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Keeping the Peace in an Age of Conflict

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Arms limitations. The League of Nations. Nothing is going to keep. This world fit to live in ... June 1945, 55 nations signed the UN charter in San Francisco. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Keeping the Peace in an Age of Conflict


1
Keeping the Peace in an Age of Conflict
  • Debating the U.S. Role

2
Part 1 The International Communitys Changing
Role
3
How did President Wilson respond to the horrors
of WWI?
  • Diplomatic miscalculation had triggered the
    conflict.
  • Clear procedures for conflict resolution could
    have prevented WWI.
  • 14 points (1918)
  • Self-determination
  • Freedom of seas
  • Free trade
  • Arms limitations
  • The League of Nations

Nothing is going to keep This world fit to live
in like exposing in public every crooked thing
that is going on. --Woodrow Wilson
4
Why did America Reject a larger international
role?
  • Opponents of the league argued that the new
    organization would be a tool of France and
    Britain.
  • The Senate was concerned that they would be drawn
    into European conflicts.
  • US troops could be called upon to defend the
    borders of a French colony in Africa.

5
Why did the League of Nations Fail?
  • Enforcement was difficult
  • No effective mechanisms to force nations to honor
    the covenant.
  • The requirement that all League members agree to
    important decisions often blocked action.
  • League membership was far from universal
  • US didnt join
  • Germany and USSR were initially excluded
  • Early failures (1930s)
  • League failed to stop Japanese aggressioninvasion
    of Manchuria, Rape of Nanking.
  • Powerless in the face of Italian and German
    aggression.

6
The United Nations
  • Like the League of Nations, the seeds for the
    creation of the UN were planted during war.
  • Atlantic charter

7
How was the UN organized?
  • June 1945, 55 nations signed the UN charter in
    San Francisco.
  • Common interest in maintaining global peace.
  • 5 permanent members of the Security Council
  • The veto system was conceived as a safety valve
    that would allow the great power to disagree
    without threatening the UNs existence.

8
How did the UNs founders plan to prevent war?
  • Under chapter VII, the Security council has the
    authority to call upon UN members to cut their
    economic, transportation, communication, and
    diplomatic ties with an aggressive government.
  • Chapter VII also empowers the Security Council to
    take military action to maintain or restore
    international peace and security.

9
Why did the Cold War undermine the UN?
  • Initially the UN was overwhelmed by the bitter
    divisions of the Cold War.
  • Veto systemUS-Soviet hostility often prevented
    the Security Council from making decisions.
  • Korean War
  • US led a UN forces to resist communist North
    Koreas invasion of South Korea.

10
What was the role of the UN in peacekeeping
during the cold war?
  • The UN was effective in dealing with disputes
    related to the breakup of European empires in
    Asia and Africa.
  • 1948Monitored a UN truce between Israel and Arab
    neighbors.
  • Indian and Pakistani armies over Kashmir.
  • Suez Crisis of 1956
  • UN peacekeeping troops took their positions only
    with the consent of the country or countries
    involved.

11
How has the UNs role expanded since the end of
the Cold war?
  • Decision making was no longer blocked by the
    gridlock of the Cold War.
  • UN membership quadrupled
  • New problems emerged
  • Thinning of the ozone layer
  • Spread of nuclear weapons
  • AIDS

12
How have peacekeeping operations changed?
  • Initially the founders of the UN saw their
    primary task as resolving conflicts between
    states.
  • Many of the conflicts raging today are fueled by
    militias that ignore government authority.
  • Somalia
  • UN forces found themselves caught in the
    crossfire among rival groups that did not respect
    negotiated agreements.
  • Bosnia
  • UN troops were sent in to save lives while the
    bullets were still flying. (peacemakers)

13
THE US ROLE
  • Initially isolationists
  • Spanish-American War
  • Protect US financial interests

14
How did anti-communism shape US policy toward
international conflicts?
  • CONTAINMENT
  • The strategy of containing Soviet Communism
    guided US involvement aboard.
  • Americans today are beings asked to define a new
    set of values and interests for determining our
    countrys involvement abroad.

15
DEFINING TERMS
  • Read the handout and answer the 5 questions
    proposed.
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