United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has established a mission called United Nations...
... middle of paper ...
... the most fundamental criticism is to the UN’s questionable stance as a democratic organization. Since the UN Charter grants the UNSC all the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of governance, the UN can hardly be seen as a democratic body, according to Philosopher Dieter Heinrich.[xviii] The lack of a checks and balances mechanism to control the actions of the branches is the reason behind the UNSC’s frequent deadlocks, including the current Syrian crisis. Consequently, allowing the largest arms exporting countries, who all happen to have nuclear power, to also have permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council proves to be an obstacle in promoting international peace and security.[xix] Thus, the defective structure of the United Nations Security Council is responsible UN’s inactivity at civil wars, genocides and other catastrophes.
The war in Syria has been going on for six years now, killing more than a quarter million people and forcing over 10 million people to leave their homes. It has started with a peaceful protest and is now a full on genocide of people dying. The protest was for the arrest and torturing of Syrian teens for the graffiti of their anti government on a wall. When people form other people that were tired of the government saw this, they wanted their president to make major reforms of their democracy. He didn't like that, so he responded with a violent reaction. He killed thousands of Syrians and more from starvation. As the war went on, more people came in to play a role in the war. These people were from many different places. It has gotten so bad that politicians don't know what to do to stop it.
There is always that one person that stirs the pot in a situation that could have been solved rather quickly without them interfering. This is exactly what happened in Syria. The Syrian Civil War began when a peaceful protest when a group of teenagers who were writing anti-government graffiti on a wall. Syrian people called on their president who instead of making democratic reforms, acted in extreme violence against unarmed civilians. More than a quarter of a million people in Syria have been killed and over 10 million have been forced out of their homes. The Assad regime continues to suppress their citizens and they have begun using chemical bombs to kill thousands of Syrians and many even
The system the UN currently has offers some perspective on the idea of conducting and participating in war. But...
...on people face a similar fate in Darfur….” says one website. They say that America made promises to prevent any more bloodshed in the country, but never held up that promise. “The Khartoum government has systematically obstructed access to Darfur and blocked international efforts to establish a relief program,” says the web page. Because of the lack of effort Darfur suffers from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. In all of these events the UN will take steps after to rectify the situation and prevent it in the future. There is little to no way to guarantee that these kinds of tragedies will never happen again, however the UN can make steps to improve the world’s response and overall international and national laws to prevent future case as best as possible. Which is why the UN continues to update policies to keep up with the ever changing times.
Humanitarian intervention can be defined as the right or duty of the international community to intervene in states with certain causes. The causes can be that the state has suffered a large scale loss of life or genocide due to intentional actions by its government or even because of the collapse of governance (Baylis, Owens, Smith 480). One of the main arguments in the article was president Obamas decision not to bomb Syria after many of his Allies and people believed he would’ve after making so many plans and decision to carry out the bombing. Obamas decision can be expressing in some of the key objections to humanitarian intervention. For example, the first key is that states do not intervene for primarily humanitarian reasons. This means that humanitarian intervention would be unwise if it does not serve the states national interests. President Obama did not want to risk taking a shot while there were United Nations inspectors on the ground completing work (Goldberg
At the end of the catastrophic World War II on October 24, 1945, fifty-one nations gathered to officially form the United Nations, an organization that promoted peace and security for all of its members. Despite the success of establishing a worldwide peace-keeping force, tensions were high between the powers of the Western Bloc (the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact). Ironically, a mere five years after the formation of the UN, the first major outbreak in the Cold War occurred: the Korean War. The effects of the Korean War would not only forever change the state of North and South Korea, but also have a significant effect on all the other nations involved in the Korean War.
The initiation of the Syrian War was heavily influenced by the (what was supposed to be a peaceful) protest. As well as the many deaths of the Syrian citizens. These conflicts helped citizens realize all the issues that were going on at the time. There were many causes for the violence that went on during the Syrian Civil War. It can be inferred that the three main aspects that fueled the violence of the Syrian War were due to foreign influence, sectarian opposition, and conflicts between opposing groups.
For the past several months the United Nations’ Security Council has debated on whether or not to accept the U.S. proposal to force Iraq to comply the new and former resolutions. The new resolution calls for complete disarmament of Iraq and the re-entrance of weapons inspectors into Iraq. If Iraq fails to comply, then military force would be taken in order to disarm Iraq. This proposal met opposition from council members Russia, China, and France. They thought that the U.S. proposal was too aggressive and that the U.S. should not act alone without U.N. approval. For weeks they refused to believe that the only way to make Iraq disarm is through the threat of force and the fear of being wiped out.
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
An attack on the Syrian state would fall within the boundaries of the international concept of the responsibility to protect. The crisis in Syria has escalated by protests in March 2011 calling for the release of all political prisoners. National security forces responded to widespread peaceful demonstrations with the use of brutal violence. The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad refused to stop attacks and allow for implementation of the reforms requested by the demonstrators. By July 2011, firsthand accounts emerged from witnesses, victims, and the media that government forces had subjected innocent civilians to detention, torture, and the use of heavy weaponry. The Syrian people were also subjected to the Shabiha, a largely armed state sponsored militia fighting with security forces. Al-Assad continually denied responsibility to these crimes and placed blame on the armed groups and terrorists for these actions.
The Syrian Civil War is a good example of world leaders playing by the rules of realism. The civil war began in March of 2011 as part of the Arab Spring, and by July of 2012 17,000 have died and another 170,000 fled the country (Almond). The United Nations Security Council in February of 2012 had tried t...
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
The focus of this paper is on the United Nations Security Council reform issue. It will start by giving some history on the United Nations charter and the Security Council. This background will set up a discussion on the past and present proposals to reform the Security Council. I will also offer analysis on the feasibility of these reform proposals. I will then discuss what the key countries think about Security Council reform.
1. As far as peace keeping methods go, the reputation of the United Nations is very pitiable. This is not only because they have not been doing their job to it’s fullest extent, but also because the member states on the security council haven’t given the UN the power it needs if it is to be a successful force in peace keeping methods.
A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave their country due to political or religious reasons, or due to threat of war or violence. There were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014, 14.4 million under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 2.9 million more than in 2013. The other 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). With the displacement of so many people, it is difficult to find countries willing to accept all the refugees. There are over 125 different countries that currently host refugees, and with this commitment comes the responsibility of ensuring these refugees have access to the basic requirements of life; a place to live, food to eat, and a form of employment or access to education. Currently, the largest cause of refugees is the Syrian civil war, which has displaced over 2.1 million people. As a country of relative wealth, the United States should be able to provide refuge for many refugees, as well as provide monetary support to the refugees that they are not able to receive.