the united nations security council and war the evolution of thought and practice since 1945 aug 2008

THE UNITED NATIONS
SECURITY
COUNCIL AND WAR
The Changing Character of War Programme is an inter-disciplinary
research group located at the University of Oxford, and funded by the
Leverhulme Trust.

THE UNITED
NATIONS SECURITY
COUNCIL AND WAR

The Evolution of Thought
and Practice since 1945
Edited by
VAUGHAN LOWE
ADAM ROBERTS
JENNIFER WELSH
DOMINIK ZAUM
1
3
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Acknowledgements

This volume originated in a seminar series on ‘The UN Security Council and War’,
held at Oxford University under the aegis of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on
the Changing Character of War in 2004 and 2005. In light of the high quality of the
papers, and the range of new questions they raised about the relationship between
the Security Council and war, we decided to continue the project, to commission
further research and contributions, and to publish the best of the resulting material.
We are very grateful to Sir Frank Berman for his generous comments and his
contribution of the section on accountability to the introduction, and to Sir Michael
Wood, whose c omments on a range of chapters and on the introduction have been
enormously helpful. Col. Christopher Langton of the International Institute for
Strategic Studies, London, has provided valuable help on Appendix 7. We also
thank Tarun Chhabra, Par Engstrom, Carolyn Haggis, Taylor Owen, Miriam Prys,
and Matias Spektor, all doctoral students at the Department of Politics and Inter-
national Relations at Oxford, who provided valuable research assistance for some of
the chapters and for the appendices, as well as Emily Paddon, who translated the first
draftofChapter20 from French into English. For his work on several of the
appendices, we also thank John Dunbabin. Special thanks go to Devika Hovell, a
doctoral student at Balliol College, who has done more than we could have asked of
her in helping to prepare the chapters for publication. Finally, we would like to thank
all those who participated in the seminar series and commented on the papers,
including Chaloka Beyani, Jeremy Carver, Valpy FitzGerald, Yuen Foong Khong,
Charles Garra way, I an Hurd, Andrew Hurr ell, Laura James, N eil M acFarlane, P riyanjali
Malik, J ochen Prantl, Henry Shue, and Stefan Talmon.
Our work for this book benefited from much help from the library staff in four
major libraries in Oxford: the Law Library, the Social Sciences Library, the
Codrington Library at All Souls College, and the Bodleian Library – the latter
being a depositary library for UN papers as well as holding valuable archives in the
United Nations Career Records Project.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the generous financial support that this

project received from the Centre for International Studies and the Oxford Lever-
hulme Programme on the Changing Character of War, both of which are at the
Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. Without
their support, this volume would not have been possible.
V.L.; A.R.; J.W.; D.Z. January 2008
Jacket Illustration

The Security Council Chamber,
31 January 1992
At the Council’s first summit-level meeting, the fifteen member states were
represented by thirteen heads of state and government, plus two foreign ministers.
This gathering, at a high point of optimism about the UN, issued a declaration on
the central role of the Council in maintaining world peace and upholding the
principle of collective security. The declaration also invited Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali to make recommendations on strengthening the UN’s
capacity in peacekeeping, peace-making, and preventive diplomacy. This led to
the publication in June 1992 of An Agenda for Peace, with a set of ambitious
proposals to enhance the capacity of the UN to respond to the challenges of the
post-Cold War world.
The mural, by the Norwegian artist Per Krogh (1889–1965), encapsulates an
earlier vision of a reformed world. It depicts a phoenix rising from its ashes, as a
symbol of the world being rebuilt after the Second World War. Above the dark
sinister colours at the bottom, different images in bright colours illustrate hopes for
a better future. Equality is symbolized by a group of people weighing out grain for
all to share (UN Photo/Milton Grant).
Contents

List of Acronyms xi
List of Contributors xvii
1. Introduction 1

The Editors
PART I: THE FRAMEWORK
2. A Council for All Seasons: The Creation of the Security Council
and Its Relevance Today 61
Edward C. Luck
3. The Charter Limitations on the Use of Force: Theory and Practice 86
Christine Gray
4. Proposals for UN Standing Forces: A Critical History 99
Adam Roberts
PART II: THE ROLES OF THE SECURITY
COUNCIL
5. The Security Council and the Great Powers 133
Nico Krisch
6. The Security Council, the General Assembly, and War: The Uniting
for Peace Resolution 154
Dominik Zaum
7. The Security Council and Peacekeeping 175
Mats Berdal
8. The Sanctions Era: Themes and Trends in UN Security Council
Sanctions since 1990 205
David Cortright,George A. Lopez,
and Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf
9. The Security Council’s Authorization of Regional Arrangements
to Use Force: The Case of NATO 226
Dan Sarooshi
10. The Security Council in the Post-Cold War World 248
Jeremy Greenstock
PART III: CASE STUDIES
11. The United Nations, the Security Council, and the Korean War 265
William Stueck

12. The Suez Crisis and the British Dilemma at the United Nations 280
Wm.Roger Louis
13. The Security Council and the Arab–Israeli Wars: ‘Responsibility
without Power’ 298
Bruce D. Jones
14. The Security Council and the India–Pakistan Wars 324
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury
15. The Security Council and East Timor 346
Peter Carey with Pat Walsh
16. The Security Council and the Iran–Iraq War 368
Charles Tripp
17. The Security Council and the 1991 and 2003 Wars in Iraq 384
James Cockayne and David M. Malone
viii contents
18. The Security Council and the Wars in the Former Yugoslavia 406
Susan L. Woodward
19. The Security Council and the Bosnian Conflict: A Practitioner’s View 442
Rupert Smith
20. The Security Council and the Afghan Conflict 452
Gilles Dorronsoro
21. The Security Council and Three Wars in West Africa 466
Adekeye Adebajo
22. The Security Council in the Wings: Exploring the Security Council’s
Non-involvement in Wars 494
J. P. D. Dunbabin
PART IV: THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND
THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF WAR
23. The Different Functions of the Security Council with Respect to
Humanitarian Law 519
Georg Nolte

24. The Security Council and Humanitarian Intervention 535
Jennifer M. Welsh
25. The Security Council and the Administration of War-torn and
Contested Territories 563
Richard Caplan
26. The Security Council and International Law on Military Occupations 580
David Scheffer
27. The Security Council and Terrorism 608
Jane Boulden
28. The Security Council and the Use of Private Force 624
Sarah V. Percy
contents ix
APPENDICES
1. UN Peacekeeping Operations, 1945–2006 643
2. UN Missions, Institutions, and Forces not Classified as
Peacekeeping Operations, 1945–2006 663
3. UN-Authorized Military Operations, 1945–2006 672
4. UN-Authorized Sanctions, 1945–2006 678
5. Vetoed Resolutions in the UN Security Council, 1945–2006 688
6. Uses of the Uniting for Peace Resolution, 1950–2006 706
7. List of Armed Conflicts and Crises, 1945–2006 709
Index 745
x contents
Acronyms

These acronyms are used in the text of the book. Certain other UN bodies, with
their acrony ms, appear in the appendices.
AFSOUTH Allied Forces South Europe
AMIB African Union Mission in Burundi
AMIS African Union Mission in Sudan

APEC Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
ASF African Standby Force
AU African Union
BELISI Peace-Truce Monitoring Group in Bougainville
CAR Central African Republic
CAS Close Air Support
CENTO Central Treaty Organization
CFA French Community of Africa
CFI Court of First Instance of the European Communities
CFL Cease Fire Line
CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
Civpol Civilian Police
CNRT National Council of Timorese Resistance
CSCE Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
CTBT Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
CTC Counter Terrorism Committee
CTED Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate
DDR Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration
DPA Department of Political Affairs
DPKO Department of Peacekeeping Operations
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
EC European Commission
EC European Community
ECMM European Community Monitoring Mission
ECOMICI ECOWAS Mission in Cote d’Ivoire
ECOMIL ECOWAS Mission in Liberia
ECOMOG ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
EO Executive Outcomes
ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque separatist terrorist group)
EU European Union
EUFOR European Union Force in Bosnia
FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office
F-FDTL Timor Leste Defence Force
FNLA National Liberation Front of Angola
FPI Ivorian Patriotic Front
FRAPH Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti
Fretilin Revolutionar y Front for an Independent East Timor
FRY Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
FYROM Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
G7 Group of Seven
G-77 Group of Seventy-seven
G8 Group of Eight
GA General Assembly
GIA Governors Island Agreement
GRULAC Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries
HQ Headquarters
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
ICC International Criminal Court
ICFY International Conference on the former Yugoslavia
ICISS International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty
ICJ International Court of Justice
ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross
ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
IDEA International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

