Ever since her participation in UN in 1971, the PRC has exercised 23 times of veto power on non-procedural matters of UN Security Council. This thesis not only introduces thoroughly the individual case of PRC using 23 times of veto power, but also purports to apprehend, in light of the national interest, the behavior of PRC exercising veto power in the UN Security Council.

Human security was promoted in 1994 by the UNDP as a concept embracing not only freedom from war and violence (or personal security), but also embracing individual�s basic needs for (and rights to) economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, community security and political security. Following this formulation, the concept has been subject to considerable scrutiny particularly in the context of state centric security studies. Extending the concept of security beyond the state to the individual appeared problematic, especially as the mechanisms designed to maintain and restore world peace are state based. However, the post-cold war environment has required a renewed interest in conflict resolution and in this context, human security as personal security has achieved political and analytical acceptance, particularly in the UN sponsored Human Security Report. What then of the second dimension of human security as freedom from want expressed by the UNDP in terms of basic needs and rights? Debate on this aspect of the UNDP definition foundered on several fronts. As well as being outside the traditional security framework, many argued that it was too broad to be analytically useful; others that it added nothing to human rights and human development which appeared to address precisely the same issues. Thus, while the concept of human security has found acceptance by those advocating with humanitarian approaches to conflict resolution and prevention, few have addressed the actual relationship, if any, between human security and development at the local level where people are most vulnerable to insecurity and where human security or its absence is most felt. This thesis addresses this gap through a study of human security in Cambodia, where people have experienced, at different times, the full range of human insecurities detailed by the UNDP. It shows that the human insecurity of Cambodians has been in large part a consequence of the security policies and military engagements of external powers. Human security and international relations are inextricably linked. Cambodia�s post-conflict reconstruction, rehabilitation and development strategies have also been strongly influenced by international forces through development assistance programmes. Despite this aid, Cambodia�s performance in health, education, justice, employment and poverty alleviation has been poor and leaves many rural people with uncertain futures and their human security threatened. Various authors have suggested that human security might be guaranteed by the state, the rule of law, democratisation, governance, human rights or human development. Based on qualitative fieldwork, the thesis argues that governance � especially the way in which state institutions deliver services to the people at the local or �grass roots� level � is key to assuring human security. It further argues that through development assistance policies and practices, global governance institutions have a significant influence on national and local governance processes. The thesis concludes that, if accepted by the UN Security Council, global governance and international development assistance agencies, human security can be a bridge uniting them all in the common pursuit of individual security and wellbeing with benefit for state, regional and global security.

Thesis (M.A.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-113). Also available via the Internet.

The United Nations was founded right after World War Two by the Allied, namely Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. The most important organ within the United Nations was the Security Council and the three founding nations, plus France and China, was given the permanent seats of the Security council. With that permanent seat came the veto. Every permanent member had the right to veto resolutions that they found was not in their country´s best interest. What I want to examine is how the permanent members of the Security Council have used their vetoes from the start at 1946 to 1990. The intention of the veto was that the permanent members could use their veto if they felt that the resolution draft was a threat to their sovereignty.  From 1991 to today, a group called Stop Illegitimate Vetoes have examined the veto and found that most of the vetoes that the permanent members use is not because it is a threat to their own nation, but more likely it is one of their allied friends who they are trying to help. I would like to see if that is also true during the years before 1991.

Magister Legum - LLM

The United Nations Security Council, as highest custodian of peace and security in the international community, is subjected to change in the international environment, but is in itself not inclined to, or likely to change in the near future. This is because its structure is entrenched in international law, which also upholds the pre-eminence of state sovereignty in the prevailing international relations environment. The pre-eminent position bestowed upon the UNSC by the UN Charter and an entrenched international adherence to its current structure, mainly due to conflict’s close association with reality politics and international power structures associated with a pre-dominant interest driven international system of states, make international consensus on changing the UNSC near impossible. This environment is, therefore, subject to the competitive pursuit of state interests and influenced by power relations, as Realists contend. However, this behavioural nature of the international system continues to be challenged in order to conform to the principles that underwrite the philosophies, the theories and the structures of human rights, humanitarian principles, idealism and their correlating systems of law in democracy. South Africa’s diplomatic positioning in this regard since 1994 assumes a structural approach by calling for change in the international system, to broaden international community, and specifically African, contributions to and participation in global governance. As concerns the UNSC, the South African diplomatic agenda has targeted the ingrained hegemony of the Council’s permanent core, the Permanent Five, and their veto. In theory, South Africa subscribes to the Ezulwini Consensus, which is a common African position that demands two permanent seats for the continent. The country has, in line with its diplomatic endeavour, also pronounced itself ready to assume such a seat in a transformed Council, even though Africa has not collectively endorsed (a) candidate(s). In the interim, South Africa is using strategic diplomatic manoeuvres, at the regional as well as global level, to steer the debate on UNSC reform and to lobby for its own permanent inclusion. South Africa, therefore, conducts diplomacy of engagement across the international diplomatic spectrum in support of a diplomacy that seeks to engage rather than isolate or disengage and which is aimed at making a difference in this mediation, creating convergence, also through bridging divergences in the international debate on reform of the UNSC. / Dissertation (MDIPS)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmchunu2014 / Political Sciences / unrestricted

