Chapter 5 Summary: Security, Essay Example

Security is a wide and varied term perceived differently by different people. International security therefore takes a broader perspective as perceived by international organizations. It forms the central concern of such organizations which are left to gauge and decipher on different aspects of security. According to such international organizations, there is no such thing as the balance-of-power since this is prone to outright failure. Security in itself draws our attention to war. Traditionally, security was only used to refer to that of the state. However, there has been a departure from this to mean human security.

The United Nations is endowed with the sole responsibility of maintaining international peace and security, thus giving the international organization a feasible ground for investment in the foreign countries. The United Nations was coined after the World War II to avert the happenings that were seen before and during the war. It was mainly the brainchild of the United Kingdom, United States and the USSR. These nations had sort to strike a balance between the status-quo in the sovereign nations and the establishment of international peace and stability while observing the rules of governance in the member states.  Its sole mandate was to maintain international peace and security in the future or aftermath.

Article 24 of the United Nations charter is of particular importance as it gives the Security Council the responsibility of responding to war as well as preventing war in the member states. It is for this reason that whenever there is instability in a member state, the United Nation through the Security Council sends peace keepers to watch the situation closely with a view of preventing further escalation of insecurity. This way, the United Nations averts international instability and promotes global peace initiatives.

Permanent members of the Security Council have an absolute say or absolute veto. This implies that their decisions regarding the security situation in a member country is final. Therefore, the decision making process of the Security Council is highly informed by reliable sources. It is therefore a decision making body that bears close political pragmatism.

There is one personnel whose role is so complex and diverse in the United Nations. This is the Secretary General. The Secretary General is a reputable UN diplomat and chairs the Secretariat. It is the responsibility of the Secretariat to ensure that the UN policies are observed and programs implemented according to plan. The Secretary General must never be biased in carrying out his activities within the United Nations Secretariat.

Perhaps the most imperative role played by the Secretary General is that of identifying risks or threats to international peace and stability. The Secretary General subsequently tries to resolve such conflicts before any escalation, thus maintaining international peace and stability. Therefore, his role is a crucial role and the Secretary General must always be a big brother to the other international permanent members of the United Nations. The current Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon is mandated to watch out for any threat to international peace and stability and invoke talks or diplomacy so as to avert the escalation of these risks. His role is therefore more of a diplomatic nature that administrative. He thus ensures that he continually involves peace building and peace keeping strategies as part of maintaining the overall human security.

A look at the Iraq-Kuwait war is indeed a classical study in which the Secretary General aided in negotiating a truce between the two warring nations. The Secretary General was mandated with identifying the cause of the conflict and therefore acting as a mediator in negotiating a truce between Iraq and Kuwait. Oil was the main contention and he had therefore to find an amicable way of dealing with this conflict. The United Nations Security Council was however firm and stern and condemned the use of force by Iraqi, thereby requesting that the Iraqi forces withdraw with immediate effect from Kuwait.

Iraq did not bow to these demands until the United Nations Security Council passed economic sanctions on it in August 1990. Later in the same month, the UN Security Council authorized the use of force in order to flush out Iraqi forces from Kuwait after the economic sanctions didn’t work immediately. The UN Charter allows the use of force as a self defense mechanism. This is a method that worked during the reaction by the UN Security Council of the Northern Korean invasion to South Korea.

In addition, Cold War is a method that the UN Security Council largely employs in implementing its economic sanctions to defiant member states. It is therefore the responsibility of International Organizations such as the United Nations to ensure international peace and stability. In doing this, the UN gathers intelligence and employs several tactics including economic sanctions and Cold War. The last resort that is permitted by the UN Charter is the use of force, which is carried out through the peace keeping and peace building forces drawn from the UN army.