Reforming the United Nations

The UN Secretary-General has little leverage over countries (such as in the slow payment of their dues) but the Secretary-General does have much greater scope for action in employing women in the Secretariat's senior level. Some progress has been made of late but much more could be done.

Peacekeeping operations

"Peacekeeping" is not referred to in the UN Charter. It has been an ad hoc measure that the UN devised to cope with the Cold War's freezing of the procedure that is laid down in the Charter.

Generals always prepare to fight the last war - and diplomats design methods to avoid having to fight the last war. The ghost of Hitler (who had died only two months before the 1945 San Francisco conference which finalised the UN Charter) underpins the original vision for the Security Council. If, the reasoning went, enough countries had worked together in the League of Nations, then Hitler would have been deterred from his aggressive foreign policy. Consequently, the League's successor, the UN, was given - on paper - immense power.

All UN member-nations agree to be bound by Security Council resolutions (the only part of the UN system with such power) and all member-nations "shall hold immediately available" defence forces to be deployed as required by the Security Council (Article 45). A Military Staff Committee was created, drawn from the representatives of the Chiefs of Staff of the five permanent members (US, USSR/Russia, UK, France and China), to co-ordinate the military operations.

Because of the Cold War, this elaborate system was never used. Instead, there evolved an ad hoc system of peacekeeping for intervention in disputes where the two super powers agreed not to intervene if the other also agreed not to intervene. Instead of the five permanent members (P5) controlling the UN's military work, peacekeeping almost always avoided any involvement of the P5.

The ending of the Cold War saw a great increase in the UN's peacekeeping work. The UN is now mounting more peacekeeping operations than at any other time in its history. But the UN Charter's elaborate Military Staff Committee system is still not being used in the way it was designed to be.

Meanwhile, there is a sense of combat fatigue. Governments are reluctant to commit troops to UN operations in case they get killed. The US, for example, has gone from the Cold War to cold feet. It is highly selective as to where its commits its troops. It is, for example, most reluctant to commit troops to any operation in Africa.

Therefore, to assist with the implementation of the UN Charter, there could be a standing force drawn from the defence forces of countries around the world, to be ready for instant deployment. The UN could create a training centre for senior military officers who are on stand-by for UN operations; the centre would help standardise procedures and equipment, and provide training in conflict resolution techniques.

The perpetual problem of financing operations could be addressed by governments paying for UN operations out of their respective defence budgets rather than the foreign affairs one (since the former are always much larger than the latter).

Additionally, there could be greater recourse to arbitration and mediation as a way of settling disputes. Also, greater resources devoted to human development could reduce some of the causes of conflict: prevention is better than peacekeeping.

Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice