CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

2.2.3 Practical Failings
Other failings of the UN paradigm are not so much structural – built-in to the paradigm,
as is the veto – but practical, resulting from how the paradigm has developed in fact,
been interpreted or ignored. This section will examine these areas of failure in practice.
2.2.3.1 Failure to Institute the Envisioned Mechanism for Enforcement
There are two particularly striking ways in which international law differs from
domestic law. Firstly it lacks an effective enforcement mechanism. Secondly,
submission to it is, in every important respect, voluntary. This will be evident from the
examples considered below when looking at the lack of faith in institutions for peaceful
dispute resolution. With the experience of the League of Nations era to draw upon, the
founding fathers of the UN sought from the outset to address the first of these issues by
establishing effective military forces to be placed at the organisation’s disposal.
In Chapter One it was shown that part of just war reasoning of states’ rights to use force
was the lack of higher authority to which disputes could be referred for resolution. (See
p46). The UN system seeks to remove the right of states to use force (with certain, very
restricted, exceptions as has been shown above) and to reserve that right to itself. This
can only work in practice if the UN has at its disposal the instruments to wield that
force. It was therefore envisaged at the organisation’s founding that it should indeed
have such instruments available to it. The principles of states making troops and bases
available to the Security Council and handing control of those troops to a Military Staff
Committee composed of the Chiefs of Staff of the Permanent Five, met with little
controversy at the founding conference. 55 Thus, Article 43 states:
1. All Members of the United Nations …… undertake to make available to the
Security Council …… in accordance with special agreement or agreements,
armed forces, assistance, and facilities …… necessary for the purpose of
maintaining international peace and security.
2. Such agreement or agreements shall govern the numbers and types of forces,
their degree of readiness and general location, and the nature of the facilities
and assistance to be provided.
3. Such agreement or agreements shall be negotiated as soon as possible on the
initiative of the Security Council. They shall be concluded between the
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