Will UN Become Another League Of Nations?
by Hilmi Toros
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by Hilmi Toros |
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(IPS) --
"It
is us today, it will be you tomorrow."
With those words, a small nation appealed to a world organization to save it from invasion. Its plea was in vain. The international organization failed to act forcefully in the face of a resolute power determined to act with or without world sanction. This was not Iraq, the United States and the United Nations in 2003. It was Ethiopia, Italy and the League of Nations in 1936. The subsequent invasion was a nail in the coffin of the League, the forerunner to the United Nations. Are there lessons to be learned from the League's Ethiopian experience? What will be the effect of the Iraq invasion on the future of the United Nations? The two episodes seem relevant now, although there are differences. Ethiopia was a small hapless victim but, unlike Iraq, under no world body's order to disarm. Italy was in the grip of a fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, who wanted Ethiopia because he felt Italy's spoils after World War I had been small compared to those of Britain and France. "Italy received but a few crumbs from the rich colonial booty gathered by others," Mussolini said, and demanded Ethiopia as "a small place in the sun." To him Ethiopia was "of primary importance to Italian security and civilization" as a part of his dream for another Roman Empire. The League imposed sanctions on Italy for its aggression on Ethiopia. But they were meek and excluded coal, oil or steel. France and Britain did no more than denounce Italy. It took Italy seven months of military action to conquer and annex Ethiopia, using its air power and possibly chemical weapons. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's passionate plea to the League fell on deaf ears. Eight nations left the League in the next three years. In the current mosaic, the UN stands challenged both by the United States and Iraq. President Bush told the General Assembly in September that the world organization would lose credibility of it failed to disarm Iraq. "The United Nations [must] show some backbone and resolve as we confront the true challenges of the 21st century," he said. "Make no mistake about it, if we [the United States] have to deal with the problem, we'll deal with it." Iraq, in turn, has portrayed itself as another victim of a U.S. design for world domination. Patrick G. Coy, associate professor at the Center for Applied Conflict Management at Kent State University in the U.S. agrees with President Bush's claim that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein put the credibility of the UN on the line, but adds: "It also is true that Bush's ultimatum to the United Nations threatens its credibility over the long term. When the United Nations is susceptible to ultimatums by its most powerful member, it risks success in dealing authoritatively with all countries, large and small, influential and not." He says "private, strong-arm tactics by the United States towards the United Nations are weakening the organization's ability to evade the irrelevancy Bush is purportedly concerned about." As examples he cites U.S. pressure last April to oust Brazilian Jose Bustani as director-general of the 145-nation Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Bustani had refused to follow U.S. policy. Also, Robert Watson left as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change under pressure from Washington. Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, told IPS in an interview last September that she was "eased out" as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights under U.S. pressure. She had occasionally pointed the finger at the United States for violating human rights in pursuit of its proclaimed war on terrorism. The UN, unable to prevent the invasion of Iraq, is now seeking a role in its reconstruction to assert its credibility. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the involvement of the UN in putting Iraq back together would bring "legitimacy which is necessary." France is also looking for a more active role for the UN. On the other hand, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice claims that it is natural for those who fought in the war to play a leading role in the aftermath. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is portrayed as somewhere in the middle. The UN may have achieved some successes. But so had the League. It guaranteed the security of Albania in 1921, rescued Austria from economic disaster, settled the division of Upper Silesia in Poland in 1922) and prevented the outbreak of war between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925. The League, like the United Nations, extended considerable aid to refugees; helped suppress opium traffic; did pioneering work in health surveys; extended financial aid to needy states; and furthered international cooperation in labor relations and many other fields. But the world of big-power realpolitik made itself felt. The League was forced to stand by haplessly in the face of the French occupation of the Ruhr in Germany in 1923 and Italy's occupation of the Greek island KŽrkira in 1923. Failure to take action over the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in north-eastern China in 1931 was a blow to the League's prestige, followed by Japan's withdrawal from the League in 1933. The League also failed to stop the Chaco War, from 1932-35 between Bolivia and Paraguay. After the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939, Japan's resumption of war against China in 1937, and the British and French bowing to Adolf Hitler on Czechoslovakia at Munich in 1938, the League eventually collapsed, although it had its parting shot in expelling the Soviet Union for its attack on Finland in December 1939. The biggest problem may have been that the League was practically stillborn. President Woodrow Wilson, an architect of the League, was unable to persuade the U.S. Senate to support it. The United States is not only one of the UN's founding members, but also its host and largest contributor. The invasion of Iraq might see it become merely the UN's landlord.
Albion Monitor
April 9, 2003 (http://www.albionmonitor.net) All Rights Reserved. Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format. |
