Current Affairs Questions Highlight the factors and forces, which have contributed to the sideline the United

Nations Organization in terms of its peace and security role? (2003) The United Nation as represents mankinds attempt to ascertain some mechanism for world peace. The concept of United Nations arose out of the vision of the Allied Powers in the Second World War, who wished to see order emerge from the chaos of a catastrophic war. The United Nations can be best defined as Association of states which have pledged themselves by signing the charter to maintain world peace and to co-operate in creating such candidates under which peace and security can be achieved. However despite all the resources available at the UNs disposal the performance of the UN in dealing with security issues have largely been unsuccessful. On the face of it the UN charter creates an ideal structural framework for the setting up of a boardbased international organization however except for a few military actions and efforts for peaceful settlement of disputes, there have been several failures on the part of the UN. Why the UN has not been able to effectively solve the worlds security crisis is a question which is very often asked. In the first instances critics looked at the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council with contempt. IN the Cold-War era the veto power was so liberally used by the two superpower-USA and USSR- that it became virtually impossible to pass resolution on matters of urgent importance and value. This trend has continued in the post Cold-War era. Ever since its inception the UN has been dominated by the superpowers that have without restraint or restriction sheltered and protected their favorites. This has greatly undermined the importance of the UN in world affairs and has hampered its growth and development. Where the superpower desired an action a UN peacekeeping force was sent but other areas that do not serve the purpose of their interest were ignored such as the Kashmir issue or Bosnia. Another issues is with respect to the interpretation of Article 2(7) of the charter which provided that nothing in the charter shall authorize the UN to intervene in matters that are essentially which the domestic jurisdiction of any state or require the members to submit such matters to settlement under the charter. For example France maintained that Algeria was a direct concern of France and denied a UN intervention. The absence of effective power to purse the offending states also renders the United Nations Impotent there no effective machinery like the permanent international police force or any to implement the decisions of UN at once. UN is dependent on troop contribution and so sometimes the action is delayed. Lastly the UN is under severe budgetary constraints. Its members do not contribute fully their annual share of the UN budget this greatly hampers the effective functioning of UN in political, social and economic fields.

Association of the South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) is a success story of regional organization. What lessons SAARC can learn from the experience of ASEAN?(2007)
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regionally-based international organization with ten members. ASEAN was created in 1967 with five members: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In a region divided by the Cold War and with warfare threatening Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, there was a need for an international forum to promote peace and security, as well as economic growth. There are several reasons behind ASEANs success, one of which is that since the governmental types of its members were both different and antagonistic towards each other, ASEAN has functioned from the beginning on the principle of non-interference. That is, no ASEAN government will criticize in public what another ASEAN government does in its own territory. Another reason for success has been that the bickering among these neighbors, characteristic of the 1950s and early '60s, had been put aside in favor of the''ASEAN first'' cooperation. Economically, ASEAN is by no means a common market, but there have been important steps toward complementarily by reductions in intraregional tariffs, joint ASEAN-government investment in industrial projects such as fertilizer plants, and pushing private-sector investment projects in which entrepreneurs from all ASEAN nations can take part. The ASEAN approach ensures that the regional cooperation does not undermine the domestic policy autonomy of member states. On the other hand the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) has not been able to reap the benefits of a regional organization. The answer to this question is present in the charter of SAARC itself, which simply refers to the possibility of increased co-operation, contact and exchange which hopefully would contribute to the promotion of friendship and understanding as well as the welfare of the people of South Asia. It excludes bilateral and contentious issues from the organizations deliberation. Other reasons that pertain to a lack of convergence of political security of the member states as also an absence of a perceived threat to their vital interest from common enemy factors which contributed towards the viability of other regional grouping such as the European Union and ASEAN. The problem in South Asia is the countries are unwilling to comprise on political issues that makes economic relations impossible. For example Pakistan and India will only be able to cooperate once they agree on the settlement of the Kashmir question. Kashmir question has to be settled before other confidence building measures can start giving dividends. Another reason of SAARCs failure is that longstanding mutual disputes and irritants exist between a good number of seven SAARC nations with no sign of their being resolved in the near future which is weakening the case of regional format of cooperation Besides these political differences and mutual distrust among the member states of SAARC another serious hurdle to the functioning of the organization is the asymmetry between India and other members in terms of demography and economic and technological development. SAARC has another peculiarity in the sense that four members India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives are in the middleincome group of developing countries where as Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan being to the least developed group. This disparity between two groups of the region is not conducive to rapid economic

cooperation as the least developed group wants special and preferential treatment. For SAARC to succeed it is important it overcomes these barriers and progress towards economic integration.