UN Security Council

The Council is composed of fifteen member states, five of them permanent members and specified by name in the Charter. These are the United States, Russia (replacing the Soviet Union in 1991), China, the United Kingdom, and France. The rest are elected for two-year terms out of the general population of the UN General Assembly under a formula that ensures representation to five “regions” of the world.

Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council

The politics of legitimacy is central to international relations. When states perceive an international organization as legitimate, they defer to it, associate themselves with it, and invoke its symbols. Examining the United Nations Security Council, Ian Hurd demonstrates how legitimacy is created, used, and contested in international relations in his book “After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council”. The Council’s authority depends on its legitimacy, and therefore its legitimation and delegitimation are of the highest importance to states.

Through an examination of the politics of the Security Council, including the Iraq invasion and the negotiating history of the United Nations Charter, Hurd shows that when states use the Council’s legitimacy for their own purposes, they reaffirm its stature and find themselves contributing to its authority. Case studies of the Libyan sanctions, peacekeeping efforts, and the symbolic politics of the Council demonstrate how the legitimacy of the Council shapes world politics and how legitimated authority can be transferred from states to international organizations. With authority shared between states and other institutions, the interstate system is not a realm of anarchy. Sovereignty is distributed among institutions that have power because they are perceived as legitimate.

His book explores these issues through the practical workings of the Security Council. It examines how the members of the United Nations approach the Council and how the Council responds in its daily operations. The practical role of the Council in international relations is not well understood, despite the great deal of reporting and analysis on its actions since 1945.

Even simple questions about the behavior of the Council and its effects on states and on the international system have complicated answers. This complexity, I suggest, is due in part to an underappreciation of the role of legitimacy and legitimation in the routine business of the Council. Without understanding the peculiar nature of power based on legitimacy, one cannot understand the behavior and effects of the Council.

The Council is potentially the most powerful international organization ever known to the world of states, which makes it a crucial test case for the operation of legitimacy in the international system: its peculiar combination of extensive powers and political limitations means that its effectiveness depends on its legitimation. This section gives a brief overview of the Security Council and explains why the institution is a useful place to see behavioral consequences from strategies of legitimation in international relations.

The Pirates Issue: United Nations Security Council in 2011

United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): The Security Council adopted three resolutions on piracy in 2011. U.N. Doc. S/RES/1976, U.N. Doc. S/RES/2015, and U.N. Doc. S/RES/2020. The United States actively supported the work of the Security Council to counter piracy and was responsible for drafting Resolution 2020. At a Security Council briefing on a report on piracy prosecution on January 25, 2011, Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, welcomed many of the report’s recommendations. Ambassador Rice’s statement, excerpted below, is available in full at (internet link) usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/2011/155277.htm.

Piracy

…[P]iracy off the coast of Somalia threatens us all. Captured crews are used as human shields or held for ransom. And the region faces higher prices for basic commodities. Piracy endangers the critical delivery of humanitarian aid. And the rising sums of illicit funds flowing into Somalia through ransom payments further destabilize the region and fuel the growth of organized crime and terrorism.

Many members of this Council participate in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which has proved a flexible and efficient forum for coordination and information-sharing. Much is being done to combat piracy, from disseminating best practices to youth-employment projects. But plainly, much more work remains to be done.

As the report notes, industry adoption of best-management practices and naval operations off the coast of Somalia reduce the rate of successful pirate attacks. Several mechanisms can certify such steps. For example, measures are reviewed as part of the process whereby a vessel’s security plan is approved under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. Under other International Maritime Organization provisions, such as the International Safety Management Code, documentation that a vessel has implemented the appropriate best practices can be issued. We welcome assistance in further encouraging the adoption of such best practices, and we encourage nations to contribute ships to patrol the waters off the Somali coast, as several of the U.S. fellow Council members have already done.

We also support the report’s recommendation that targeted cooperation with Somaliland and Puntland be increased.

But the best long-term solution to piracy is a stable Somalia. So the United States supports a wide range of economic-development programs there, including micro-credit and good-governance initiatives. Tailored initiatives that actively involve the local community may do the most good.

Details

The United States also agrees that prevention, prosecution, and incarceration are essential elements of any counter-piracy initiative. We strongly support the report’s recommendations that all states criminalize piracy, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and adopt universal jurisdiction over this grave crime. The report recognizes the need to raise awareness, to encourage piracy’s victims to testify against their attackers, and to explore means to provide such testimony, including via videoconference. We agree.

More about the Issue

Mr. President, the United States has long encouraged flag states and states whose crews and vessel owners have fallen prey to pirates to pursue prosecutions in their domestic courts to the greatest extent possible. We welcome the report’s call for all states to strengthen their commitment and ability to prosecute. In cases where American vessels have been attacked, we have prosecuted the suspects. We also recognize the need to develop one or more reliable, practical options for prosecution in the region. Kenya and the Seychelles are successfully prosecuting piracy cases in their national courts; Tanzania has changed its laws to allow it to prosecute suspected pirates captured elsewhere. These countries experience indicates that prosecution in the region is potentially viable. We should continue to support regional states’ efforts to try suspected pirates in their national courts. Not only does such support help ensure that piracy bears judicial consequences, it also enhances the judicial capacity of the region as a whole. As we continue to discuss additional mechanisms, we should also support and strengthen prosecution-related programs in the region that are already underway.

My government also remains open to exploring creative solutions to increase and facilitate domestic prosecutions. The report suggests forming specialized piracy courts in Somaliland and Puntland, as well as a Somali court seated in another country in the region. We would support further consideration of these ideas including in the Legal Working Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which has been exploring prosecution mechanisms for some time now.

United Nations Security Council in 2011

United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): But as the United Nations report recognizes, incarceration may be the most significant constraint on piracy prosecutions. The United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are supporting prison rehabilitation projects, but additional support and options for long-term incarceration are needed. We encourage states to work with and through UNODC to develop additional facilities where convicted pirates can serve their sentences. The lack of places to incarcerate convicted pirates significantly hinders additional national prosecutions and makes it harder to ensure judicial consequences for piracy.

Finally, as the report notes, we must pay more attention to the instigators, leaders, and financiers of piracy. We look forward to the conclusions of the next Contact Group plenary meeting about how to move forward. It is critical to disrupt the financial flows that make piracy both possible and profitable. To that end, the United States will convene on March 1st in Washington an ad hoc meeting of Contact Group participants on the financial aspects of piracy, as called for by the Contact Group, to develop a strategy and an action plan on this topic.

Pirates issue in the United Nations Security Council

Mr. President, over the last few years, pirates have been using more and more violence. Their tactics have become more sophisticated, and their vessels have hunted further and further out at sea. We must work together and remain vigilant. In cooperation with the international community, the United States will do its part to combat this common and urgent threat.

Developments

After the Security Council adopted Resolution 2015, the United States issued a press statement welcoming the steps taken in the resolution. The press statement, available at (internet link) state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/10/176231.htm, included the following: The United States welcomes the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous call to all nations in the world to continue their cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of all persons responsible for acts of piracy, armed robbery at sea, and Kidnap for Ransom off the coast of Somalia. This includes key figures of criminal networks involved in piracy who illicitly plan, organize, facilitate, or finance and profit from such attacks. We also welcome the further practical steps taken by the Council in support of national, regional and international efforts to prosecute pirates, and to enhance related prison capacity.

Details

This development is the latest indication of growing international consensus that these transnational criminals pose a serious shared security challenge for the safety and well-being of seafarers, global commerce and humanitarian aid.

Resources

Hierarchical Display of UN Security Council

International Organisations > United Nations > UNO
International Relations > International security > Peace > Multinational force