Defence Forces Review 2008

United Nations in a Divided World
in key authority structures, which help account for the impression of an anti-Islamic bias in
addressing controversial issues on the global agenda. The second is to promote the further
spread of freedom and democracy. The third is to accommodate the peaceful rise of emerging
great powers, notably China and India.
A Ne w Mo o n
With the end of the Annan era at the UN, the South Korean Ban-Ki-moon has in his first year
committed tireless energy as the new UN General Secretary, but has struggled to raise the
profile of the much criticised body. Climate change and the ongoing crisis on Darfur are at
the top of the agenda, but for Ban-Ki-moon, while seen by his own staff as a workaholic has
suffered from communications problems, in comparison with the suave and elegant manner
of his predecessor, Ghanaian Koffi Annan. Chosen over six rivals with strong support from
the US and China, he came to office vowing to restore trust in the UN secretariat and raise
ethical standards. This was widely seen as a slap in the face at the previous administration
over its handling of the administration of the $64 billion oil-for-food programme for Iraq. 11 On
the positive he championed the 190 nation climate change conference held in Bali, Indonesia
in Jan 2008, which ended with negotiators speaking of a historic breakthrough and heralding
urgent action. How the evolving and developing peace-keeping mission for Darfur will evolve
and develop in the face of Machiavellian manoeuvring from the Sudanese government will
be a key litmus test for his stewardship of the world body. Ban’s Middle East policy has also
drawn criticism when in May 2007 his Middle East envoy, the Peruvian Alvaro de Soto quit
in what he perceived as an organisational premium being put on good relations with the US
and Israel. Ban will not be the first UNSG to have to tip-toe through the minefield of the nonaligned
majority who constitute the majority of the world body and the rich countries, who
feel as they pay the bulk of the UN bankroll that conversely they should call the tune.
The state of the UN reflects deeper fault-lines within the international system and genuine
conflicts of interest and value among member states. The defining theme of this essay has
been to explore and inform on the complexity of the reform process within the UN. The UN
destiny is more complex than reform or die. To properly appraise the organisation, demands
the long-term perception of what it might become. The UN survived its teething phase and
turbulent teens. The thirty something period left it unscathed, so why should a mid life crisis
seal its fate. The UN has not yet neared the autumn let alone the winter of its life.
Fo o t n o t e s
1
This article is dedicated to the memory of my friend Lt. Col. Joe Buckley (R.I.P.) who had made a broad yet incisive
study of the new paradigm of R2P (Responsibility to Protect) in PSO & how they will impinge on Defence Forces
doctrine/operations. I remain indebted to his views and willing help in writing the original abridged version of this
article which first appeared in SIGNAL magazine (Vol. 5 Issue 1, Autumn 2006). Before his untimely death Joe
had been about to embark on writing the first Doctrinal Manual on Peace Support Operations for the Irish Defence
Forces in the 21st Century. Is Fíor nach mbeidh a leithéid ann arís.
2
In reality the operations in the Gulf were led primarily by the USA, with the UN actually playing a very minor
role, while the SC was unsuccessful in undertaking a last minute peace initiative with Saddam Hussein. There were
only three peacekeeping operations created between 1966 and 1988, but this increased to nineteen between 1988
and 1992.
3
Following collapse into catastrophic clan warfare in 1991, the UN unsuccessfully applied for foreign intervention.
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