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Peace Forces and the Veto: The Relevance of Consent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Mona Harrington Gagnon
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Extract

The great hope for United Nations peace forces is that they may become a ready means of pacifying small wars in underdeveloped areas—civil wars and border quarrels which inevitably will flare up out of the tensions of national development—in order to keep violence and the issues behind it from spreading beyond local bounds. The nightmare of Vietnam as well as the recent eruption in the Middle East bear out the awful truth that a conflict without great international significance, if unsolved and uncontrolled too long, can easily become a stake in big-power politics, producing even at best a rising level of international tension and at worst a terrifying increase in the level of violence. Crucial to the preservation of peace, then, is the settlement of small conflicts before they get bigger. This is not because the danger to peace comes, as it did in the 1930's, from an aggressor with an insatiable appetite which has to be stopped before it gets too strong but because each of the Great Powers, the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and, increasingly, the People's Republic of China, is concerned that the others may take advantage of local conflict to extend their influence into the disturbed area. Therefore, even disputes of no great concern to any of them are indirectly a concern to all. The strengths of the Great Powers are so delicately balanced, the stakes of the competition so great, and the war potential of each so fearful that none is willing to allow another any new advantage.

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Articles
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International Organization , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Fall 1967 , pp. 812 - 836
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1967

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References

1 Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Charter), Advisory Opinion of July 20, 1962: I.C.J. Reports 1962 (hereinafter cited as Certain Expenses of the United Nations).

2 The agreement to drop the issue is contained in the second report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (UN Document A/5916 and Add.1). The General Assembly accepted the report at its 1331st plenary meeting, September 1, 1965. See General Assembly Official Records (19th session), 1331st plenary meeting, p. 1.

3 General Assembly Official Records … Special Political Committee (20th session), 438th meeting, pp. 1–4.

4 General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), November 3, 1950.

5 General Assembly Official Records … Special Political Committee (20th session), 465th meeting, p. 8.

6 General Assembly Resolution 2053 (XX).

7 UN Document A/AC.121/SR.22, p. II.

8 General Assembly Resolution 2220 (XXI), December 19, 1966; for the texts of the resolutions passed by the Special Political Committee see General Assembly Official Records … Annexes (21st session), Agenda item 33, pp. 14–20 (UN Document A/6603).

9 General Assembly Official Records … Annexes (5th special session), Agenda item 8 (UN Document A/6654).

10 General Assembly Resolution 2249 (S-V), May 23, 1967.

11 See generally the Secretary-General's report “Summary study of the experience derived from the establishment and operation of the [United Nations Emergency] Force” (UN Document A/3943) (hereinafter cited as “Summary study of UNEF”) in General Assembly Official Records … Annexes (13th session), Agenda item 65, pp. 8–33.

12 Certain Expenses of the United Nations, pp. 164–165.

13 General Assembly Official Records (1st emergency special session), 567th plenary meeting, November 7, 1956, pp. 127–128.

14 Frye, William R., A United Nations Peace Force (New York: Oceana Publications [prepared under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace], 1957), pp. 22–29Google Scholar. See also the discussion of the establishment of UNEF in the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work, of the Organization, 16 June 1956–15 June 1957 (General Assembly Official Records [12th session], Supplement No. 1).

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18 For statements by Hammarskjöld before the Security Council see Security Council Official Records (15th year), 884th meeting, August 8, 1960, pp. 4–5; and Security Council Official Records (15th year), 920th meeting, December 14, 1960, p. 19. The Security Council specifically invoked Articles 25 and 49 in its Resolution 146 (1960) of August 9, 1960 (originally adopted as Security Council Resolution S/4426).

19 See the second report of the Secretary-General on ONUC (UN Document S/4417) in Security Council Official Records (15th year), Supplement for July, August, and September 1960, pp. 48–49, paragraph 6; see also Bowett, pp. 181–182.

20 Security Council Official Records (15th year), 884th meeting, p. 3.

21 “Summary study of UNEF,” paragraph 23.

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23 For accounts of various working agreements between the two communities and the United Nations see The New York Times, April 20, 1964, p. 1; July 8, 1964, p. 1; September 26, 1964, p. 1; and September 27, 1964, p. 1.

24 For a summary of the criticisms generally made of the Secretary-General and the answers given by the United Nations see “Withdrawal of United Nations Emergency Force: Some Questions Answered,” UN Monthly Chronicle, 06 1967 (Vol. 4, No. 6), pp. 87–94Google Scholar.

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26 Report to the General Assembly (UN Document A/6730 and Add.1–3 and Add.3/Corr.1), paragraphs 35, 49.

27 Sohn, Louis B., “The Authority of the United Nations to Establish and Maintain a Permanent United Nations Force,” American Journal of International Law, 04 1958 (Vol. 52, No. 2), pp. 229, 239–240CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Rosner, Gabriella, The United Nations Emergency Force (Columbia University Studies in International Organization, No. 2) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), pp. 57–58Google Scholar.

28 “Aide-mémoire on the basis for the presence and functioning of the United Nations Emergency Force in Egypt” (UN Document A/3375, Annex) in General Assembly Official Records … Annexes ( 11 th session), Agenda item 66, pp. 9–10.

28 The New York Times, June 19, 1967, pp. 1, 12.

30 The New York Times, June 20, 1967. (For the United Arab Republic statement see p. 1; for the statement of the Secretary-General see p. 18.)

