The United Nations: Reality and Ideal

Also by Peter R. Baehr and Leon Gordenker

The United Nations at the End of the 1990s

De Vereinigde Naties: Ideaal en Werkelijkheid

Also by Peter R. Baehr

The Role of Human Rights in Foreign Policy (with Monique Castermans-Holleman)

Human Rights in the Foreign Policy of the Netherlands (with MoniqueCastermans-Holleman and Fred Grünfeld)

Human Rights: Universality in Practice

Innovation and Inspiration: Fifty Years of the Universal Declaration of HumanRights (editor with Cees Flinterman and Mignon Senders)

De Rechten van de Mens: Universaliteit in de Praktijk

Human Rights: Chinese and Dutch Perspectives (editor with Fried van Hoof, Liu Nanlai and Tao Zhenghua)

The Netherlands and the United Nations: Selected Issues (editor with MoniqueCastermans-Holleman)

Mensenrechten: Bestanddeel van het Buitenlands Beleid

Policy Analysis and Policy Innovation (editor with Björn Wittrock)

Also by Leon Gordenker

The UN Secretary-General and Secretariat

NGOs, the UN and Global Governance (editor with T.G. Weiss)

International Cooperation in Response to Aids (with others)

The Challenging Role of the UN Secretary-General (editor with Benjamin Rivlin)

Soldiers, Peacekeepers and Disasters (editor with T.G. Weiss)

Refugees in International Politics

The United Nations Secretary-General and the Maintenance of Peace

The United Nations: Realityand Ideal

Peter R. Baehrand Leon GordenkerFourth Edition

© Peter R. Baehr and Leon Gordenker 1992, 1994, 1999, 2005

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First Edition (The United Nations in the 1990s) 1992Second Edition (The United Nations in the 1990s) 1994Third Edition (The United Nations at the end of the 1990s) 1999First published 2005 byPALGRAVE MACMILLANHoundmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010Companies and representatives throughout the world

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries.

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 4th edition 2005 978-1-4039-4904-2

ISBN 978-1-4039-4905-9 ISBN 978-0-230-50109-6 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/9780230501096

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fullymanaged and sustained forest sources.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBaehr, P. R. (Peter R.)

The United Nations : reality and ideal / Peter R. Baehr and LeonGordenker.–4th ed.

p. cm.Rev. ed. of: The United Nation at the end of the 1990s. 3rd ed. New York :

St. Martin’s Press, 1999.Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. United Nations. I. Gordenker, Leon, 1923– II. Baehr, P. R. (Peter R.).United Nations at the end of the 1990s. III. Title.

JZ4984.5.B34 2005 2005046333341.23–dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 114 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

Transferred to Digital Printing in 2011

To the memory ofBelia Emilie Gordenker-Strootman

Felix Baehr

Contents

List of Tables x

Preface to the Fourth Edition xi

Preface to the Third Edition xii

Preface to the Second Edition xiii

Preface xiv

List of Abbreviations xvii

1. Introduction 1Independent states 1Interdependent societies 2International law 3Reforming world politics 4Conferences and decisions 6Functional cooperation in the 19th century 7The Concert of Europe 9The Hague Peace Conferences 10The League of Nations 10World War II and the UN 14The San Francisco Conference 17

2. Charter and Structure of the United Nations 19Close relatives 20The General Assembly 22The Security Council 24The Economic and Social Council 25The Trusteeship Council 26The International Court of Justice 27The Secretariat 29Cluster of UN agencies 33Organizational tension 35

3. Membership and Decision-making 42Chinese representation 43Divided states 43Ministates 44

vi

Weighted voting 45Decision-making processes 46Fundamental changes 48Voting groups 48Groups and voting positions 51The political significance of resolutions 52Slow decision-making 55Finances 56U.S. debt to UN 58

4. The Maintenance of Peace and Security 61Pacific settlement of disputes 62Coercive measures 64Practical use of Charter concepts 67

Israel and neighbors 67Cyprus 68Congo 69

New style peace operations 69Namibia 69Cambodia 71

Collective coercive measures 72Korea 72Iraq and the attack on Kuwait 73After Iraq I 78

Terror attacks on the United States 79Iraq II 79Frustrations in Middle East 81Uniting for peace 82Hybrid forms of peace-keeping 84

Somalia 84Yugoslavia 85Rwanda 88Haiti 89Central America 90

Second thoughts on peace-keeping 90Limits and potentials in maintaining peace 92Arms control and weapons of mass destruction 94

