SECURITY COUNCIL'S POWER AND PRACTICE WITH REGARD TO MAINTENANCE OF

INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY IN POST-COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS: AN ANALYSIS

Introduction

The UNSC as one of the six prime Organs of the UN aims at maintaining Peace and
security.Apart from its role in recommending new members to the UN and providing
changes to the charter .Establishment of peacekeeping operations, enactment of
sanctions, and authorizing military action remains its other role.
Failure of the League of Nations led to the formation of the UN. The Security Council
consists of Fifteen members and 5 Permanent members which include
France,UK,US,Russia and China. Permanent members have the power to veto
resolutions, including those on the admission of new member states to the United
Nations or nominees for the office of secretary general. The other ten members are
elected on a regional basis for a term of two years. There is a monthly rotationship of
the presidency.
The enforcement mechanism of the UNSC is reliant on UN peacekeepers.UN has
had 71 peacekeeping operations since 1948 while the current strength is 12
peacekeeping operations.The fatalities in these operations have reached 4183.(as of
20 March 2022)1

The UNSC was severely affected by the cold war relations between the US and
USSR.UNEF(United nations emergency force) formed in november 1956 to counter
Suez Crisis became the precursor for the template followed by the UN in its
intervention at global conflicts however as ironic as it may seem UN failed to
intervene in USSRs invasion of Hungary.
The worst effect of this rivalry during the cold war was borne by UNSC’s military staff
committee(Article 45-47 of UN charter) 2

Post-Cold War(1989-2006)

Post the breakup of USSR ,UNSC has become a major participant in addressing civil
wars.Out of the 44 civil wars which broke out in this 17 year period,UN was a
participant in 27.The seventeen ignored wars indicate the mandate’s
limitation3arising largely from its own charter.

1
https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/data
2
Kennedy, Paul (2006). The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations. New
York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50165-4.

3
Charter of the United Nations, Chapters VI and VII.
The UN Charter has a prominent role for regional arrangements,most of which have
become active only after the cold war.4Regional organizations enjoy advantages over
the United Nations in engaging in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding.

In 2005, the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) was successful in facilitating an end
to the long civil war in Aceh, Indonesia. Oftentimes the African regional bodies have
in a similar manner managed through the sense of regional and local ownership to
legitimize the process involved in times of crisis.5

4
Charter of the United Nations, Chapter VIII; Jane Boulden, ed., Dealing with Conflict in Africa: The
United Nations and Regional Organizations (Gordonsville, VA: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

5
John Hirsch, Christoph Mikulaschek, and Pim Valdre, rapporteurs, “Coping with Crisis in Africa:
Strengthening Multilateral Capacity for Peace and Security” (New York: International Peace Institute,
November 2008).