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...
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... 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.
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.
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.
The system the UN currently has offers some perspective on the idea of conducting and participating in war. But...
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.
In the formative years, the UN faced complications resulting from the cold war and the related allies but later increased the enforcement of their mandate as they gained additional member states. In order to maintain good working relations with all member states, the UN charter also outlines the rights and responsibilities of members states to each other and to the organization. The organization is based on a principle of the sovereign equality of all members and requiring members to perform their obligations as per the charter. Another one of the rules as per Article 2 of the UN charter is that all members settle their international disputes through peaceful means to maintain international security, peace, and justice (Anan & Unies, 2000). All members are also required to refrain from the use of force against the political and territorial integrity of a state. Additionally, in order to prevent nations meddling in the affairs of another without proper authorization, the UN mandate does not authorize the organization to intervene in situations where the domestic state can resolve the
Thousands of innocent Syrians have been killed. This is one of the worst, departure of people since the Rwandan genocide in Africa, where thousands of innocent people each day,
As this paper has established, the topic “How IR explain UN contribution to peace and security” has a range of views and understandings subject to the school of thought one pursues. IR theory is a significant field in comprehending international matters specifically reducing the prospects of war; significantly this theory has grown to become a fundamental facet of United Nations.
For four years, Syria has been in it what has become one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. Since, March 15, 2011 more than 320,000 people have died and 3.9 million people have fled the country, and a further 7.6 million are currently, internally displaced in the Syrian Civil War. In conclusion, the United States of America has a moral imperative to step in and stop the escalating humanitarian crisis. Not intervening after Syria crossed “the red line,” set by President Barack Obama sends the message to future and present powers that may threaten American interest, that America’s warnings can be ignored, combined with the rising death toll, and thousands of Syrians dangerously crossing the border, only to live in appalling refugee
The Syrian Uprising is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Ba'ath government and those seeking to oust its regime. The conflict has many complex entities with factions present that are seeking their own foothold in the country’s struggle over power. However, this was not always the case and an examination will take place into weather the conflict can be defined as either a civil war, an insurgency or a proxy conflict. The definition of the type of conflict is relevant as it is critical to whether or not intervention is necessary and how states may go about it, for instance, the laws of war are different from the laws of armed protests. In the case of Syria, it is vital for the UN to understand the progression of the conflict to legitimise what aid is to be given, if any, and to legally intervene in the conflict. The UN would need to use the type of conflict to draw aims of any intervention, looking beyond deposing Assad for his alleged war crimes of chemical weapon use.
Nothing in life is black and white; there will always be some sort of grey area to debate whether something is good or bad, helpful or harmful, or if the reward is greater than the punishment. This holds true for the UN Security Council and its members’ vetoing powers because the power granted by the veto makes it so that the top dogs so-to-speak have the ultimate say in matters regarding the world. Of course, in some cases this is incredibly important, but when it comes to the “pet projects” there seems to be great debate. With any threat of losing power, any of the five countries with the veto power can destroy any chance of change in a “pet” nation. With China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States all
The Syrian Civil war started in March of 2011. Over 220,000 people have died since then. The
The conflict in Syria has raged for 3 years and a month now. This civil conflict began on the 15th of March 2011. The main actors in this conflict are the supporters of totalitarian Ba’ath government and those who overthrow it. At first the demands of the protesters were democratic and economic reforms to be brought in by the Ba’ath government. Although after the military assaults on protesters across the country the protests evolved into an armed rebellion. Thousands massacred- women children, homes leveled to the ground. According to the United Nations, the death toll surpassed 100,000 in June 2013, and reached 120,000 by September 2013. More than four million Syrians have been displaced, more than three million Syrians fled the country and became refugees, and millions more were left in poor living conditions with shortage of food and drinking water.
Fifty-eight years after the signing of the Charter, the world has changed dramatically. Its universal character and comprehensiveness make the United Nations a unique and indispensable forum for governments to work together to address global issues. At the same time, there remains a large gap between aspiration and real accomplishment. There have been many successes and many failures. The United Nations is a bureaucracy that struggles – understandably – in its attempt to bring together 191 countries. It must come at no surprise, therefore, that a consensus cannot always be reached with so many different competing voices.
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.
The Syrian civil war is an ongoing conflict and has, to date, resulted in close to 500,000 casualties, consisting of both civilians and fighters. War has damages to every aspect of a country, in Syria for example, nearly two million children are without parents and life expectancy has been reduced by fifteen years. The people of Syria face constant threats, whether it be the well-known terror group ISIS or air strikes from Russia, chemical weapons or disease, bystanders are constantly in the line of fire.