The UN Dealing with Conflict Post-Cold War Era

Analyse the Strengths and Weaknesses of the International System (The UN) In Dealing with Conflicts since the End of the Cold War

Introduction

Since the end of the Cold War, international systems including the UN and NATO have taken new measures to combat conflicts in the 21st century since the period has seen a rapid decline in traditional interstate conflicts and rise in international disputes. In the post-cold war era, there has been an increase in international conflicts especially between countries that just made independence. Another main trend in the post-cold war era includes the increasing threats of terrorism, development of weapons of mass destruction, interstate conflicts, and politically motivated conflicts, especially in the Middle East (Cox, M. 2014,74). The UN Security Council (UNSC) as part of the broader UN international organisation has been mandated to manage conflict in the post-cold war era and is responsible for solving the current disputes, emerging and future security threats.    

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Example of the recent post-cold war conflicts that have resulted in civil wars includes conflict in Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Liberia, Haiti, and Sudan. To perform their conflict management, the UN requires considerable resources to improve security measures and oversee the consolidation of peace after conflicts (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). However, even though the UN has been keen in dealing with disputes there are many challenges and weaknesses of the international organisation in achieving that objective such as the growth of criminal groups such as ISIS, extremists and other spoilers that continue to kill thousands of people globally (Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). The essay will analyse the strengths and weakness of the international system, The UN, in dealing with conflicts since the end of the cold war.

Today, there exists a lot of debate whether the UN as an international organisation is great in dealing with conflicts post-cold war era such as emerging terrorism acts, civil wars and political related conflicts. For instance, the UN runs campaigns to abolish and deter recruitment of people in extremists groups such as ISIS in the Middle East or Al-Shabaab in East Africa. The UN has made steps in running campaigns to stop the recruitment of child soldiers to fight and create civil wars (Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). The UN have changed their security approach and ways of dealing with conflicts in post-cold war era since the 21st century possess different security changes as the improvement in technology have improved the techniques and tactics of terrorist to cause war (Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). A lot of research is done to access the strengths and weaknesses of the UN in dealing with conflict in the 21st century, since the end of the cold war and the different changes and challenges they have faced in progress. There are also recommendations on how the UN should adopt to improve the effectiveness in dealing with conflicts and manage peace in the world. This paper assesses the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the UN in dealing with conflict post-cold war era and offers recommendations on how to improve their conflict management.

Strengths of the UN in dealing with Conflict Post-Cold War Era.

Since the end of the cold war, the UN has always been on the lookout to improve their strategies and approach to deal with emerging security threats in the 21st century. Traditionally, the UN has measures put in place that can handle interstate conflicts and level security. However, in the 21st century, the UN is experienced multiple and different kinds of security threats that are not just interstate level security threats and require more resources, technology, and strategies to combat (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). Due to this changing nature of the conflict in the modern era, the UN has successfully implemented measures that counter security threats involving actions of social groups, individuals, religious and companies. First, the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the resolutions numbers 1540 and 1373 have created international laws against financing terrorism and unauthorised trade of ownership of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). This is one of the strengths of the UN in dealing with international conflicts in the post-cold war era, which ensures extremist groups do not have access to weapons of mass destructions such as nuclear power, submarines, and tanks.

These universal laws ensure the UN can take actions against individuals and companies who are perpetrating actions that can cause mass destruction and loss of lives when applied by states and nations. The UN applied this universal law to deal with conflict in the significant post-cold war attacks, the 9/11 attack where it proved to be a game changer and opened up the role of the UN in maintaining peace after conflict (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). The 9/11 attacks in the United States of America contributed to unprecedented resolve and in the UNSC use the universal law to press charges against the perpetrators of the act. Also, the UN invoked a legal resolution article 51 against al-Qaeda, and it was the first time the UN invoked against a non-state entity (Cox, M. 2014, 74). The United Nations Security Council effectively invoked against the terrorist group, which made sure the security threat, is taken to the heart of the individual extremist group unlike before the cold war ended.

The intervention of the UN allowed the United States to invade Afghanistan on a mission to eradicate al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama Bin Laden. Since then, no other major terrorist attacks have occurred in the United States soil, which shows that the UN successfully implemented measures that improved the way of dealing with conflict in the post-cold war era (Weiss, T. and Kamran, 2009, 70). Also, on September 28, 2001, the UN implemented another resolution number 1373 that included the mandate of imposing binding obligations on every member nation, enhance legislation, and increase global cooperation in fighting terrorism and improving security in the borders (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). Moreover, in 2004, the UN adopted a resolution that required all member states to participate and assist in preventing and fighting the development of weapons of mass destruction, which have helped in reducing the international threats of nuclear power.

