The United Nations Security Council and War:The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945

THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL AND WAR

The Changing Character of War Programme is an inter-disciplinary research group located at the University of Oxford, and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945

Edited by

VAUGHAN LOWE
ADAM ROBERTS
JENNIFER WELSH
DOMINIK ZAUM

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford
OX
2 6
DP

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First published 2008
First Published in paperback (with minor corrections mainly to appendices and index) 2010

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ISBN 978–0–19–953343–5
ISBN 978–0–19–958330–0

1 3 5 7 8 6 4 2

This volume originated in a seminar series on ‘The UN Security Council and War’, held at Oxford University under the aegis of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War in 2004 and 2005. In light of the high quality of the papers, and the range of new questions they raised about the relationship between the Security Council and war, we decided to continue the project, to commission further research and contributions, and to publish the best of the resulting material.

We are very grateful to Sir Frank Berman for his generous comments and his contribution of the section on accountability to the introduction, and to Sir Michael Wood, whose comments on a range of chapters and on the introduction have been enormously helpful. Col. Christopher Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, has provided valuable help on
Appendix 7
. We also thank Tarun Chhabra, Par Engstrom, Carolyn Haggis, Taylor Owen, Miriam Prys, and Matias Spektor, all doctoral students at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford, who provided valuable research assistance for some of the chapters and for the appendices, as well as Emily Paddon, who translated the first draft of
Chapter 20
from French into English. For his work on several of the appendices, we also thank John Dunbabin. Special thanks go to Devika Hovell, a doctoral student at Balliol College, who has done more than we could have asked of her in helping to prepare the chapters for publication. Finally, we would like to thank all those who participated in the seminar series and commented on the papers, including Chaloka Beyani, Jeremy Carver, Valpy FitzGerald, Yuen Foong Khong, Charles Garraway, Ian Hurd, Andrew Hurrell, Laura James, Neil MacFarlane, Priyanjali Malik, Jochen Prantl, Henry Shue, and Stefan Talmon.

Our work for this book benefited from much help from the library staff in four major libraries in Oxford: the Law Library, the Social Sciences Library, the Codrington Library at All Souls College, and the Bodleian Library – the latter being a depositary library for UN papers as well as holding valuable archives in the United Nations Career Records Project.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the generous financial support that this project received from the Centre for International Studies and the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War, both of which are at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. Without their support, this volume would not have been possible.

The Security Council Chamber,

31 January 1992

At the Council’s first summit-level meeting, the fifteen member states were represented by thirteen heads of state and government, plus two foreign ministers. This gathering, at a high point of optimism about the UN, issued a declaration on the central role of the Council in maintaining world peace and upholding the principle of collective security. The declaration also invited Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to make recommendations on strengthening the UN’s capacity in peacekeeping, peace-making, and preventive diplomacy. This led to the publication in June 1992 of
An Agenda for Peace
, with a set of ambitious proposals to enhance the capacity of the UN to respond to the challenges of the post-Cold War world.

The mural, by the Norwegian artist Per Krogh (1889–1965), encapsulates an earlier vision of a reformed world. It depicts a phoenix rising from its ashes, as a symbol of the world being rebuilt after the Second World War. Above the dark sinister colours at the bottom, different images in bright colours illustrate hopes for a better future. Equality is symbolized by a group of people weighing out grain for all to share (UN Photo/Milton Grant).

List of Acronyms

List of Contributors

1.
Introduction

T
HE
E
DITORS

PART I: THE FRAMEWORK

2.
A Council for All Seasons: The Creation of the Security Council and Its Relevance Today

E
DWARD
C. L
UCK

3.
The Charter Limitations on the Use of Force: Theory and Practice

C
HRISTINE
G
RAY

4.
Proposals for UN Standing Forces: A Critical History

A
DAM
R
OBERTS

PART II: THE ROLES OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

5.
The Security Council and the Great Powers

N
ICO
K
RISCH

6.
The Security Council, the General Assembly, and War: The Uniting for Peace Resolution

D
OMINIK
Z
AUM

7.
The Security Council and Peacekeeping

M
ATS
B
ERDAL

8.
The Sanctions Era: Themes and Trends in UN Security Council Sanctions since 1990

D
AVID
C
ORTRIGHT
, G
EORGE
A. L
OPEZ, AND
L
INDA
G
ERBER
-S
TELLINGWERF

9.
The Security Council’s Authorization of Regional Arrangements to Use Force: The Case of NATO

D
AN
S
AROOSHI

10.
The Security Council in the Post-Cold War World

J
EREMY
G
REENSTOCK

PART III: CASE STUDIES

11.
The United Nations, the Security Council, and the Korean War

W
ILLIAM
S
TUECK

12.
The Suez Crisis and the British Dilemma at the United Nations

W
M
. R
OGER
L
OUIS

13.
The Security Council and the Arab–Israeli Wars: ‘Responsibility without Power’