This news piece by the New York Times. It reports on UN Resolution 1874 condemning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) for their recent nuclear test and constant defiance to the procurement of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, a political goal of the United Nations.
Various things,
The resolution is different because it has the approval of two of North Korea's closest allies and/or partners, People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, the resolution has soft engagement rules for North-Korea-bound ships that refuse to be boarded, it does not authorize the use of force, and China made sure that its selling of small-arms to Pyongyang remained undisturbed.
This emphasizes the point (in Spanish) I've been trying to convey to my students in my International Organizations course since the start of 2008. IO's are more effective when its actions are backed with multilateral support from its member states plus the assent of the five permanent members of the Security Council. As obvious as this sounds it sometimes gets lost in a mountain of wishful thinking from those who have an idealistic vision of the United Nations and what it can do.
If a permanent member of the Security Council is reluctant to support any resolution all the effort goes awry and the UN loses a bit more of its legitimacy. This is why sanctions against the State of Israel don't make a dent in their systematic effort to deprive violent and non-violent Palestinians of their land; why the Cuban embargo is forty-plus years strong despite strong wording in favor of its elimination; why the genocides of Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia reached such morbid heights; why in June 2003 desperate Liberians, some of them carrying their dead, awaited hopelessly at the gates of the United States Embassy for the Marines offshore to come and protect them; and why Palestine and Puerto Rico always get lip service when dealing with the final/permanent solution(s) to their political quagmires. The track-record doesn't inspire confidence but I hope that the resolution and Sino-Russian arm twisting will persuade North Korea to re-enter political dialogue.
[On the 2003 situation in Liberia see this report from The Independent, this condemning article from Socialism Today, this release from Africa Policy E-Journal, this transcript from PBS, this background article from The Guardian, and this opinion piece in the Global Policy Forum webpage.]
UN WMD we must disarm multi-platform campaign (with links to various pages, including Facebook and Twitter).
Various things,
The resolution is different because it has the approval of two of North Korea's closest allies and/or partners, People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, the resolution has soft engagement rules for North-Korea-bound ships that refuse to be boarded, it does not authorize the use of force, and China made sure that its selling of small-arms to Pyongyang remained undisturbed.
This emphasizes the point (in Spanish) I've been trying to convey to my students in my International Organizations course since the start of 2008. IO's are more effective when its actions are backed with multilateral support from its member states plus the assent of the five permanent members of the Security Council. As obvious as this sounds it sometimes gets lost in a mountain of wishful thinking from those who have an idealistic vision of the United Nations and what it can do.
If a permanent member of the Security Council is reluctant to support any resolution all the effort goes awry and the UN loses a bit more of its legitimacy. This is why sanctions against the State of Israel don't make a dent in their systematic effort to deprive violent and non-violent Palestinians of their land; why the Cuban embargo is forty-plus years strong despite strong wording in favor of its elimination; why the genocides of Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia reached such morbid heights; why in June 2003 desperate Liberians, some of them carrying their dead, awaited hopelessly at the gates of the United States Embassy for the Marines offshore to come and protect them; and why Palestine and Puerto Rico always get lip service when dealing with the final/permanent solution(s) to their political quagmires. The track-record doesn't inspire confidence but I hope that the resolution and Sino-Russian arm twisting will persuade North Korea to re-enter political dialogue.
[On the 2003 situation in Liberia see this report from The Independent, this condemning article from Socialism Today, this release from Africa Policy E-Journal, this transcript from PBS, this background article from The Guardian, and this opinion piece in the Global Policy Forum webpage.]
UN WMD we must disarm multi-platform campaign (with links to various pages, including Facebook and Twitter).
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