Policing the South

Abstract

Keeping the peace or bringing law and order to a region of conflict was one of the many justifications advanced for European imperialism in the nineteenth century. Following World War II this peace-keeping function, supposedly, was to be discharged by the United Nations, except that Cold War rivalries often led instead to a prolongation of warfare as, for example, in Angola or Vietnam since, inevitably, one side was treated as an ally by the West and the other was supported by the Communist bloc. The end of the Cold War has presented the world with new alternatives: the first, that the United Nations really does become the world’s peace-keeper, a role it can only discharge properly if it is given more resources and greater authority, and that decision must rest with the permanent members of the Security Council; the second, that the United States, assisted by the principal western powers, becomes the world’s policeman. Either possibility raises huge problems and questions.