lecture 11

Question 1

THE SECURITY COUNCIL
P5 – Five Permanent Members of the UNSC (can veto resolutions)

The Security Council is the United Nations’ most powerful body, with “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” Five powerful countries sit as “permanent members” along with ten elected members with two-year terms

Answer 1

FRANCE

US

RUSSIA

UK

CHINE

Question 2

Failures

Rwandan genocide (1994)

Israeli occupation of Palestine

Oil-for-food programme (1996-2003)

Answer 2

Rwandan genocide (1994) - Up to 1,000,000 people (mostly Tutsi) slaughtered by members of the Hutu majority. No intervention

Israeli occupation of Palestine - Both the General Assembly and the Security Council have passed hundreds of resolutions. The UN has failed to stop the conflict, to cease Israel’s expansion through settlements and to provide

Oil-for-food programme (1996-2003) -

$60 billion programs allowing Iraq to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies with the proceeds of regulated oil sales, bypassing the sanctions (embargo) following the 1st Gulf War

Allegations of corruption and bribes profiting the Iraqi regime, international corporations (esp. Russian) involved in the programme and UN/other officials
Volcker investigation found that 2,253 firms (from all over the world) had made illegal payments worth $1.8 billion to the Saddam regime a viable two-state solution

From 2000 to 2011 the veto of the P5 in the SC was used only on 15 occasions. Nine of these were by the US blocking action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Question 3

un achievements

Answer 3

• food for 90 mill in 75 countries
• vaccinations for 50% words kids, save 2.5 mill
• assisted 34 refugees
• poverty
• ## human rights

Question 4

us peacekeeping

Answer 4

193 member states
7.41 billion budget
121562 field personnel

Question 5

poverty

Answer 5

1990 2010

700,000,000 fewer people in less than $1.25 a day

Question 6

child mortality

Answer 6

1990: 87 deaths per 1,000 live births
2011: 51 deaths per 1,000 live births

Question 7

Poliomyelitis

Answer 7

1988: 350,000 cases
2012: 223 cases

Question 8

Smallpox

Answer 8

1959: 2,000,000 people dying every year
1980: eradicated after a global vaccination campaign

Question 9

Ozone layer hole

Answer 9

1970s: several states respond to public campaigns and science by regulating Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
1987: Montreal Protocol
1989: EEC bans CFCs
1990: global target of eliminating them by 2000
2050: predicted that the ozone hole could return to its normal state

Question 10

Challenges of UN

Answer 10

Underfunded - Total UN budget: $30 billion a year

Understaffed – Number of people employed by the UN and its affiliated programmes and agencies: 85,000
Peacekeepers: 121,000

Question 11

UN reform: reforming the Security Council

P5

Answer 11

P5:

• Veto obstructs action
• UK and France: not major powers anymore
• No representation of Latin America (Brazil), Africa (much of UN activity), India (1 billion people, biggest democracy and emerging economy), Japan, developing countries, Germany (powerhouse of Europe)

But…
More permanent members would paralyse the SC, encourage countries to use force unilaterally and ultimately make it irrelevant

Question 12

Prospects

R2P (Responsibility to Protect)

responsibility

Answer 12

1. A state has a responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.
2. The international community has a responsibility to assist the state to fulfill its primary responsibility.
3. If the state manifestly fails to protect its citizens from the four above mass atrocities and peaceful measures have failed, the international community has the responsibility to intervene through coercive measures such as economic sanctions. Military intervention is considered the last resort.

Question 13

ICIS

Answer 13

Six criteria for military intervention: (i) just cause, (ii) right intention, (iii) final resort, (iv) legitimate authority, (v) proportionate means, (vi) reasonable prospect

Question 14

Mark Malloch Brown (Lord Malloch-Brown)

Answer 14

Former UN Deputy Secretary General

Former UK Minister of State for Africa, Asia and the UN

Question 15

KEY RESOURCE

Answer 15

“Power and Super-Power:
Global Leadership in the Twenty-First Century”
Speech by Mark Malloch Brown
at the Century Foundation and Center for American Progress – Security and Peace Initiative
6 June 2006

Question 16

The Rise of China – the Empire of the 21st Century?

Population

flexing dipolomatic muscles

oil deals

BUT..

povo

Answer 16

Economic, military and technological superpower

2nd largest economy in the world; expected to surpass the US within the next 20 years

Population: 1,4 billion

Flexing its diplomatic muscles: UN, Iran, North Korea

Oil deals in Latin America, Middle East

Strategic partnership with Russia
From G20 to G2?

But… poverty, human rights, civil liberties, ethnic tensions, carbon footprint

Question 17

China in Africa: investment or neo-colonialism?

Richard Behar’s special report?

Answer 17

“The sub-Sahara is now the scene of one of the most bare-knuckled resource grabs the world has ever seen.”

“This commercial invasion is without question the most important development in the sub-Sahara since the end of the Cold War – an epic, almost primal propulsion that is redrawing the global economic map”
-China declared 2006 “Year of Africa”

Question 18

China in Africa: investment or neo-colonialism?

-1 million Chinese citizens working in Africa

Answer 18

1 million Chinese citizens working in Africa

• Economic influence resembles colonisation
• Depletion/exploitation of natural resources and fertile land or development opportunity?