Non-proliferation 96Ban on nuclear testing 96Demilitarized and nuclear-free zone 97Chemical and biological weapons 97

Conclusion 98

Contents vii

5. Human Rights and Decolonization 100The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 103The international covenants for human rights 106Other human rights activities 110High Commissioner for Human Rights 112The Israeli-Occupied Territories 113Specialized Agencies 113The International Criminal Court 114The right of self-determination 114Declaration on non-self-governing territories 115The Trusteeship System 116Declaration on Granting of Independence 116The imposition of economic sanctions 117East Timor (Timor Leste) 118Remaining colonial issues 118Apartheid 119Conclusion 121

6. Cooperation for Economic and Social Progress 125Global conferences 126Economic and social data 128Reduction of poverty 129

Technical assistance 130UN Population Fund 133UN Capital Development Fund 133UN University 133UN Volunteers 134

UN Children’s Fund 134UN Conference on Trade and Development 134New International Economic Order 137The global environment 138Refugees and disasters 140Narcotics drug control 141AIDS 142Conventional economic, social and cultural cooperation 143

7. The 21st Century: a Changing UN 146Collective legitimization 148The Soviet Union 149The Five Policemen 150The Third World 151The United States 152

viii Contents

The Secretary-General 153The specialized agencies 155The UN in the 21st century 157

Appendix: Charter of the United Nations 159

Selected Bibliography 183

Index 190

Contents ix

List of Tables

Table 2.1 The United Nations System 37Table 3.1 Geographical distribution of UN membership 42Table 6.1 UN-originated world conferences 126

x

Preface to the Fourth Edition

Since the last edition at the end of the 20th century of this deliberatelycondensed account of the fortunes of the United Nations, its recordhas grown in complexity and breadth. The organization has taken partin legitimizing the use of force and even directing it and has also beenexcluded from the decisional circle that at times decreed armed in-tervention. It has preserved its position as one of the many devices ofinternational cooperation on development and as a center for thedifficult task of protecting human rights. It has become more central incoping with human and some political disasters. As forecast in earliereditions, it has never either vanished from participation nor recededinto disuse.

In considering the United Nations, as well as all forms of interna-tional organization, each passing year seems to reemphasize therapidly growing interconnection of societies, economies and securityissues. What could once perhaps be brushed aside as too obscure forthe international agenda, now is propelled into view by the speed andextent of electronic communication. One result for the authors of thisbook is a dilemma: if one excludes new detail of international life, thestory is less rich than actuality; if one includes too much, the detailsubmerges the main lines. For instance, governments have begun thelong process of complex structural reforms, proposed by the Secretary-General. These involve even the size and membership of the SecurityCouncil. What will emerge is now anything but certain.

It is our hope that what we have written not only helps to clarifythe developments of UN structure and practice over decades but alsoencourages readers to mine on their own for additional knowledge the ever growing and easily accessible documentation as well as a for-midable body of scholarly writing. Finally, we want to thank NielsBlokker, Nico Schrijver, Paul Peters en Tiemo Oostenbrink, who readand commented on parts of the manuscript, as well as PrincetonUniversity for various kindnesses and support.

PETER R. BAEHR LEON GORDENKER

Heemstede, Netherlands Princeton, NJ, USAMay 2005

xi

Preface to the Third Edition

This book, which is the third edition of The United Nations in the 1990s,fulfills at least some of our expectations that were set out in its prede-cessor, five years ago. We noted then that the organization wouldlikely remain an integral part of world politics, as it has, but that thepolicies of members could hardly be predicted.

The present edition builds on precisely the same expectations. Somuch has happened in the last five years, moreover, that a shortvolume such as this must be concise as to detail. Moreover, it probablygives less attention to activity outside the security agenda than wouldbe our ideal preference. Yet that seems hardly avoidable, given theremarkable rapidity of development and change with regard to main-taining peace.

As in the previous editions, we hope to introduce the UnitedNations, its structure and its history in such a way as to stimulateinformed judgment and further enquiry. We have no doubt at allthat such enquiry is rewarding and that worthy critical conclusionson the United Nations require the kind of basic understanding wehope to stimulate.

We acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of Saskia Bal andMaaike Hogenkamp of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights(SIM), who helped to revise the bibliography.

PETER R. BAEHR LEON GORDENKER

Heemstede, Netherlands Grijpskerke, NetherlandsApril 1998

xii

Preface to the Second Edition

As this revision of The United Nations in the 1990s is completed, it isobvious, if it were not before, that the organization now constitutes an integral part of international politics. Whether it will maintain thatposition – or decline or grow yet more – remains anyone’s guess. Asinternational politics probably will not freeze in place, it seems likelythat the fortunes of the United Nations will, as before, reflect dynamicfactors outside its control or purview.

