United Nations Peacekeeping in the Third World
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
1. The forerunner of the United Nations (UN) was the League of Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances during World War 1, and established in 1919 under the treaty of Versailles “ to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security”. The League of Nations seized its activities after failing to prevent the Second World War. The advance of science and economic activity also brought in their wake, increased military capability which was put to devastating use by World War 1. As a result of the havoc wrecked by that conflagration, nations began to think of ensuring international peace and security through international cooperation. Thus the League of Nations was established under the treaty of Versailles, as an organization through which through which world peace could be ensured through collective security, by means of organization, discussion and agreement. Unfortunately, that body partly as a result of its own inadequacies, collapsed in the sequence of events leading to the Second World War. 1 By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939, the league had passed on in the annals of history.2
2. In April 1945 at the end of the second World War, representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco to create the Charter of the organization that would be called The United Nations. The new body, the UN, which learning from the weaknesses and failures of the LN, was better structured and strengthened for the task of maintaining international peace and security. The UN’s primary objective was focused on saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Hence the aims of the UN at its inception were stated in Article 1 of its Charter as:
To maintain international peace and security and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace, and to bring
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
1. The forerunner of the United Nations (UN) was the League of Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances during World War 1, and established in 1919 under the treaty of Versailles “ to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security”. The League of Nations seized its activities after failing to prevent the Second World War. The advance of science and economic activity also brought in their wake, increased military capability which was put to devastating use by World War 1. As a result of the havoc wrecked by that conflagration, nations began to think of ensuring international peace and security through international cooperation. Thus the League of Nations was established under the treaty of Versailles, as an organization through which through which world peace could be ensured through collective security, by means of organization, discussion and agreement. Unfortunately, that body partly as a result of its own inadequacies, collapsed in the sequence of events leading to the Second World War. 1 By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939, the league had passed on in the annals of history.2
2. In April 1945 at the end of the second World War, representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco to create the Charter of the organization that would be called The United Nations. The new body, the UN, which learning from the weaknesses and failures of the LN, was better structured and strengthened for the task of maintaining international peace and security. The UN’s primary objective was focused on saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Hence the aims of the UN at its inception were stated in Article 1 of its Charter as:
To maintain international peace and security and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace, and to bring
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