The United Nations: A Requirement for Peace

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after the Soviet Union’s collapse the U.N. has continued its attempts to foster peace in war torn nations throughout the world. Many studies have been commissioned into the major failures of international peace keeping. What these studies do not take into account is the nature of peacekeeping and the many successes of mediation between belligerents in civil wars worldwide.3 Outside of maintaining peace within states which are afflicted with civil unrest, the United Nations also is the epicentre for most international law and a major

1 Sens 153-156
2 Sens 162
3 Howard 2008, 2-3

contributor to the call for universal human rights and other worthy causes. Although a few adjustments may be necessary, a world without the U.N. could be quite chaotic.

There have been many peacekeeping missions sanctioned by the United Nations but there a number of obvious failures. Lise Howard, a political scientist from Georgetown University, has found three major reasons for these failures; ...

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that leads to this is based on the idea that the state has absolute authority and all actions it takes are legitimate

4 Howard 2008, 21
5 Benjamin 2009 39, Sens 2010, 267-268

and justified, even when they clearly to the detriment of many people.6 It seems with more recent missions that the Security Council has been more apt to act as the world did not react pleasantly to their apparent dysfunction.7 This failure was truly appalling but thankfully there have been few others. By examining the foundations of peacekeeping and why it is important we discover why some missions fail but also why many succeed.

The nature of peacekeeping goes beyond the will to protect the weak. There ...

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