United Nations

The absence of a credible secular substitute for Assad, a divided opposition, and deadlock in the Security Council, are all acting as stumbling blocks for the US wish to unseat Assad from power.

• Saurabh Mishra
• May 23, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The resolution was responsible for sparking off debates in the UN General Assembly and the Security Council which, in turn, has led to the emergence of viable alternatives to military intervention or the use of force.

• Keerthi Sampath Kumar
• May 23, 2012
• Issue Brief

Article 1 of the United Nations Charter declares the maintenance of international peace and security to be the primary function of the United Nations. This makes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) the most important organ of the whole establishment. All other functions and engagements of the United Nations are in support of the primary cause.

• Saurabh Mishra
• March 2012
• Strategic Analysis

Irrespective of the outcome of the Palestinian bid to seek to become the 194th UN member-state, the effort is a definitive ‘fork-in-the-road’ as far as the future contours of the intractable issue are concerned.

• S. Samuel C. Rajiv
• November 19, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Any organisation established in the aftermath of the Second World War obviously cannot fulfil its functions, in a world that has changed so dramatically, without adapting itself to the contemporary realities of international politics and economics.

When the United Nations Charter was promulgated on 26 June 1945, it reflected the immediate post-war situation and most importantly the international political balance of power that existed in 1945.

• Prakash Shah
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The world has changed significantly since the founding of the United Nations and so have its conflicts. During the mid-twentieth century, the pre-eminent challenge for multilateral cooperation was the awesome prospect of a Third World War. Today, in the aftermath of the Cold War, we see a more elaborated focus on the prevention of conflict and the protection of communities and peoples—both as a sovereign responsibility of the modern nation-state as well as a central focus of the United Nations peace engagements.

• Vijay Nambiar
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

The title of this article is derived from a famous speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, at the United Nations in December 1956. Over the previous decade, Nehru, together with his sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, and Mahatma Gandhi, had been working to build the UN into a form of global government. They termed their vision One World, and it had democracy and human rights as its basis.

• Manu Bhagavan
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

To paraphrase the mantra of realism—international politics, like all politics, is a struggle for normative ascendancy: the establishment and maintenance of the dominant normative architecture of international order created and maintained by the interplay of power and ideas. As China, India and Brazil emerge as important growth centres in the world economy, the age of the West and its disrespect for the role, relevance and voice of the rest of the world is passing.

• Ramesh Thakur
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

Strong motivation is the most important factor in getting you to the top.

Edmund Hillary (on scaling Mt Everest)

Some have compared the goal of a nuclear weapons free world to scaling an incredibly high mountain—and the mountain is covered in cloud making the peak invisible. Thus, they argue, all we can do is take small steps up the lower slope—hoping for better conditions in the future that might make it possible to climb higher.

• Alyn Ware
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis

Nepal has conducted a slew of political experiments since 2006. By inviting the Maoists into the mainstream and collectively deciding to dump the Constitution of 1990, there was hope that a new era of peace and stability would begin with the end of the decade-long armed insurgency. The Constituent Assembly (CA) elections of 2008 saw the emergence of the Maoists as the largest party—which was a totally unexpected and surprising outcome for the international community.

• Nishchal Nath Pandey
• November 2011
• Strategic Analysis