<p> This thesis examines one of the most useful instruments yet devised for regulating the relations of states diplomacy. It explains how, from the beginning of the modern state system, traditional diplomacy has served the needs of the international community. </p> <p> The major part of this study focuses on the diplomatic activities that take place at the United Nations, especially as they concern the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Secretariat with the Secretary General. Support is presented for the contention that traditional, "quiet" diplomacy plays an important role at the United Nations, even though on the surface the United Nations appears to be pre-occupied with public debate, vote swapping, and distortion of basic international issues. </p> <p> The role of small nations in an international society is also briefly discussed. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

LL.M. (International Law) / Syria is currently embroiled in a bitter and bloody conflict which began three years ago, in the prime of what was commonly known as the Arab spring. The Syrian people clamoured for new leadership and greater freedoms. However, the hopes of an Arab spring soon faded into a cold, desolate Arab winter. Instead of acceding to the demands of the citizens, the Syrian president has sought to subdue and eliminate them. Resulting in August 2013 of the government forces reportedly unleashed deadly chemical weapons on opposition forces. The United Nations Security Council failed to embark on any action by this point, due to the first veto by Russia and China on 4 October 20113. The death toll subsequently peaked at over 100 000. Whilst on the 24th of November, 2013 following two days of conflict in the Eastern Ghouta region of Syria 160 people were killed. Could the devastation of Syria and its people have been avoided? Is there any organisation responsible for the safety and protection of the Syrian people? The answer lies in an organisation called the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council however has the primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security but this is not exclusive. Their primary function (as clearly stated in the United Nations Charter) is the responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security.

Both interventionist and anti-interventionist scholars have advanced the view that the 2011 Libyan conflict probes the need to establish an international organisation to settle disputes between nations with a view to maintaining international peace and security. Ironically, 67 years after the founding of the United Nations, post-colonial African states remain deeply troubled and affected by conflicts that are often exacerbated by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions. The 2011 Libyan conflict was not a war for democracy; rather, it represented and demonstrated clearly the asymmetrical relations between Africa and Europe. This study therefore, is anchored on the thesis that the Western Countries—especially Britain and France—within the UNSC ignore the values that are embodied in the Treaty of Westphalia which established state sovereignty. Some Permanent five (P5) members of the UN were typically insensitive to Libya’s sovereignty and to the creed of democracy and this inevitably undermined the national security of the state in favour of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ clause. The outsourcing of the UNSC’s mission, among other things, in Libya to ensure ‘international peace and security’ to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was a critical reason for the loss of human lives and values in the 2011 Libyan pogrom. The introduction of a no-fly zone over Libya and the use of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) contained in UNSC Resolution 1973 clearly stoked the conflict in Libya in order to further the political and pecuniary interests of some of the P5 members. The involvement of NATO and the attendant bombing campaign in Libya served to undermine the militarily weak continent of Africa in its effort to broker peace under the umbrella of the African Union (AU). In order to secure these political and economic interests, the NATO jet bombers declared war against a sovereign UN member state and openly participated in the eventual overthrow and death of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. In essence, this study underscores that the use of Responsibility to Protect in Libya was orchestrated at the highest level of international politics to justify external interference and ultimately, to secure regime change in Libya. The net effect of the outcome of the 2011 Libyan conflict is the post-war imperial control of Libya’s natural resources facilitated by the National Transition Committee established by these imperial forces. The extent of the damage caused by the UN-backed NATO intervention in Libya is also the result of the collective failure of the African Union to assert itself in the Libyan situation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

How is a veto justified? Within the discipline of International Relations, discourse analysis is gaining a higher status. However, there is a surprising lacuna in the literature as a discursive approach to the veto in the United Nations Security Council, is yet to be taken. This is unfortunate, given the Security Council’s prominence. The way in which the council members make meaning through their word choice has profound effects for politics in the international system. There is, nonetheless, a growing debate on the functioning of the council, and the veto-power is an important object of contestation. Motivated by current veto-restraining initiatives, this thesis performs a discourse analysis on the 19 cast vetoes between 2005-2016. The actors of relevance are the permanent Security Council members China, Russia, and the US, and the study demonstrates how the concepts of sovereignty, intervention and legitimacy are employed in the discursive construction of the legitimate veto. The thesis further argues that there are patterns and reoccurring themes in the way meaning is created that can be summarized into a contra-discourse —a veto-discourse —contrasting the dominating discourse within the Security Council.