IEC Independent Electoral Commission
IFIs International financial institutions
IFOR Implementation Force
IMF International Monetary Fund
INTERFET International Force in East Timor
IPA International Peace Academy
IPTF International Police Task Force
ISAF International Security Assistance Force
J&K Jammu & Kashmir
xii acronyms
KFOR Kosovo Force
KLA Kosovo Liberation Army
LoC Line of Control
LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy
MFO Sinai Multinational Force and Observers Sinai
MICIVIH International Civilian Mission in Haiti
MINUCI United Nations Mission in Co
ˆ
te d’Ivoire
MINUGUA United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala
MINURCA United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic
MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara
MINUSTAH United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
MISAB Mission Interafricaine de Surveillance des Accords de Bangui
MJP Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix
MLO Military Liaison Officer
MNF Multi-National Force
MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia
MONUA United Nations Observer Mission in Angola
MONUC United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic

Republic of Congo
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MPIGO Mouvement Populaire Ivorien du Grand Ouest
MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
MPRI Military Professional Resources Inc.
NAM Non-Aligned Movement
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NFZ No-Fly Zone
NGO Non-governmental organization
NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia
NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty
NWFP North-West Frontier Province
OAS Organization of American States
OAU Organization of African Unity
OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs
OFF Oil-for-Food Programme
OIC Organization of the Islamic Conferences
OLA Office of Legal Affairs
OMV Ongoing Monitoring and Verification
ONUB United Nations Operation in Burundi
ONUC United Nations Operation in the Congo
ONUCA United Nations Observer Group in Central America
ONUMOZ United Nations Operation in Mozambique
acronyms xiii
ONUSAL United Nations Observer Mission to El Salvador
ONUVEN United Nations Mission for the Verification of Elections in
Nicaragua
OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
P5 The five Permanent Members of the Security Council

PDCI Democratic Party of Co
ˆ
te d’Ivoire
PDK Democratic League of Kosovo
PLO Palestine Liberation Organization
PMC Permanent Mandates Commission
PMCA Pre-Mandate Commitment Authority
PMCs Private military companies
PRC People’s Republic of China
PRT Provincial Reconstruction Team
PSCs Private Security Companies
RAMSI Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands
RDC Research and Documentation Center
RDTL Democratic Republic of Timor Leste
ROE Rules of Engagement
ROK Republic of Korea
RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front
RPR Rally of Republicans
RRF Rapid Reaction Force
RUF Revolutionary United Front
S-5 Switzerland, Costa Rica, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Singapore
SADF South African Defence Force
SAM Sanctions Assistance Mission
SAMCOMM Sanctions Assistance Mission Communications Centre
SC Security Council
SEATO South-East Asia Treaty Organization
SFOR Stabilization Force
SG Secretary-General of the United Nations
SHIRBRIG Standby High Readiness Brigade for UN Operations
SLA South Lebanon Army

SLA Sierra Leone Army
SOFA Status of Forces Agreement
SPO Serbian Renewal Movement
SRSG Special Representative of the Secretary-General
SWAPO South-West Africa People’s Organization
TNI Indonesian National Army
UDT Timorese Democratic Union
UN United Nations
UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
xiv acronyms
UNAMET United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor
UNAMI United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq
UNAMIR United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda
UNAMIR II Second United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda
UNAMSIL United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone
UNASOG United Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Group
UNAVEM I United Nations Angola Verification Mission
UNC United Nations Command
UNCC United Nations Compensation Commission
UNCIP United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan
UNCRO United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia
UNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer Force
UNEF United Nations Emergency Force
UNEF I United Nations Emergency Force to the Middle East
UNEF II Second United Nations Emergency Force to the Middle East
UNFICYP United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
UNGA United Nations General Assembly
UNGCI United Nations Guards Contingent in Iraq
UNGOMAP United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and
Pakistan

