The United Nations has faced many
challenges and difficulties in their operational capabilities and
decision-making implementation since its post-World War II origins, especially
during the decades of east-west Cold War.
The two largest challenges that the United Nations faced during the Cold
War, and still face today, are found in the five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council and private sector influence in the form of
international organizations on permanent Security Council members, as well as
all general assembly members, which impacts United Nations efforts, actions and
missions.
The key issue when looking at the United
Nations Security Council is the fact that each of the five permanent members of
the Security Council held, and still holds, veto power that can block or shut
down the intentions of the other members of the Security Council, as well as
block the General Assembly vote. Looking
at history, we can easily understand that the five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council were the major powers within the victorious
Allied forces in World War II. What
could not have been seen at the time was how the divide between expanding
global capitalism and communism would deepened, and eventually become quite a
serious threat toward future international conflict (as was eventually realized
by the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis). With the permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council consisting of the United States, Russia (Soviet Union
during the Cold War), Britain, France and China, it is easy to see how the Cold
War balance of power between capitalism and communism often played out in the
Security Council and limited or prevented actions by the United Nations
concerning important crisis situations.
One can analyze the actual historical statistics and see that “the five
permanent members cast 199 vetoes between 1946 and 1989 - well over four per
year - preventing the Council from taking action on many important matters” [1]
due to conflicting individual state or private sector interests. This inherent trait of the Westphalia state,
which is a defining characteristic of international politics, is unable to be
extinguished even in the format of an international democratic organization
designed to establish world peace…as the concept itself is an oxymoron.
The paralysis of the United Nations due
to the permanent members of the Security Council and their politics can be seen
more in-depth by taking a closer look at their actions during the Cold
War. The Soviets led all permanent
Security Council members in veto usage and in the first ten years of the United
Nations actually utilized veto power an incredible eighty times, often as
payback for the United States refusal to admit Soviet Republics into the United
Nations, while the United States has been a consistent protector of Israel
through veto usage, which was considered a strategic Cold War ally in an
excellent geographical location [2]. The
British and French veto was used, alongside of the United States, during the
Suez Canal Crisis when Israel launched a military offensive (followed by France
and Britain, to liberate the Egyptian nationalized canal, which was of major private
sector interest for the capitalist west.
The permanent member of the United Nations Security Council who cast the
least amount of vetoes was China, who had cast one veto during the Cold War
decades.
In addition to the structural flaws of
the United Nations Security Council during the Cold War, and today, the United
Nations also found its efforts challenged by capitalism and the private sector
dollar, which influences states and international organizations in the pursuit
of profit generation. The fact that the
International Monetary Fund was “created in the midst of the war, at the United
Nations Monetary and Financial Conference”[3] hints that the United Nations
would never be capable of being an unbiased international organization capable
of placing true humanitarian efforts above individual state and private sector
interests. The large sums of IMF and
United States capital that was invested into post-war Europe through the
Marshall Plan, which required protection in the form of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, further laid the foundation for problems within the United
Nations as the main permanent members vied for their individual interests with
the U.S., Britain and France holding a stacked deck against Russia while China
remained introverted on domestic issues and development.
In closing, the largest challenges
facing the United Nations during the Cold War are the same challenges that
hamper it today and fill its actions with hypocrisy. Those challenges are embedded in the charter
of the United Nations, as the United Nations was no more than an attempt to
consolidate international power within a five-seat council of an international
organization. While during the Cold War,
the United Nations was often divided between capitalist and communist
interests, today we see the same fragmented politics at play in areas of the
world such as the civil power struggle occurring in Syria and the nuclear talks
with the state of Iran.
[1] Celine Nahory. 2004.
“The Hidden Veto”. Global Policy
Forum, May 2004. Accessed on April 25, 2015. https://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/42656-the-hidden-veto.html
[2] Aleksandra Czajka. 2011.
“The Analysis of the Veto Power in the United Nations Security Council”. Pompeu Fabra University: Barcelona. Accessed on April 25, 2015. http://www.academia.edu/4028521/The_analysis_of_the_Veto_Power_in_the_United_Nations_Security_Council_Public_International_Law
[3] International Monetary Fund. 2012.
“The IMF and the Force of History: 10 Events and 10 Ideas That Shaped
the Institution”. International Monetary
Fund, p.5. Accessed on April 25,
2015. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/history/2012/pdf/prologue.pdf
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