Exploiting the Recent Revival of the United Nations
| Date | 01 May 1989 |
| Author | Frederick Lister |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788900900504 |
| Published date | 01 May 1989 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
419
EXPLOITING
THE
RECENT
REVIVAL
OF
THE
UNITED
NATIONS
Frederick
Lister
Over
the
past
year,
the
United
Nations,
long
written
off
by
many
as
useless
or
worse,
has
re-emerged
in
the
international
limelight.
Its
patient
mediation
has
culminated
in
the
Iran-Iraq
ceasefire
and
at
least
a
temporary
ending
of
the
bloodiest
confrontation
since
World
War
II.
Even
if
the
ceasefire
is
not
fol-
lowed
by
a
full-scale
peace
settlement,
it
seems
unlikely
that
the
exhausted
contenders
will
return
to
the
battlefield
in
the
near
future.
The
United Nations
has
also
demonstrated
its
value
in
other
trouble
spots,
for
example
in
Afghanistan,
in
the
long-smouldering
Western
Sahara,
in
Namibia,
and
the
list
may
soon
be
lengthened
to
include
Cambodia.
Why
has
this
long-
moribund
body
suddenly
shown
such
vitality?
Might
not
a
clearer
under-
standing
of
its
potential
(and
of
the
limitations
of
that
potential)
enable
national
leaders
to
use.it
increasingly
to
defang
other
serious
international
problems?
The
world
should
have
learned
since
1945
that
certain
approaches
often
work
well
for
the
United
Nations,
while
others
are
almost
always
counter-
productive.
Obviously,
it
would
make
sense
for
the
Organization
to
focus
on
the
former
and
to
steer
clear
of
the
latter.
On
the
positive
side,
the
United
Nations
has
long
played
a
useful
part
in
the
realm
where
its
potential
has
been
disparaged
for
so
long -
that
of
international
peace
and
security.
Its
services
in
three
confrontations
between
the
superpowers
may
be
cited
in
this
connexion.
For
example,
as
soon
as
the
1962
Cuban
missile
crisis
erupted,
Secretary-General
U
Thant
addressed
iden-
tical
letters
to
President
Kennedy
and
Chairman
Khrushchev
asking
the
for-
mer
to
suspend
the
quarantine
measures
against
Cuba
and
the
latter
to
suspend
all
arms
shipments
to
Cuba.
It
so
happened
that
the
request
provided
a
conven-
ient
pretext
for
Khrushchev
to
stop
his
arms-laden
ships
headed
for
Cuba,
and
this
step
proved
a
key
factor
in
providing
the
time
needed
for
the
crisis
to
be
peacefully
resolved.
In
the
crucial
negotiations
that
followed
in
which
the
United
Nations
was
not
involved,
it
was
agreed,
inter
alia,
that
the
world
organization
would
monitor
the
withdrawal
of
the
Soviet
missiles
already
in
Cuba.
Although
Prime
Minister
Castro
later
vetoed
this
arrangement,
it
had
already
contributed
to
defusing
the
crisis.
Thus,
in
these
two
ways,
the
United
Nations
had
a
tangential
yet
significant
role
in
staving
off
armed
conflict
between
the
superpowers.’
1
Eleven
years
later,
at
the
end
of
the
Yom
Kippur
war
between
Egypt
and
Israel,
the
superpowers
again
found
themselves
in
the
midst
of
an
unwanted
confrontation.
The
Israelis
had
overwhelmed
the
Egyptian
forces
that
had
attacked
them
and
were
threatening
to
annihilate
those
forces.
The
Soviets
declared
that
they
had
to
come
to
the
aid
of
their
Egyptian
client,
if
necessary
by
flying
in
their
own
forces.
The
Americans
took
the
position
that
they
could
1
U
Thant.
View from
the
United Nations
(Garden
City,
NY:
Doubleday,
1978),
pp.
154-94;
Seymour
Maxwell
Finger,
American
Ambassadors at
the
United
Nations,
(New
York:
Holmes
and
Meier,
1988),
pp.
121-2;
Sir
Brian
Urquhart, A
Life
in
Peace
and
War
(New
York:
Harper
&
Row,
1987), pp.
192-3.
420
not
allow
this,
even
though
they
were
invited
by
the
Soviets
to
join
them.
