Using a Recent Example of Your Choice, Discuss the Problems and Prospects of Un-Led Humanitarian Intervention.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

ESSAY:

USING A RECENT EXAMPLE OF YOUR CHOICE, DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF UN-LED HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION.

CHRISTY SMITH.

USING A RECENT EXAMPLE OF YOUR CHOICE, DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF UN-LED HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION.

The question above seeks to reify the inadequacy of the United Nations intercession in affairs of state begot by the rationale of humanitarian intervention. Article 39 Chapter VII of the UN charter consigns the UN Security Council (UNSC) primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security with the provision of necessary armed forces and facilities of all member states. Humanitarian intervention is directed towards two resolves; the provision of emergency assistance and the protection of fundamental human rights. Such intervention foremostly encompasses non-military forms such as the deliverance of financial, medicinal, food and expertise emergency aid and human rights promotion through diplomacy and sanctions. Forcible military humanitarian intervention is necessary in failed states to resolve on-going conflicts which threaten aid operations, and against murderous states to expunge massive human rights abuses. Forcible intervention must be legally authorised by a resolution of the UNSC in accordance with the consent of nine of the fifteen members, though any UNSC resolution can be vetoed by any one of the five permanent members.

To assess the problems and prospects of UN- led humanitarian intervention, I have drawn upon the UN's facilitation of peace and enforcement of human rights within the Bosnian conflict; firstly providing an overview of the UN involvement as the events unfolded, and secondly, addressing the problems encountered as a result of UN bureaucracy. Finally I will highlight the prospects of UN-led humanitarian intervention given constructive improvements.

The Bosnian Conflict:

Nationalistic tendencies in Yugoslavia that had been subdued by the cultivation of a socialist fraternity and unity that took precedence over ethnic differences by Yugoslavian Prime minister Marshall Tito re-emerged after his death in 1980, and were accelerated thereafter by economic decline and the end of the Cold War.

Bosnian Serbs rejected the results of the elections in Bosnia in 1990 and Bosnian independence ensued, recognised by the international community as a new-born multi-ethnic and democratic state in 1992. Bosnian independence spurred inter-communal violence and war, waged by Serbia and Croatia in collusion with Serb and Croat allies in Bosnia.

Attempts to alleviate civilian suffering eventuated the deployment of a 7,000 strong force into Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 by the United Nations Operations in former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR), defining its principal mission as assisting aid deliverance. Mandated by the UNSC to safeguard six designated enclaves of Muslim civilians surrounded by the Bosnian Serb military, UNPROFOR was not prepared to use force to push aid through road blockades or to protect civilians including those in the six facetiously named 'safe areas'.
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Relying on the cordiality of Bosnian Serb extremists to facilitate aid deliveries, protect defenceless Muslim civilians, and negotiate a peace, UN policy amounted to endless appeasement which obviously did not transpire from the ethnic cleansing motivations of the same Bosnian Serbs. Whilst lacking the land power to defend aid convoys and safe areas against Serb retaliation, UNPROFOR would not undermine its credibility as in impartial peacekeeping force by resorting to air strikes to punish Serb transgression. UNPROFOR's military weakness was reinforced by UN out-ruling of a military solution to the Bosnian crisis despite Anglo-French Rapid Reaction Force of ...

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