UNGOMIP United Nations Military Obser ver Group in India and Pakistan
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
UNICOI United Nations International Commission of Inquiry
UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
UNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group
UNIOSIL United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone
UNIPOM United Nations India-Pakistan Observer Mission
UNITA National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
UNITAF Unified Task Force
UNMEE United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
UNMIBH United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
UNMIH United Nations Mission in Haiti
UNMIK United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
UNMIL United Nations Mission in Liberia
UNMIS United Nations Mission in Sudan
UNMISET United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor
UNMIT United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor Leste
UNMOGIP United Nations Military Obser ver Group in India and Pakistan
UNMOP United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka
UNMOT United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan
acronyms xv
UNMOVIC United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection
Commission
UNOCA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian and
Economic Assistance Programmes in Afghanistan
UNOCI United Nations Operation in Co
ˆ
te d’Ivoire
UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNOGIL United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon
UNOMIG United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia
UNOMIL United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia
UNOMSIL United Nations Obser ver Mission in Sierra Leone
UNOMUR United Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda
UNOSOM I United Nations Operation in Somalia
UNOSOM II Second United Nations Operation in Somalia
UNOTIL United Nations Office in Timor Leste
UNOWA United Nations Office for West Africa
UNPA United Nations Protected Area
UNPREDEP United Nations Preventive Deployment Force
UNPROFOR United Nations Protection Force
UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency
UNSAS United Nations Standby Arrangements System
UNSC United Nations Security Council
UNSCO United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for the
Occupied Territories
UNSCOM United Nations Special Commission
UNSCOP United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
UNSMA United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan
UNSMIH United Nations Support Mission in Haiti
UNTAC United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
UNTAES United Nations Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia,
Baranja, and Western Sirmium
UNTAET United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor
UNTAG United Nations Transition Assistance Group
UNTEA United Nations Temporary Executive Authority
UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
UTA Union des Transports Ae
´

riens
WEU Western European Union
WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction
WTO World Trade Organization
xvi acronyms
Contributors

Adekeye Adebajo is Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in
Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Building Peace in West Africa (Lynne
Rienner, 2002), and Liberia’s Civil War (Lynne Rienner, 2002); and co-editor of
West Africa’s Security Challenges (Lynne Rienner, 2004), and A Dialogue of the Deaf:
Essays on Africa and the United Nations, (Fanele, 2006). He served on UN missions
in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq.
Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development in the Department of War
Studies, King’s College London. He was formerly Director of Studies at the Inter-
national Institute for Strategic Studies. He is co-editor with Spyros Economides of
United Nations Interventionism 1991–2004 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Jane Boulden holds a Canada Research Chair in International Relations and
Security Studies at the Royal Militar y College of Canada. Previously, she was a
MacArthur Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, University of
Oxford. She is co-editor with Thomas Weiss of Terrorism and the UN: Before and
After September 11th (Indiana University Press, 2004).
Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations at Oxford University and a
fellow of Linacre College. He is the author of International Governance of War-Torn
Territories: Rule and Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2005) and Europe and
the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Peter Carey is Laithwaite Fellow in History at Trinity College, Oxford, specializing on
the history and politics of South East Asia. He is the author (with G. Carter Bentley) of
East Timor at the Crossroads: The Forging of a Nation (Honolulu: Hawaii University
Press, 1995); and (with Steve Cox), Generations of Resistance: East Timor (London:

