What Future for the UN Charter System of War Prevention?
Author(s)
Falk, Richard
Abstract
In the aftermath of the Iraq war there are two possible responses to the question of what role the U.N. will play in international politics. One is that it is now irrelevant due to its failure to endorse recourse to war against the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The other is that the U.N. Security Council served the purpose of its founding by its refusal to endorse recourse to a war that could not be persuasively reconciled with the U.N. Charter and international law. The difference of assessment is not just factual, it is also conceptual. The resolution of this latter debate is likely to shape the future role of the United Nations, as well as influence that attitude of the most powerful sovereign state as to the relationship between international law generally and the use of force as an instrument of foreign policy.
