The UN Security Council and Peace Operations, 1990–96

Abstract

With the decline of Cold War tensions, members of the United Nations Security Council discerned a greater potential for cooperative action, and nowhere did this seem more appropriate than in the area of peacekeeping. David Malone's examination of the UNSC's peacekeeping initiatives in the 1990s highlights the problems faced in undertaking such action. Malone maintains that the ability of the UNSC to make its will felt through symbolic commitment or mere declaration of intent proved to be severely limited — a lesson that the Council learned when, in the wake of the “success” of Operation Desert Storm, it undertook a variety of cooperative ventures in conflict resolution. While neither wholly successful nor wholly futile, the problems encountered proved somewhat demoralizing and the Council became more circumspect in its ambitions. Malone provides a detailed analysis of this process and the lessons learned about the limits of UNSC resources and the difficulties of becoming a guarantor of international security.