Question 19

China v. Tibet

buffer zone

chins territory

timber

mineral resources

water resource

Answer 19

Tibet = an area of huge geo-strategic importance for China
- historically 1/4 of China’s territory
- buffer zone between China and India
- key passage of oil and gas from the Caspian Sea
- 2nd largest source of timber for China => environmental disaster
- huge mineral resources
- water resource = caters for 30% of China’s needs
14th Dalai Lama: heads government-in-exile based in India since 1959 (after a failed uprising against Chinese rule)

Question 20

Question of autonomy/independence

oppression

Dalai Lama

China avoid independence

Answer 20

⇒ Long record of oppression and human rights abuses against the Tibetan people
⇒ waiting for the (exiled) Dalai Lama’s death so that they can appoint their own successor
⇒ China wants to avoid independence at all costs because it fears it will spread like a virus
⇒ The Dalai Lama’s visit to the White House > strain in US-China relations

Question 21

China v. Uyghur People (Xinjiang province)

Uyghurs

March – August 2008 - protests

July - September 2009: riots

4 September 2009: journalists filming

Answer 21

Region of major geo-strategic importance because of oil and natural gas reserves and pipelines from the Caspian Sea

Uyghurs: predominantly Muslim; seeking independence; alleged links to Al Qaeda

March – August 2008: unrest because of ethnic tensions; protests, violence, arrests; attempt to promote cause in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

July - September 2009: riots in capital Ürümqi; protests escalated into violent attacks against ethnic Chinese people; thousands involved, hundreds died

4 September 2009: journalists filming the unrest were attacked and arrested by police > international attention; highlighted lack of press freedom

Question 22

The counter-argument
AUDIO – BBC R4 Today Programme (former Chinese ambassador)

China v. the West: a New Cold War?
The other side of the argument: China’s perspective

Answer 22

• Balancing economic development with democracy
• Different expressions of freedom
• Civil liberties, censorship, Google
• Human rights record, executions

Question 23

HUMAN RIGHTS

Death Penalty

Answer 23

Abolitionist countries in law (de jure) or practice (de facto): 139

• 103 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
• 6 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes
• 50 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice: although they retain the death penalty in law, they have not executed anyone for the past 10 years or more

Retain death penalty: 56

Question 24

Top 5 countries with highest number of executions

Answer 24

China (more than all others put together), Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan

Question 25

Sexual Orientation

Answer 25

♣ women raped to “cure” their lesbianism, sometimes at the request of their parents
♣ individuals prosecuted because their private and consensual relationship is deemed to be a social danger;
♣ loss of custody of their children;
♣ individuals beaten by police; raped and otherwise tortured in detention;
♣ attacked, sometimes killed, on the street – a victim of a “hate crime”;
♣ regular subjection to verbal abuse; bullying at school;
♣ denial of employment, housing or health services;
♣ denial of asylum when they do manage to flee abuse;
♣ threatened for campaigning for their human rights;
♣ driven to suicide
♣ executed by the state.

Question 26

CLIMATE CHANGE: THE ROLE OF CHINA

Is China the ‘bad guy’ in the global climate change debate?
China is building LOTS of coal-fired power stations. But:

key facts and figures

Answer 26

• China has a population of 1.4 billion people and is still a relatively poor country. It accounted for 67% of poverty reduction achievements over the last 25 years. Without China’s effort UN poverty targets cannot be met.
• China is the leading manufacturer of wind turbines and solar PV
• China’s Renewable Energy Law (2005) requires 15% of all energy to come from alternative forms of energy by 2020; currently 7% (v. UK’s 2.25%)
• Energy use per-capita is 1/8 of US and 1/4 of EU
• On target to achieve CO2 emission reductions from top 1,000 energy-consuming businesses

Question 27

Pollution in the Pacific Ocean

also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or the Plastic Vortex

Answer 27

Huge area of the Pacific Ocean covered almost solidly by plastic, chemical sludge, debris etc making a toxic waste cocktail

Exact size is debated as parts of it float visibly while others are under the sea surface

As plastic starts to degrade it’s ingested by living organisms entering the food chain > toxic effects on species + hormone disruption + infects food chain ultimately reaching our plates

Question 28

Project Kaisei

Answer 28

“Capturing the Plastic Vortex”

August 2009: Expedition to research the plastic waste (fact-finding and public awareness mission)

Question 29

Pollution in the Atlantic Ocean

Toxic Seaweed

Answer 29

Intense agriculture and use of fertilisers
> Sea pollution
> Toxic seaweed
> Toxic fumes in coastal areas > poisoning of humans and animals
> 70,000 cubic meters of seaweed cleared up every summer off beaches in Brittany (France) alone
August / September 2009: unprecedented levels of toxic algae
¬ coastal areas in Brittany closed after a lorry driver died
¬ 9 million tourists annually (including 700,000 UK tourists)

Question 30

GLOBAL WATER CRISIS

Answer 30

One in four people live in areas with insufficient water to support them

Question 31

Water is being used at an unsustainable level:

You eat 3,496 litres of water – a day.

Answer 31

• Rivers running dry
• Underground aquifers drained to make up for the shortfall
• Energy used to desalinate water
• Sub-Saharan Africa: lacking infrastructure to get water to people

70% of food emergencies in developing countries are caused by drought

Question 32

Case Study: The Crisis in Nigeria & Niger

Answer 32

Drought during 2009 in Niger and northern Nigeria created the worst food security crisis to hit this area in 30 years. People are moving in both directions across the Nigeria-Niger border in search of employment, grain markets, and access to therapeutic feeding centres.