Brief Guide to the UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) can trace its lineage back decades before the United Nations itself existed.  The idea of a small, elite council of major powers making security-related decisions on behalf of the greater world community is an idea based in the League of Nations, which was born out of the ashes of WWI. Today’s council is different in several ways, but the basic idea remains the same.

The UN Security Council

The UNSC is one of main “chambers” of the UN. It reports to the Secretary-General (the designated “leader” of the UN), and has the power to write binding resolutions. In essence, what this means is that UNSC resolutions can come with sanctions if they are not obeyed, or they can come with official condemnation, or even authorize member-states to deploy military forces to another member-state. The UNSC has great power, but also has many restrictions placed upon it.

Makeup of the UNSC: Africa (blue), Asia-Pacific (green), Eastern Europe (red), Latin America/Caribbean (Pink), Western Europe/Others (Gold)

The remaining members are elected by the General Assembly on a staggered two-year basis. These members are from the following regions: Africa (3), Asia-Pacific (2), Latin America and Caribbean (2), Western Europe and Other (2), and Eastern Europe (1).  The current makeup of the council as of this writing (19/1/2017) is Egypt, Senegal, Ethiopia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Bolivia, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands (who are splitting their two-year term to share), and Ukraine.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, vetoes a resolution on Syria

When an issue is placed before the UNSC, it is debated among members in both open and closed-door sessions, along with private consultations between meetings and elsewhere. Finally, after all the debating and deliberating has been finished, the agenda item will be placed up for a vote. Votes are counted by raising a hand, and the President of the Council (president chosen monthly by alphabetical order of UNSC members). If the resolution has the approval of at least 9 non-permanent members and either the approval or abstention of all permanent members, it passes.

The UN flag in Korea

The most extreme action the Council can take is to authorize the use of military force for a given instance. The first example of this took place in 1950, after war was declared between North and South Korea. The Soviet Union was boycotting the UN at the time, due to the UN’s designation of Taiwan as the official representative of China. In the absence of the USSR, a resolution was passed that recommended all members “provide military forces and other assistance pursuant to the aforesaid Security Council resolutions”, as well as “authorizing the unified command at its discretion to use the United Nations flag in the course of operations against North Korean forces”. Thus, troops from various nations began arriving in South Korea under the light blue banner of the UN, and the war slogged on for three years. Since the war never ended in a formal peace treaty, the UN is still, in some ways, committed to the defense of South Korea.

UNIIMOG in Dezful, Iran

The UNSC is also authorized to deploy peacekeeping forces to hot spots around the globe. These missions are primarily envisioned to keep the peace between rival nations, and have been successful in many parts of the world. An example of a successful UN peacekeeping mission between states was UNIIMOG, or the United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group. UNIIMOG was established after the armistice that halted the Iran-Iraq war in August 1988. The force was in place to monitor the ceasefire to ensure it was followed, and it was ended in February 1991 when Iran and Iraq demonstrated they had fully withdrawn from the combat area.

Leclerc main battle tanks, supplied by France, on patrol in UN colors in Lebanon

When UN peacekeepers are used for intrastate conflicts such as civil wars and to halt crimes against humanity, their mission and role can become much more convoluted. An example of a successful mission is UNAMSIL, or the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. Authorized by UNSC Resolution 1270, the mission went beyond the usual “observe and defend yourself if necessary” mandate; the mission included a mandate to use limited force to protect civilians under threat of imminent physical violence, when it was within the mission’s capabilities and areas of deployment. The mission was successful in that violence was kept to a minimum during the disarmament process. The mission’s mandate expired in 2005, and was not renewed.

An unsuccessful mission would be the United Nations Supervision Mission of Syria, established under UNSCR 2043. The mission expired and was not extended on 19 August 2012 after the complete collapse in the situation in Syria.

Overall, the UNSC provides a mechanism for inter-superpower/great power discussion, discussions that may very well have averted another world war over the years.

For more information on the UN Security Council, check out these links.