The UN's political record

Two major chapters of the book cover the innovative compromises that strengthened UN peacekeeping operations and military actions after the end of the Cold War

The Legitimacy of Power: The Permanence of Five in the Security Council  

Dilip Sinha

Vij Books and Indian Council of 

World Affairs; 321 pages, Rs 595

The word “power” is high fashion in Indian books on international affairs, but apt for a work that examines the behaviour of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC). The author’s rich credentials in multilateral diplomacy legitimise this comprehensive study.

This is foundational work, covering the entire history of the UN’s political record since its creation in 1945, also going back further to the origins of the international system and the evolution of international law, and the League of Nations. The device of terse summaries preceding each chapter is effective and adds to readability.

The UN’s origin is traced to the Roosevelt-Churchill summit of August 1941 at Placentia Bay, off Canada, when these two World War II allies held their first summit and crafted the Atlantic Charter. Missing in this account is the discussion on India. “In the case of India the President not only referred to traditional American values but also the hope that a promise of freedom would make the Indians fight against Japan more enthusiastically (Kimball, Ed. Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence, Vol. I, Princeton 1984, p.373).” Subsequently, Churchill was adamant that the Charter did not apply to India, which diminished India’s post-War role and the possibility of a UNSC permanent membership. 

Dilip Sinha traces the 1942-45 exchanges among the Allies, including the Soviet Union, the Dumbarton Oakes draft and the San Francisco Conference discussions, leading to swift ratification of the UN Charter on 24 October 1945. A little remembered fact: A provision for a "review conference" after 10 years, if demanded by a majority of the General Assembly. Subsequent chapters examine the phases traversed by the UNSC, including the disenchantment with which it was viewed by the Soviet Union and the US at different times, and the demise of the idea of a "UN military", provided in Article 43. Chapter 8 covers in lucid fashion the Korean War from the perspective of the UN. 

Two major chapters cover the innovative compromises that strengthened UN peacekeeping operations and military actions after the end of the Cold War. Sanctions feature in a chapter that can serve as a centrepiece for seminar discussions, given this theme’s topicality. It notes that sanction “effectiveness remains open to question and its burden often falls on the innocent”. The examination of “new mandates” is comprehensive, covering humanitarian intervention, the “responsibility to protect” doctrine and the struggle against terrorism. It usefully recalls that the West was against humanitarian intervention during the Cold War; a British Foreign Office policy paper in 1968 even argued that it was not “within the corpus of international law”. 

The US has dominated the UNSC, except for the period 1970-90, and is its driving force, supported by France and the UK. China and Russia are content to defend their national interests and their periphery, with no attempt at pursuing global interests. Evidently, despite Xi Jinping’s assertion of a “rightful place at the centre of the world”, China remains cautious at the UN. The book speaks of the several small states have faced action from the P-5 or their allies, besides the civil wars in Syria and Yemen, where the UNSC did not act. This was primarily due to the use of veto power, actual or potential, by the P-5. The US-British invasion of Iraq, March-May 2003, the Second Iraq War, is closely examined. 

The penultimate chapter examines UNSC reform.  The author concludes: “…the permanent seat aspirants face the impossible challenge of satisfying the large membership of the General Assembly without displeasing the permanent five”. No further prediction is offered. For the foreseeable future, the reform notion is a chimera. Might it be that for India, continuing economic growth and accretion in political weight in the years ahead will offer a future possibility of some kind of arrangement? In any event, it is good that even in the fever pitch of the 2019 general election campaign, no one has alluded to Indian UNSC dreams.

The author concludes that the UNSC remains mired in the “archaic politics of power”. But is not power a cardinal, real factor in international life? Overall the book covers the evolution of the UNSC and actions by the “five policemen” from a practitioner’s perspective. It is a fine textbook for diplomacy courses.

The reviewer is a former diplomat, teacher and author