The hope is for pragmatism to drive a transition process. Obsessive adherence to ideological preferences will not build national unity or a sound foreign policy.
Because reform of the current UN Charter is off the table, the only avenue left is to dissolve the charter and draw up a new treaty that limits or abolishes the power of the veto.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin toast during their dinner at the Kremlin in Moscow in March 2023.
(Pavel Byrkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The spectacle of two UN Security Council members — China and Russia — allegedly perpetrating mass atrocity crimes is deeply troubling. Here’s how the international community must step up.
With no end in site to the Ukraine war, and the UN largely powerless, New Zealand now faces difficult military, humanitarian, diplomatic and legal challenges.
Russia’s indiscriminate war in Ukraine has caused a large-scale humanitarian crisis.
EFE-EPA/Sergey Dolzhenko
An expert on the history and politics of the UN says that the Security Council’s failure to intervene in Ukraine is a “black eye,” but the panel’s inability to act is not a design flaw.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country is committed to achieving world peace through negotiation, and not force.
GCIS/Flickr
The relationship between South Africa and the West, especially the US, has a complex history. Not least because the US designated those fighting the apartheid regime, as terrorists.
What’s the point of international law if Russia can still invade Ukraine? Where is the enforcement? Three experts explain why holding Russia to account is so difficult.
South African peacekeepers on patrol in North Kivu, DR Congo
EPA/EFE/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
UN peacekeeping missions need to adapt to the complexities of active conflict situations.
Gambia’s President-elect Adama Barrow waves after his inauguration at Gambia’s embassy in Dakar, Senegal. But will he be able to go home?
Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon
Military intervention is sanctioned and executed by states. It is thus always a function of state interests rather than the objective enforcement of law. The case of The Gambia is no different.
On Thursday July 17, 298 people lost their lives when Flight MH17 was downed in eastern Ukraine. Almost immediately accusations were made that the aircraft had been shot down by pro-Russian separatists…