That
this
second,
less
celebrated
crisis
was
nearly
as
serious
as
the
first
is
shown
by
the
massive
Soviet
troop
movements
actually
underway
and
the
declaration
by
the
United
States
of
the
highest
state
of
emergency
in
peacetime.
The
United
Nations
was
able
to
resolve
this
stand-off
by
the
simple
expedient
of
quickly
interposing
units
from
its
international
peace-keeping
force
already
in
Cyprus,
thus
saving
face
all
around.2
More
recently,
the
United
Nations
has
played
a
central
part
in
resolving
the
less
tense
but
prolonged
superpower
confrontation
over
Afghanistan.
After
years
of
efforts
by
a
UN
negotiator,
the
moment
came
when
the
parties
were
ready
for
serious
negotiations,
and
the
talks
soon
produced
signed
agreements.3
The
United
Nations
used
a
variety
of
approaches
in
these
three
cases:
writ-
ten
pleas
to
the
principals
and
simple
availability
(Cuban
missile
crisis);
patient
mediation
(Afghanistan);
and
the
interposition
of
a
peace-keeping
force
(Egypt/Israel).
It
should
be
noted
that
in
none
of
these
situations
did
the
Security
Council
act
alone.
The
Secretariat’s
quiet
negotiations
proceeding
along
lines
tacitly
or
openly
set
by
the
Council
were
equally
essential
to
the
favourable
impact.
The
United
Nations
and
its
specialized
agencies
have
also
shown
that
they
can
be
useful
in
many
less
dramatic
situations.
They
have
become
centres
for
consensus-building
and
for
concerting
the
actions
of
their
members
on
the
basis
of
broad
agreements.
For
example,
many
multilateral
treaties
have
been
con-
cluded
under
their
auspices
in
such
domains
as
outer
space,
the
law
of
the
sea,
narcotic
drug
control
and
terrorism.
All
of
these
treaties
are
based
on
a
large
measure
of
world-wide
consensus
and
require
those
party
to
them,
usually
most
of
their
member
states,
to
act
in
certain
pre-agreed
ways.
The
most
recent
example
of
this
process
at
work
is
the
Protocol -
ratified
unanimously
by
the
US
Senate -
providing
for
world-wide
co-operation
to
counter
the
alarming
depletion
of
the
ozone
layer
that
protects
us
against
the
sun’s
ultraviolet
rays.4
This
success
may
pave
the
way
for
further
pacts
dealing
with
other
environ-
mental
problems
such
as
the
’greenhouse
effect’
and
acid
rain.
Indeed,
the
stakes
for
humanity
in
finding
ways
to
deal
effectively
with
key
environmental
problems
may
be
about
as
high
as
they
are
in
the
realm
of
world
peace.
Finally,
the
United
Nations
and
its
specialized
agencies
have
also
demon-
strated
that
they
can
often
provide
useful
services
that
go
beyond
workaday
reporting
and
data-gathering.
These
include
neutral
peace-keeping
and
truce
supervision
forces
and
practical
assistance
to
vulnerable
groups
such
as
chil-
dren
and
refugees
and
to
poverty-ridden
countries.
By
far
the
largest
part
of
the
money
spent
on
UN
services
goes
for
activities
of
this
kind
that
command
almost
universal
support.
Thus,
the
United
Nations
is
at
its
best
when
it
serves
as
the
agent
of
a
united
world
community
in
pursuing
agreed
and
clearly-defined
objectives
and
functions,
for
example
when
it
is
involved
in
preventing
the
outbreak
of
wars,
when
it
is
promoting
consensus-building
among
its
member
states,
and
when
it
2
Finger,
op.cit.,
pp.
228-9;
Urquhart,
op.cit.,
pp.
236-43.
3
Contrasting
accounts
of
these
negotiations
will
be
found
in
Rosanne
Klass,
’Afghanistan:
The
Accords’,
Foreign Affairs,
66
(Summer
1988),
pp.
922-45,
and
Selig
S.
Harrison,
’Inside
the
Afghan
Talks’,.
Foreign
Policy,
72
(Fall
1988),
pp.
31-60.
4
Montreal
Protocol
on
Substances
that
Deplete
the
Ozone
Layer
and
Final
Act,
1987,
published
by
the
UN
Environment
Programme
in
document
Na.
87-6106.
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