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Peace is the United Nation's (UN) number one
objective. Achieving peace was the reason behind the foundation of this
international organization following the Second World War as the successor to the League of
Nations. Unfortunately, the Security Council, the most important UN body, was blocked for the duration of the Cold War. But then the huge political changes that took place between 1989 and 1990 seemed to usher in a period of new opportunity for the UN.
Indeed, it is from this time that the "Agenda for Peace", one of the most important peace strategies of our time
arises:
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[Author: Ragnar Müller]
The peace policy of the United Nations
"The founders of the United Nations were directly influenced by the horrors of the Second World War. To this end, their number one objective for the United Nations was to create an instrument which would „prevent future generations from the scourge of war"
(Preamble from the United Nations Charta). The preservation of world peace and international security was declared to be the chief task of the United
Nations.
While the term peace" is used several times and in different contexts in the United Nations Charta, a clear definition of what peace means is
missing. In the "classic" system of international law during the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th
century, peace was understood as the absence of war. The United Nations' understanding of peace goes beyond
this previous narrowness and seeks to promote a comprehensive understanding of peace in the sense of a global and dynamic process
that will culminate in social justice, respect and implementation of human rights and good
neighborly relationships between all countries. To this end, then, not only does the the
Charta oblige all member states to neither threaten nor exercise aggression as a way of reaching political
goals, but also requires all states to resolve their conflicts using peaceful means and to develop cooperation in all
areas.
In order to keep the peace, a modified system of collective security was created in the UN Charta, with the Security Council as its central
body. Only the Security Council has the right to authorize sanctions against states that are threatening world peace according to chapter VII of the
Charta. These measures can range from non-military sanctions such as economic and arms embargoes to military deployments involving land, air
and naval force provided to the United Nations by member states according to article 43, which can be placed under the supreme command of the United Nations when
required. Examples of sanctions imposed according to chapter VII of the Charta include the trade embargo against
ex-Yugoslavia and the setting up of a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to
article 42 and 48 of the Charta, sanctions authorized by the Security Council can also be carried out by individual member
states. An example of this was the authorization given to Allied Forces to set up an armed force
for the Gulf War in 1990 and the authorization for the UNITAF operation (United Task Force) 1992 in Somalia with the task of securing humanitarian
supplies.
Because of the structure of the Security Council, however, the system to ensure collective security proved to be ineffective during the Cold War
period. And it was for this reason that in 1956 during the Suez Crisis, the former General Secretary of the United
Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, decided to develop a new concept. This concept was based on peace-keeping operations and was called peace-keeping for short.
The basics of the following strategy and instrument types developed for keeping the peace were first implemented into the Agenda for Peace (1994) by the former General Secretary Boutros-Ghali and subsequently
modified:
Preventive diplomacy,
this category refers to the use of diplomatic means with the objective of preventing disputes from developing between individual
parties, stopping existing disputes from escalating and limiting conflict - if it should come to
that.
Preventive deployments, this refers to the deployment of troops with the objective of preventing a conflict from breaking out. In the case of a crisis within a
country, preventative deployments can be authorized on request or with the agreement of the government or all parties to the
conflict. This also applies to cases where a nation feels threatened and applies to have UN troops deployed only on its side of the
border.
Peace-making means the process leading up to the signing of a peace treaty or cease-fire and is used to describe activities aimed at encouraging warring parties to reach an agreement mostly using the peaceful means provided for by chapter VI of the UN Charta.
Peace-keeping is used to describe the establishment of United Nations peace keepers on the ground with the agreement of all sides to the
conflict; these measures usually involve lightly armed troops, election monitors and police to monitor and implement cease-fires and peace
agreements. Peace-keeping is a technique designed to expand the options for preventing conflict and peace
making.
Peace-enforcement means the deployment of more heavily armed UN troops on a provisional basis in accordance with chapter VII, article 40 of the UN Charta. Peace enforcement encompasses measures for restoration and maintenance of a
cease-fire, which, because it draws on more heavily armed troops, goes beyond peace-keeping
troops. It is important, however, not to confuse peace enforcement with the use of coercive measures which can be
authorized according to article 43 of the Charta in order to counter attack.
Use of military force, this is used to describe armed measures according to chapter VII, article 42 of the Charta, which may be
authorized when peace is threatened or to counter attack when world peace is
threatened. The Security Council has only authorized the use of military force on rare
occasions. These rare incidents include the Gulf War II (Iraq-Kuwait) and the first intervention in Somalia to secure humanitarian aid (United Task Force -
UNITAF): The Security Council gave its authority to individual nations (the USA and
others) to take action on behalf of the UN. The bombing of Bosnian Serb positions during the summer of 1995 was also carried out under a Security Council mandate with the aim of forcing the warring parties to the negotiating table and making the signing of the Dayton Peace Treaty
possible.
Post-conflict peace-building is designed to restore and promote state structures suited for securing and consolidating the peace in order to prevent a conflict from breaking out again once a conflict has been ended
successfully. These measures include demobilizing, disarming and rehabilitating the (ex) warring sides by reintegrating them back into society; other measures include setting up administration and legal systems according to constitutional
principles."
[Taken from: Auswärtiges Amt (Hrsg.): ABC der Vereinten Nationen, Berlin 2000, p. 37-39]
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