National Sovereignty and Superpower Domination: Implications for the United Nations’ Role in Collective Security
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Abstract
Since the United Nations was established in 1945, world attention has focused on its effectiveness in achieving its key objective of maintaining peace and security. Although in its early years, the world body made efforts to justify the confidence placed in it by its founders and the world at large, the Cold War between the United States of America (USA) and the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a serious challenge to its legitimacy and power. With the five permanent members of the Security Council, especially the USA and USSR, exercising their veto power, achieving international peace and security became more difficult. This development triggered a worldwide call for sweeping reforms in the organisation. This paper focuses on whether calls to revise its Charter to remove the lopsided representation in the Security Council and to address the principle of national sovereignty which currently impacts Council’s decisions, are justified, especially regarding collective security. This reform agenda is relatively understudied, particularly with reference to the performance of its superpower-dominated Security Council before and after the Cold War.
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