Those varied and largely unpredictable activities of governments andother actors that we include in the term international politics haveduring the last three years deepened and broadened the agenda of theUnited Nations. This revised edition of The United Nations in the 1990stries to sum up some of those additions and to show how they relate toearlier practice. As developments within the UN, especially with regardto peace and security, have so quickly and unexpectedly burst into thenews, we cannot pretend to set out the last word on the organization.We have tried here, however, to sketch some of the most importantchanges since the last edition.

These changes include the far-reaching intervention of the organiza-tion in Iraq after its attack on Kuwait, the mounting of peace-keepingin Yugoslavia and Somalia and the apparent emergence of a new senseof international responsibility with regard to humanitarian disasters.But as with almost everything else in the experience of the UnitedNations, one decision or program soon leads to supplements, comple-ments, withdrawals or other changes. We have revised the earlier edi-tion in order to take into account changes wherever they could beobserved. Some earlier errors were also corrected.

We wish to acknowledge the assistance with this revision of Ms Saskia Bal and Francine van Lenthe of the Netherlands Institute ofHuman Rights and Ambassador N. Biechman of the NetherlandsPermanent Mission to the United Nations.

PETER R. BAEHR LEON GORDENKER

Heemstede, Netherlands Grijpskerke, NetherlandsFebruary 1993

xiii

Preface

While the last lines of this book were written in mid-1991, the useful-ness, the promise and the fragility of the United Nations seemedevident. The great crisis in the Middle East, caused by the seizure ofKuwait by Iraq in August 1990, at once pulled the world organizationinto the central decision-making vortex. The Security Council providedthe legal basis for international coercion to force Iraq to withdraw fromKuwait. It demonstrated a broad consensus among governments inevery part of the world that Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was unaccept-able. In the background, some parts of the UN system dealt with theneeds of people who fled from Iraq to the neighboring countries. Stillother parts monitored the economic sanctions ordained by the SecurityCouncil and investigated Iraq’s compliance with the complex terms ofa cease-fire.

Decision-making in the Security Council was led by the UnitedStates government. The United Nations was used to define the aggres-sion in the Persian Gulf but hardly to coordinate the military andpolitical actions. Unlike the initial response to the attack on Korea in1950, for the Persian Gulf in 1991 no unified military command wasestablished. In both cases, the United States and its allies engaged theUnited Nations to establish legal and political reference points and toemphasize the breadth of international approval for their actions.

Both the quality of the public discussion of the Persian Gulf crisisand the role of the United Nations more generally relate to the originsof this book. The work reflects the beliefs of its authors that the UnitedNations is important enough in world politics to deserve an accuratelyinformed public opinion of it. Our hope is that a clearly sketchedintroduction to the United Nations would help fill some of the recur-rent gaps in understanding in public and classroom discussion. Thisbook does not pretend to develop new knowledge, but it does attemptto set out the essential elements of forty-five years of experience withthe UN system. It deliberately emphasizes historical development andlegal institutional aspects, for some acquaintance with these is essentialto informed judgment.

The framework of the book is formed by those principal topics which the United Nations Charter defines and which, baring cata-clysmic change, can be expected to preoccupy the UN system into the

xiv

21st century. It attempts to avoid illusions about the role of the UnitedNations in international politics and about the benefits or costs it may have in terms of the foreign policies of its members. Finally, it isnecessarily selective in the face of an enormous amount of UN activity.

Our transnational collaboration bridges the Atlantic Ocean. This, wehope, helps to discourage nationalistic partisanship and to encourage acosmopolitan point of view. While we avoid policy recommendations,we do offer occasional judgments as to whether the United Nations hasdeveloped according to plans and expectations for it. The book con-centrates on the UN system while attempting to remain sensitive tothe world political context that conditions it. At the same time, weneither explain nor assay the world scene at every juncture, nor do we offer a general theory to cover everything that has or could happento the United Nations.

Although we attempt objectivity, we bring to this work convictionsabout the value of international cooperation. Cooperation among gov-ernments, we hold – as did the founders of the United Nations – isessential to a peaceful world. That may be an unattainable goal. A greatdeal of cooperation nevertheless remains an unmistakable daily prac-tice, a stable foundation, for the way governments relate to each othermuch of the time. Not all international cooperation works out to thebenefit of all or is necessarily productive of a peaceful world in the longterm. But the concept that international relations need to be organizedand that institutions are useful in encouraging and supervising cooper-ation seems unassailable, especially after the end of the Cold War andthe astonishingly quick reorganization of East and Central Europe.

