Limits to Power of the Security Council

Limits to Power of the Security Council

Introduction

The UN Charter serves as the constitutional basis for the organization's structures and procedures, the rights and responsibilities of UN members, and the UN's authority to act in the international community. The Charter envisions an institution with revolutionary powers and authority in international affairs. The organization is granted not only the traditional instruments of diplomatic practice but also the authority to impose crushing sanctions and to use military force, with nation-states required to put their troops at the disposal of the institution.

Chapter VII of United Nations, Article 39, gives the Security Council the authority under international law to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression,” and to “decide what measures shall be taken” to halt the threat or punish the aggressor. Article 40 empowers the Council to take provisional measures to prevent an escalation or aggravation of a dispute. In July 1987, the Soviet Union and the United States for the first time joined in a resolution (598) on the Middle East and demanded that Iran and Iraq “observe an immediate cease-fire” in their ongoing war . Citing Article 40, the Council decided “to consider further steps to ensure compliance” if either of the parties refused to accept the UN's demands.

According to the original conception of the UN as the guarantor of international peace, the organization was expected to command military forces under the authority and direction of the Security Council and with the help of a Military Staff Committee. All member states, as charged by Articles 43 and 44, were obliged to contribute troops and equipment to these UN-led operations. Despite the intentions of the founders, the Military Staff Committee quickly fell into disuse, largely ignored after 1946 as the Cold War intensified. In place of direct UN military action, the more common practice emerged of the Council empowering individual states to take such action, usually in the form of ad hoc coalitions. In this context, the Council's role of legitimation is critical. Using Article 48, which requires member states “or some of them,” to “carry out the decisions of the Security Council,” the body has regularly authorized coalitions “to use all necessary means” to restore peace and stability . Thus, the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq and interventions in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, East Timor, Albania, Liberia, Afghanistan, and the Central African Republic were authorized UN-enforcement operations. On paper, Chapter VII worked a revolution in international politics. The Cold War, however, made that revolution more theory than practice. With the Security Council locked in a superpower stalemate, Chapter VII provisions generally could not be implemented when conflicts arose. Council members and the General Assembly were forced to fall back on the more traditional methods outlined in Chapter VI in the hope of resolving a dispute or ending hostilities. Chapter VI describes mechanisms for noncoercive measures to settle disputes peacefully between ...