Global Peace and Security

Global Peace and Security

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Institution
Global Peace and Security

The term International relations is used to refer to the relationships between countries and foreign policies in the global community. One main aim in the regulation of internal relations is peace and security. The need for peace and security in the global world draws its origin from The Second World War. During this war, it became clear that conflicts between national interests could only be solved by the regulation of the nations’ behaviors to ensure peace. Prior the world War, the US operated in an isolationist model, which ensured they did not interfere in international conflict. However, the country’s shift from isolationism became widely evident at the end of the First World War as it adopted the “Wilsonian idealism”.

However, there is a difference of ideas when it comes to answering the question, ‘What should be done about peace and security?’ In my opinion, the idealism policy approach should be the case. Political idealism is based on the belief that there should be international systems of morality, law and agreements in the international community. Perhaps the most basic example of idealism is the Wilsonian idealism that is based on Woodrow Wilson’s personal beliefs. President Wilson presented the description of the world that he envisioned in his fourteen points speech, which he delivered in 1918 after the First World War.

The Wilsonian idealism is effective because of various reasons. For one, it proposes the public exercising of diplomacy in the signing of peace agreements. In addition, the Wilsonian idealism has ensured that numbers of national armaments has been reduced to guarantee increased peace. It also seeks to duplicate the Anglo American values of liberty and democracy worldwide because of their positive effect felt in the United States. This model of idealism is also right in its suggestion that the United States should play an active role in promoting global reforms that emphasize on moral authority and cooperation by all states to fight against international aggression (McCormick, 2009).

Indeed, it is through such idealism that the United Nations was established to ensure maintenance of international peace and security. Although the UN has played a remarkable role in managing conflict in the global community, questions arise as to why international conflict continues to persist in most parts of the world. International conflict and insecurity are still widely evident in some parts of the world in spite of the United Nations’ efforts that have evolved well beyond the scope of interstate conflict resolution to incorporate actions such as intrastate humanitarian intervention, environmental protection as well as the establishment of international criminal tribunals (Mineiro, 2012).

However, given the recent trends on global peace and security witnessed in the global community, it has become increasingly apparent that idealism is not the answer to global peace and security. Realists argue that the methods of maintaining peace and security should evolve over time to meet the dynamic challenges prevalent in the modern society. There is a lot of supportive evidence towards this claim. For instance, The United Nations have failed to establish peace in instances such as Yugoslavia’s civil war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (Hauss, 2010).  Additionally, the fact that the international community usually intervenes only after the conflicting parties have reached a hurting stalemate shows that this approach is ineffective. In conclusion, domestic politics makes it extremely challenging to attain a win-win conflict resolution. All of these factors make it extremely difficult to achieve international peace and security.

Nonetheless, The UN has particularly helped in ending numerous conflicts through its Security Council (UN, 2013) as opposed to the suggestions by the idealists. The organization is actively involved in conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peace building, security maintenance as well as the protection of minority groups (UN, 2013). The international community intervention in the Rwandan genocide served to resolve the conflict that resulted in loss of thousands of lives (Kurtz & Turpin, 1999). On the other hand, the role that the international community has played towards resolving international conflict and promoting peace cannot be understated. The international community has played a critical role in resolving international disputes and promoting international relations.

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References

Hauss, C (2010) International conflict resolution 2^nd edition, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

McCormick, M. J (2009) American foreign policy and processes, New York: Cengage Learning.

Mineiro, M (2012) Space regulations library, New York: Springer.

Turpin, E. J & Kurtz, R. L (1999). Encyclopedia of violence, peace, and conflict, Academic Press.

United  Nations (2013) peace and security, retrieved from: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/peacesecurity/