Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

In the half century since its founding in 1945, the U.N. has been a central institution in the conduct of international relations. For the first time in human history, the world has come to consist of nominally sovereign states; almost all of them are members of one world organization and subscribe to one single set of principles--those of the U.N. charter. Yet, despite the elements of uniqueness, especially in the area of global security, international security remains anarchical in the Gulf crisis of 1990-1991 (Roberts & Kingsbury, 1993, pp. 1-5).

The overwhelming majority of wars since 1945 have been fought among Third World countries. In a large number of cases, the great powers were involved on opposite sides of these conflicts. Yet, because of the absence of any kind of collective security machinery, the U.N. has been unable to act to deter or resolve these conflicts.

Recent history shows that too many conflicts get out of hand, and too often the termination of certain forms of conflict resolution, e.g. by a cease fire agreement, are not accompanied by a significant reduction of hostile attitudes o

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n two different ways of approaching a conflict: It may take a neutral stance, not favoring one or the other party, or it may take sides, supporting one party against the other. If it chooses the first alternative, it will try and induce the opposing parties to accept a compromising solution, but its influence with the parties is easily lost if the organization is perceived as biased. If the second option is preferred, the idea is usually to achieve settlement by victory or at least to prevent the defeat of a client. According to Article 41, the Security Council may "take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security." The choice between the two types may be very difficult. The U.N. has on some occasions responded to this moral dilemma by introducing a certain division of labor among its various organs, the Secretary-General performing goodwill missions, and the General Assembly adopting either condemnatory and/or prescriptive resolutions. The period after 1956, when the UNEF I (U.N. Emergency Force I) was first deployed in the Israel-Egypt border war, until the mid- to late-1980s was characterized by peacekeeping management in a wide variety of types of
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Approximate Word count = 1370
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)