The League of Nations Redux?

Abstract

This volume has sought answers to a question that has never before been more the topic of conversation around the world: What difference does the United Nations (UN) and its multilateral institutions make in issues of global security? Has the U.S. decision to wage war against Iraq without UN authorization in March 2003 reduced it to an irrelevant debating society, as threatened by the George W. Bush administration? For defenders of the UN system, the consolation prize, at least during the Iraq crisis, was the taking of center stage in world affairs by the UN Security Council and by UN officials like weapons inspector Hans Blix as the world stood transfixed over the drama in late 2002 and early 2003. But given the inability of the UN to substantially alter the course of U.S. policy in waging war on Iraq, is not the skepticism of realpolitik ultimately warranted? Does this mean the UN will follow the ignominious fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations, a specter proffered by the Bush administration?

I thank Mark Zacher and the members of the International Relations and Comparative Politics discussion group at the University of British Columbia for comments on earlier versions of this chapter.