Cassell, 1995). He has recently published a major biographical study of the Indonesian
national hero, Prince Dipanagara, The Power of Prophecy, Prince Dipanagara and the
EndofanOldOrderinJava,178 5–1855 (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2007).
James Cockayne is an Associate at the International Peace Academy. An inter-
national lawyer who has worked in Sydney, Paris, Arusha, Freetown, and New York,
James is Chair of the editorial committee of the Journal of International Criminal
Justice, and former Director of the Transnational Crime Unit, Australian Attorney-
General’s Department.
David Cortright is President of the Fourth Freedom Forum and a research fellow at
the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre
Dame. His fifteen books include Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of
Terrorism (Paradigm Press, 2006).
Gilles Dorronsoro is currently Professor of Political Science in the University of
Panthe
´
on-Sorbonne (Paris). He has recently published Revolution Unending,
Afghanistan: 1979 to Present (Hurst and Columbia University Press, 2005), and is
editor of La Turquie conteste. Re
´
gime se
´
curitaire et mobilisations sociales, (Editions
du CNRS, 2005).
J. P. D. Dunbabin was from 1963 to 2004 Fellow and Tutor at St. Edmund Hall,
Oxford, latterly also University Reader in International Relations. His publications
include International Relations since 1945,i:The Cold War (rewritten edition,
Pearson Longman, 2007), ii: The Post-Imperial Age: The Great Powers and the
Wider World (Longman, 1994), and an article on the League of Nations.
Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf is Research Director of the Fourth Freedom Forum in
Goshen, Indiana. She contributes to the work of the joint Fourth Freedom Forum/

Kroc Institute Sanctions and Security Project and the Center on Global Counter-
Terrorism Cooperation.
Christine Gray is currently Professor of International Law at the University of
Cambridge and a fellow of St John’s College. She has been at Cambridge since 1997
and before that she was a lecturer at the University of Oxford from 1980.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, GCMG, is the Director of the Ditchley Foundation.
Between 1969 and 2004, he held numerous positions in the British diplomatic
service, including Political Director of the FCO (1996–8), UK Permanent Repre-
sentative at the United Nations in New York (1998–2003), and the UK Special
Envoy for Iraq (September 2003–March 2004).
Bruce D. Jones is Co-director of New York University’s Center on International
Cooperation, where he leads research on multilateral security institutions and the
UN and is series editor of the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations, and
Consulting Professor at Stanford University. Previously, he was Senior Advisor in
the Office of the Secretary-General, and Chief of Staff to the Special Coordinator
for the Middle East Peace Process.
Nic o Krisch is a lecturer in law at the London School of Economics and has been a
research fellow at Merton College, Oxfor d, New York University Law School, and the
Max P lanck Institute for International Law in Heidelberg. He is the author of a
monograph onSecurity Council powers and the right to self-defence (Selbstverteidigung
und kollektive Sicherheit (Springer , 2001) ) and of articles on the law on the use o f force ,
on hegemony in international law , and on the legal framework of global governance.
xviii contributors
George A. Lopez holds the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Chair in Peace
Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the Univer-
sity of Notre Dame. His research on United Nations economic sanctions includes
the application of targeted sanctions against transnational terrorism. With David
Cortright, he most recently published Uniting Against Terror (MIT Press, 2007).
Wm. Roger Louis is Kerr Professor of English History and Culture at the University
of Texas at Austin and a past president of the American Historical Association. He

is an honorary fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His books include Imperi-
alism at Bay (Clarendon Press, 1977) and The British Empire in the Middle East
(Clarendon Press, 1984). His collected essays were published by I. B. Tauris in
September 2006: Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and
Decolonization.
Vaughan Lowe is Chichele Professor of Public International Law, and a fellow of
All Souls College, in the University of Oxford. He also practices in the field of
international law as a barrister from Essex Court Chambers, London, and has
appeared in cases before English and International courts, and sits on international
tribunals.
Edward C. Luck is Vice President and Director of Studies at the International Peace
Academy, as well as Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Respon-
sibility to Protect (designate). He is currently on public service leave from Colum-
bia University, where he is Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs
and Director of the Center on International Organization of the School of Inter-
national and Public Affairs. His most recent book is The UN Security Council:
Practice and Promise (Routledge, 2006).
David M. Malone is Canada’s High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to
Nepal and Bhutan. A former Canadian ambassador to the UN, he oversaw
Canada ’s multilateral and economic diplomacy with its Foreign Ministry, 2004–6.
He was President of the International Peace Academy in New York, 1998–2004.His
most recent book is The International Struggle over Iraq: P olitics in the UN Security
Council, 1980–2005(Oxford University Press, 2006).
Georg Nolte is Professor of Law at the University of Munich. In 2003/4 he was a
visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He has published on many issues of
public international law and comparative constitutional law. He is a member for
Germany of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the ‘Venice
Commission’).
Sarah V. Percy is University Lecturer and Fellow in International Relations at
Merton College, Oxford. She has written widely about mercenaries, private mili-