Our collaboration began while we were fellows in the early 1970s at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in the Humanities andSocial Sciences (NIAS) at Wassenaar. A forerunner of this book wasthen developing. With another fellow at NIAS, P.J.G. Kapteyn, thenProfessor of International Law at Utrecht University, Baehr was draft-ing parts of what became De Verenigde Naties: ideaal en werkelijkheid,published in 1976 by Het Spectrum. Gordenker read the original man-uscript and offered his comments. From the ensuing discussion camethe first English-language cousin of this book, The United Nations:Reality and Ideal, published in 1984 by Praeger. A revised Dutch versionwith the earlier title was published in 1985 by Boom.

Our confidence that this book may prove useful was bolstered bythe willing help that we received from scholars, international civilservants, diplomats and national civil servants. They, as well as stu-dents in universities in the many countries where we have lectured,

Preface xv

all deserve our thanks, although not all of them can be named here.Among those who can are Professor Theo van Boven of theRijksuniversiteit in Limburg, who kindly read the chapter on humanrights; Dr Johan Kaufmann, whose own writings have enlightenedstudents of international organization and his fellow diplomats; andMr Gerben Ringnalda, a veteran official of the Netherlands Ministryof Foreign Affairs, who commented on the chapter on internationalcooperation and development. Gordenker owes specific thanks tothe Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation for support forhis research and to the Center of International Studies at PrincetonUniversity for its many services over the years, including those thatmade possible his continuing contact with the Netherlands and itsscholarly community; and to the Graduate Institute of InternationalStudies at Geneva for its many kindnesses while he taught there.

It is hardly necessary to say that we accept personal responsibility forthe interpretations and errors of this book.

Leon GordenkerPrinceton, NJ

Peter R. BaehrHeemstede, Netherlands

xvi Preface

List of Abbreviations

ACC Administrative Committee on CoordinationCEB Chief Executives Board ECLA Economic Commission for Latin AmericaECOSOC Economic and Social CouncilEPTA Expanded Program of Technical AssistanceFAO Food and Agricultural OrganizationG-77 Group of 77 (developing nations)GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade IAEA International Atomic Energy AgencyICAO International Civil Aviation OrganizationICJ International Court of JusticeIDA International Development Association IFAD International Fund for Agricultural DevelopmentIFC International Finance CorporationIFOR Implementation Force (in Yugoslavia) ILO International Labor OrganizationIMF International Monetary Fund IMO International Maritime Organization IBRD International Bank of Reconstruction and Development

(later the World Bank)ITU International Telecommunication UnionMINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western

SaharaNATO North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationNGO Non-governmental OrganizationNIEO New International Economic Order OAS Organization of American StatesOAU Organization for African UnityONUC Opération des Nations Unies au Congo ONUSAL United Nations Observer Mission for El Salvador OPCW Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical WarfareOPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesOSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in EuropePLO Palestine Liberation OrganizationSWAPO South West African People’s OrganizationUNBRO United Nations Border Relief Organization

xvii

UNCDF United Nations Capital Development FundUDI Unilateral Declaration of Independence (of Rhodesia) UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and DevelopmentUNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer ForceUNDP United Nations Development ProgramUNDRO United Nations Disaster Relief OfficeUNEF United Nations Emergency ForceUNEP United Nations Environmental ProgramUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

OrganizationUNFICYP United Nations Force in CyprusUNFPA United Nations Population FundUNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationUNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in LebanonUNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer GroupUNIKOM United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation MissionUNMIH United Nations Mission in HaitiUNMOVIC United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection

MissionUNOSOM United Nations Operation in SomaliaUNPROFOR United Nations Protection Force (in Yugoslavia)UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation AdministrationUNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency (for Palestine

Refugees)UNSCOM United Nations Special CommissionUNTAC United Nations Transitional Authority for CambodiaUNTAG United Nations Transition Assistance Group (in Namibia)UNTEA United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (over

West Irian)UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision OrganizationUNU United Nations University UNV United Nations VolunteersUPU Universal Postal UnionWFP World Food ProgramWHO World Health OrganizationWIPO World Intellectual Property OrganizationWMD Weapons of Mass DestructionWMO World Meteorological OrganizationWTO World Trade OrganizationWTO-OMT World Tourism Organization

xviii List of Abbreviations