Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Intervention

We must remember the implications of the fact that the Persian Gulf conflict of 1991 occurred after the Cold War had ended. Elsewhere in this book we have characterised the Cold War as an era of intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, the impact of which was most clearly manifest in the stalemate within the Security Council, the organ tasked with maintaining international peace and security. It consists of fifteen mem- ber states including the five veto-wielding permanent members (commonly referred to as the P5), and during the Cold War, this included the Soviet Union, the United States, China, France and Britain. The permanent members used their power of veto regularly during the Cold War and thereby restricted the ability of the UN to act decisively. At the end of the Cold War, however, the perception re-emerged that the UN could once again function as its founding members had envisaged. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait presented the organisation with just such an opportunity and by the end of February 1991, it had demonstrated that, given consensus among the P5 and the political will to ensure the success of the UN, the Organisation could function efficiently.