tary, and private security companies, including, The Regulation of the Private
Security Industry (Routledge and the IISS, 2006), an article in Inter national
contributors xix
Organization entitled, ‘Mercenaries: Strong Norm, Weak Law’ (61,no.2), and
Mercenaries: The History of a Norm in International Relations (Oxford University
Press, 2007). Sarah was awarded the CAMOS Dissertation Prize at the 2006
American Political Science Association Convention for her dissertation, upon
which her book is based.
Sir Adam Roberts, KCMG, was Montague Burton Professor of International
Relations at Oxford University, and a fellow of Balliol College, from 1986 to 2007.
His books include (edited with Benedict Kingsbury), United Nations, Divided
World: The UN’s Roles in International Relations, 2nd edition (Oxford University
Press, 1993) and (edited with Richard Guelff), Documents on the Laws of War, 3rd
edition (Oxford University Press, 2000). He lives in Oxford.
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury is Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, London. He has served in the National Security
Council Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office in India. He has also been a
senior research fellow at the International Policy Institute at King’s College,
London. He writes regularly on South Asian security issues for IISS publications.
Dan Sarooshi is Professor of Public International Law in the University of Oxford,
and also practices as a barrister from Essex Court Chambers, London. His books
have been awarded the 2006 Myres S. McDougal Prize by the American Society for
the Policy Sciences, the 2001 and 2006 American Society of International Law Book
Prizes, and the 1999 Guggenheim Prize by the Sw iss Guggenheim Foundation.
David Scheffer is the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law and Director
of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of
Law. He served as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (1997–2001) and as
Senior Counsel to the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1993–6).
General Sir Rupert Smith, KCB DSO OBE QGM, retired from the British Army in
January 2002 after forty years’ service in East and South Africa, Arabia, the

Caribbean, Europe, and Malaysia. His last appointment was Deputy Supreme
Commander Allied Powers Europe. Prior to that he was the General Officer
Commanding in Northern Ireland; Commander UNPROFOR in Sarajevo; and
General Officer Commanding 1 (UK) Armoured Division, in the Gulf War 1990–1.
William Stueck has written extensively about the Korean War, most notably in The
Korean War: An International History (Princeton University Press, 1995) and
Rethinking the Korean War: A New Diplomatic and Strategic History (Princeton
University Press, 2002). Both emphasize the UN role, the first in greater detail. He
is currently a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia.
Charles Tripp is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East, at the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His publications
xx contributors
include (with S. Chubin) Iran and Iraq at War (Tauris, 1989); The Iraqi Aggression
against Kuwait (edited with W. Danspeckgruber) (Westview, 1996); Islam and the
Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2006);
and A History of Iraq, 3rd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Pat Walsh has worked with the UN in East Timor since 2000 and is currently
Advisor on Transitional Justice to President Jose Ramos-Horta. From 2001 to 2005
he was seconded by the UN as Special Advisor to the Timor-Leste Commission for
Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CVAR). Prior to going to East Timor, he was
Director of Human Rights for the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, and
represented the Council at many UN sessions and meetings on human rights and
the question of East Timor.
Jennifer M. Welsh is Professor in International Relations at the University of
Oxford and a fellow of Somerville College. She is the author, most recently, of At
Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century (HarperCollins,
2004) and editor of Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (Oxford
University Press, 2004). She was recently named a Trudeau Fellow, and is currently
on a Leverhulme research grant working on a project on ‘sovereignty as responsibility’.
Susan L. Woodward is Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Center of the

