Multilateralism / Comment
Self-defense and the world after September 11: implications for UN Reform
16/09/2005 By Steven Ratner
Secretary-General Annan devotes a significant section of In Larger Freedom to the UN’s place in the maintenance of international peace and security.
His analysis and recommendations are in some sense mere elaborations of ideas expressed in earlier speeches and documents, in particular those concerning the UN’s responsibility to aid populations whom their governments will not protect.
Yet In Larger Freedom of course goes much further, with its chapter on “Freedom from Fear” clearly influenced by the important work of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Annan provides a broad range of recommendations for the UN’s members regarding terrorism and organized crime, weapons of mass destruction, and conflict prevention, including peacekeeping and peacebuilding.
But the report’s five paragraphs on the use of force, though brief, represent the Secretary-General’s most forthright discussion of his vision for the role of military force in international relations. In this paper I will offer several observations on this discussion, particularly with reference to the views of the United States government on the use of force in the post-September 11 era.
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Keywords
Security Sector Reform UN War on terrorRelated publications
Bio author: Steven Ratner
Professor of Law at the University of Michigan since 2004. He holds a J.D. from Yale; an M.A. (diplôme) from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva), and a B.A. from Princeton University.
