The architects of the United Nations set out to create the most ambitious system of collective security ever attempted. To this end, the Security Council was given unprecedented power. Its five permanent members would be the world's policemen; they would fulfil the UN's central purpose of maintaining peace and security. Troops would be at their disposal since, without the ability to enforce it, there was no point to international law. The alternative was anarchy. After the Cold War there was talk of a UN renaissance, and of a united Security Council ensuring the primacy of the UN's role in a New World Order. It has not worked out like that. In the course of four years and three international disasters - Somalia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Rwanda - the Council has proved that with a patchwork command structure, as unstable as it is dangerous, it is not an effective instrument for collective security.

LRB 12 December 1996 | PDF Download