Furthermore, the continent of Africa has for a long time being in the receiving end of numerous cases of mass loss of lives resulting from tribal wars and political conflicts especially Liberia, Rwanda, Congo, and Libya. After the cold war, towards the end of the 20th century, the Rwanda Genocide was a learning lesson for the United Nations Security Council to implement new tactics of dealing with modern conflicts influenced by tribal wars and civil unrest (Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). The UN helped deal with the conflict in Sudan conflict where it split into two after years of political tension and loss of many lives. The Sudan conflict was conducted by Janjaweed terror group that would rape, torture and murder civilians, burn property, pollute water sources and at the end of the genocide, more than 450,000 civilians died and other 2.5million civilians injured and displaced(Pashakhanlou, A. 2014, 300). The UN interviewed in the Sudanese conflict and played a major role in initialising truce that leads to peace and the born of South Sudan in 2011. This is another strength of the UN in dealing with conflict in the 21st century through negotiation and realising peace after the conflict in nations.

Also, another effort of the UN in dealing with conflict since the end of the cold war is ending Somali crisis and Somali piracy in East Africa. At the beginning of the 21st century, Somali piracy was a major security threat in East Africa for neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The pirates hijacked 49 ships in 2010, which lead to a security breach in the trading routes, loss of life, increasing the cost of security premiums and negatively affected tourism and travel, which is a major economic boost of the east African nations (Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). The security worsened with the growth of al Qaeda terror group link Al Shabab that continue to perpetrate terrorist acts in Kenya and Somalia and the unstable government in Somali made it possible for pirates and militia groups to thrive.

The United Nations have embraced three types of operations that have helped them deal with conflict since the end of the cold war. First, collective security: enforcement is a strategy the UN has embraced which ensures member states do not use force against other member states but rather uphold collective security where member states assist each other in fighting security threats from extremist groups, individuals and companies(Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). The next measures implemented by the United Nations are the consensual security through peaceful settlement of disputes. One of the key functions of the UN is to settle disputes using diplomatic negotiations and peacekeeping missions among member states and international conflicts. In this plan, the UN requires all member states to participate in consensual security to provide operational measures aimed at fighting terrorism, civil war and interstate conflicts around the world.

Another strength of the UN in dealing with conflict and achieving peace is with front offices usually undertaken by the UN secretary general and their representatives. For example, in 1998, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan helped to settle the dispute over arms inspection in Iraq (Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). The UN also conducts an investigation to help find resolutions that work for both states to achieve peace and avoid bloodshed and loss of lives. Another measure used by the UN in dealing with conflict in the 21st century is through peacekeeping in nations prone to wars and civil conflicts

Weaknesses of the UN in dealing with Conflicts since the end of Cold War

The UN deals with conflicts through active peacekeeping, negotiations, and international mediation. However, the UN has significant weaknesses in stopping conflict using active measures, which have led to many people losing faith in the UN especially after failing to stop the Rwandan Genocide, Somalia conflict, Darfur and Syria civil war, which have to loss of many lives and property (Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). The UN fails to intervene or intervene when it is too late which raises the alarm of their effectiveness in dealing with conflicts post-cold war era. In the onset of the 21st century, the UN failed to intervene on the Darfur war, and it made serious mistakes and failure in handling the Rwandan conflict towards the end of the 20th century. The main challenge of the UN in dealing with conflict in the modern era is the growing disparity between the capacity of the United Nations Security Council and the demands of international peace and security, which make the UN, be ineffective (Weiss, T. and Kamran, 2009, 70). As of 2015, the UN is overseeing more than 17 field operations throughout the globe, which is asserting some strains in the UN, and lack of enough funds and resources to handle all the conflicts in the world is one of its major weakness.

Also, the United Nations Charters argues that all member states should avail their security forces in aiding the United Nations to deal with security concerns and conflicts, which have not been forthcoming, all the cases (Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). The UN is facing a major challenge in protecting their people and the national interest in the continuous fight against terrorism especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is a weakness in achieving the target peacekeeping missions and dealing with international conflicts. Another weakness of the UN in fighting conflict is the limited means and qualified personnel in African and Middle East to effectively manage conflict and realise conflicts(Cox, M. 2014,74). The weakness is further worsened by the challenge of meeting the demand of recruitment and training of security personnel and thousands of police officers and civilian staff with expertise in conflict resolution and management. Another challenge of the international system in dealing with conflict is the budgeting of expanding peacekeeping operations in different parts of the world.