City University of New York. She was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
(1990–99) and at King’s College, London (1999–2000); and Head of the Analysis
and Assessment Unit for UNPROFOR in 1994. Her writings include Balkan
Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War (Brookings Press, 1995), and
Socialist Unemployment: The Political Economy of Yugoslavia, 1945–1990 (Princeton
University Press, 1995).
Dominik Zaum is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Reading,
and author of, The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International
Statebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has previously been a research
fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
contributors xxi
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chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

the editors
The Central Theme

Under the United Nations (UN) Charter, the Security Council has a theoretically
impressive range of powers and duties. Most signiWcant is its primary responsibility
for the maintenance of international peace and security. Unlike the General Assembly
it can in principle take decisions that are binding on all members of the UN. The
Council meets throughout the year, mainly to consider armed conXicts and other
situations or disputes where international peace and security are threatened. It is
empowered to order mandatory sanctions, call for ceaseWres, and authorize military
action on behalf of the UN. The Council also has a role, with the General Assembly, in
the admission of new members to the UN, the appointment of the Secretary-General,
and the election of judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has also
assumed certain other roles not speciWcally laid down in the Charter, such as the self-

conferred role of choosing judges and prosecutors for ad hoc war crimes tribunals.
This book describes and evaluates the UN Security Council’s part in addressing –
and sometimes failing to address – the problem of war, both civil and international,
in the years since 1945. The central theme is obvious, simple, and sobering.1 While
the Council is a pivotal body which has played a key part in many wars and crises, it
1 This central theme in respect of the Council is similar to that in respect to the UN more generally as
evidenced by many of the contributors to Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws (eds.), The Oxford Handbook
on the United Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Weiss and Daws accept (p. 4) that ‘state
sovereignty remains the core of international relations’ and they seek to contribute to ‘greater analytical
precision and historical reXection about the balance between change and continuity within the United
Nations’.
is not in practice a complete solution to the problem of war, nor has it been at the
centre of a comprehensive system of collective security. It never could have been.
The UN’s founders, despite their idealistic language, did not see it in such terms;
and in practice, both during the Cold War and subsequently, the Council’s roles
have been limited and selective.
This central theme is not so much a conclusion as a starting point. It puts into focus
a series of key questions, addressed in each of the sections: What have been the actual
roles of the Security Council, and have they changed over time? Has the Council,
despite the many blemishes on its record, contributed overall to the maintenance of
international order through its response to particular threats and crises? Why has the
Council fallen short of some of the expectations held out for it? Are particular
countries to blame for such failures? Has it reacted constructively to the changes in
the character of war – including the prevalence of non-international armed conXicts
and the rise of terrorism – and to broader transformations in international society,
such as the rise of post-colonial states and the increase in the number of powers with
nuclear weapons? Is the Council simply a meeting place of sovereign states, or does it
put in place certain limits on the unfettered sovereignty of at least some states?
In this book we have sought the services of historians, lawyers, diplomats, and
international relations specialists to explore the Security Council’s actual and poten-

tial roles. The book seeks to present an accurate picture of what the Council has
achieved, and no t achieved, i n regard to th e continuing phenomenon of war. It
analyses the extent to which the UN Charter system, as it has evolved, replaces
older systems of p ower politics and justiWcations for the use of force. It also considers
how the functions and responsibilities of the Council have shifted since the creation of
the UN in the concluding months of the Second World War. Among the many
conclusions reached on the basis of this study, three stand out: that the Council was
not created to be and has not in practice been a pure collective security system; that
the constant interplay between the Charter’s provisions and the actual practice of
states (both within and outside the Council) has produced not only some disasters,
but also some creative variations on the Council’s roles and responsibilities; and that
when compared with other international institutions, the Council has a unique status
both in terms of its authoritativeness and accountability vis-a
`
-vis member states.
The Charter Scheme

This book is based on the proposition that the actual practice of the Security Council
is richer, more complex, and more paradoxical than can be captured by any single
prescriptive document or theory. Yet an assessment of the Council’s roles necessarily
2theeditors