31 The New York Times, June 19, 1967, p. 12.

32 “Summary study of UNEF,” paragraphs 158–159. In keeping with this analysis Hammarskjöld used the UNEF good faith formula nearly verbatim in the basic agreement with the Congo government when ONUC was established in 1960. See UN Document S/438g/Add.5 in Security Council Official Records (15th year), Supplement for July, August, and September 1960, pp. 27–28.

33 The day before the request was made the Secretary-General protested the buildup of Arab troops in the buffer zone and included, without comment, a copy of the 1956 good faith agreement, but when the request arrived, he made no further protest on grounds of good faith (UN Document A/6669, paragraphs 2, 6/7). In fact, in the succeeding weeks he seemed to be arguing that the good faith agreement did not apply to the tasks of the Force assumed after the first few months of operation. See his statement on the release of Secretary-General Hammarskjöld‘s personal memorandum in The New York Times, June 20, 1967, p. 18; and his report to the General Assembly on the withdrawal of UNEF in UN Document A/6730 and Add.1–3 and Add.3/Corr.1, paragraphs 77–82.

34 “Report to the Secretary-General from the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Operation in the Congo” (UN Document S/5053/Add.13/Add.1) in Security Council Official Records (17th year), Supplement for October, November, and December 1962, pp. 141–142. For the text of the Secretary-General's Plan of National Reconciliation see UN Document S/5053/Add.13, Annex I (hereinafter cited as “Secretary-General's Plan of National Reconciliation”), in ibid., pp. 37–42.

35 UN Document A/5053/Add.13, Annexes IV, V, and V-a, in ibid., pp. 42–47.

36 “Special report dated 10 January 1963, addressed to the Secretary-General by Mr. Ralph J. Bunche, Under-Secretary for Special Political Affairs, on the subject of communication and co-ordination between United Nations and ONUC Headquarters, with specific reference to the Jadotville Operation” (UN Document S/5053/Add.14, Annex XXXIV) (hereinafter cited as “Bunche report”) in Security Council Official Records (18th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1963, pp. 53–59.

37 “Report to the Secretary-General from the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Operation in the Congo” (UN Document S/5053/Add.15) in ibid., p. 60, paragraph 2.

38 “Bunche report.”

39 Schachter, Oscar, “Preventing the Internationalization of Internal Conflict: A Legal Analysis of the U.N. Congo Experience,” Proceedings of the American Society of International Law, 57th annual meeting, Washington, 04 25–27, 1963, pp. 216, 222Google Scholar; Urquhart, Brian E., “United Nations Peace Forces and the Changing United Nations: An Institutional Perspective,” International Organization, Spring 1963 (Vol. 17, No. 2), pp. 338, 348CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 “Report to the Secretary-General from the Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Operation in the Congo: Comments by the Secretary-General” (UN Document S/5053/Add.11) in Security Council Official Records (17th year), Supplement for July, August, and September 1962, p. 13, paragraph 68.

41 “Secretary-General's Plan of National Reconciliation,” Course of action, Phase I, pp. 40–41, paragraph E.

42 For a close analysis of the relation between the mining companies and Katanga officials see Lemarchand, René, “The Limits of Self-Determination: The Case of the Katanga Secession,” American Political Science Review, 06 1962 (Vol. 56, No. 2), p. 404CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization 16 June 1961–15 June 1962 (General Assembly Official Records [17th session], Supplement No. 1A); and O'Brien, Conor Cruise, To Katanga and Back (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962), p. 98Google Scholar.

43 Security Council Resolution 161 (1961), February 21, 1961 (originally adopted as Security Council Resolution S/4741), in Security Council Official Records (16th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1961, pp. 147–148.

44 Security Council Resolution 169 (1961), November 24, 1961 (originally adopted as Security Council Resolution S/5002), in Security Council Official Records (16th year), Supplement for October, November, and December 1961, pp. 148–150.

45 For the unofficial report of the United Nations official in charge of the Elisabethville operation during the September fighting see O'Brien, p. 59; for the report of the Officer-in-Charge of ONUC to the Secretary-General see UN Document S/4940, paragraph 15, in Security Council Official Records (16th year), Supplement for July, August, and September 1961, p. 103.

46 UN Document S/4940/Add.16 in Security Council Official Records (16th year), Supplement for October, November, and December 1961, pp. 37–46.

47 For a discussion of the severity of the December 1961 fighting see the exchanges between the Belgian government and the Secretary-General in UN Document S/5025 in ibid., pp. 190–200; and UN Document S/5078 in Security Council Official Records (17th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1962, pp. 78–82. For a report on the December 1962 fighting see UN Document S/5053/ Add.14, Annex XXXI, and UN Document S/5053/Add.15 in Security Council Official Records (18th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1963, pp. 1–85.

48 UN Document S/5784, paragraph 139, in Security Council Official Records (19th year), Supplement for April, May, and June 1964, p. 291.

49 Security Council Resolution 186 (1964), March 4, 1964 (originally adopted as Security Council Resolution 8/5575), in Security Council Official Records (19th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1964, pp. 102–103.

50 “Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Cyprus” (UN Document S/6228) in Security Council Official Records (20th year), Supplement for January, February, and March 1965, p. III.

51 Ibid., pp. 130–131.

52 UN Document S/7001, paragraph 207.

53 In the Congo there was, of course, the additional role of aiding the government in the general maintenance of order in the chaos following the disintegration of the local security forces.