Furthermore, another major weakness of the UN in dealing with conflicts since the end of the cold war is the poor leadership exhibited by UN officials in certain missions such as the Darfur mission where they failed to combat the war. The UN argues that the joint mission with the African Union, AU and the UN officials was full of conflicting roles and poor leadership that led to mistakes in decision making and this led to the loss of many lives and destruction of property (Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). Also, in the Darfur mission, the UN exhibited lack of cooperation and poorly equipped peacekeepers that failed in realising peace in Darfur at the recommended time. The weakness of the UN to coordinate a successful, well-coordinated and organised a mission in Darfur led to many people questioning the effectiveness of the UN in dealing with conflict post-world war era.

These weaknesses are costly in nature since they mean the death of many innocent people as a result of civil war, terrorism by extremist groups or tribal conflicts that destroys property and way of life of people that take years to reconstruct. Humanitarian efforts is another goal of the United mandated after the end of the civil war to aid countries in the war to rebuild quickly and that displaced people are settled(Weiss, T. and Kamran, 2009, 70). In the case of the Darfur mission, humanitarian provision was absent, and the UN delayed to intervene worsening the outcome of the conflict (Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). Moreover, another major ineffectiveness in the operations of the UN in dealing with conflict was exhibited in Syrian conflict where the UN failure to end the conflict for many years. The UNSC appears to lack any proper plan and strategies to end the conflict in Syria and achieve peace as one of their primary goals.

NATO Neorealism and Effectiveness in dealing with conflict since the end of the Cold War

Defensive neorealism established by Kenneth Waltz does not fully explain the international relations since the end of the cold war since it does not account entirely for state actions. According to Waltz theory, the theory of international politics contains neorealism where different nations in the world are defined by anarchy and are security maximisers. Countries use this theory to defend their borders and minimise threats from other states (Rittberger, V. et al. 2012, 56). According to Waltz, great powers is obtained by balancing the powers of the international stage by ensuring other nations do not grow more powerful to threaten their survival. In the United States, NATO plays a key role in dealing with conflicts since the end of the cold war and sometimes collaborates with the United Nations to bring peace to war nations(Cox, M. 2014,74). The United States is a perfect example of a nation that implements the Kenneth Waltz theory of great power by ensuring other nations do not develop nuclear power that can lead to the creation of weapons of mass destruction that can threaten the survival of Americans.

This theory also explains why the United States and the soviet union constantly argued to maintain the great power, and the collapse of the USSR left the United States as the only superpower with high nuclear capabilities. After the end of the cold war, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gained more strength to continue balancing the international powers and deal with conflicts since the United States pursued a policy of engagement and enlargement. NATO have entangled with the UN in peacekeeping missions in nations experiencing wars such as Bosnia and international conflicts such as the involvement in the Iraq invasion(Keohane and Nye, 1977, 8). Also, another strength of NATO in dealing with conflicts is the universal acclamation by the European Union to pursue regional integration, and NATO plays a significant role in conflict resolution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the international organisation including the UN and NATO have taken significant measures to improve how they deal with conflicts and achieve peace since the end of the cold war. The main change that has occurred in the post-cold war era is the decrease in the traditional interstate conflict and rise in international conflicts, civil wars, terrorism from individuals and extremist groups. The UN had to change their strategies to keep up with the emerging threats and deal with the conflict. The main strengths of the UN in dealing with conflict is the huge resources they have, well trained military personnel, assistance from the state, universal laws and the balance of support from NATO to realise peacekeeping in the war tone areas. On the other hand, the main weakness of the UN in dealing with conflicts is the failure to intervene or late intervention, which leads to loss of many lives and destruction of property, poor leadership, lack of cooperation and challenges in training military and civilian personnel in conflict management and resolution. Since the end of the cold war, the UN has collaborated with NATO to bring changes in the international organization and conflict but need more reforms to be effective in the 21st-century conflicts and wars.

References

• Cox, M., 2014. From the end of the cold war to a new global era?. John Baylis, Steve Smith & Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics. An Introduction to International Relations, Oxford University Press, 6de druk, pp.73-74.
• Keohane, R.O. and Nye, J.S., 1977. Power and interdependence (pp. 8-9).
• Pashakhanlou, A.H., 2014. Waltz, Mearsheimer and the post-Cold War world: The rise of America and the fall of structural realism. International Politics, 51(3), pp.295-315.
• Rittberger, V., Zangl, B. and Kruck, A., 2012. International organization. Macmillan International Higher Education.
• Weiss, T.G. and Kamran, A.Z., 2009. global governance as international organization. In Palgrave Advances in Global Governance (pp. 66-86). Palgrave Macmillan, London.