Maintaining Peace and Security?: The United Nations in a Changing World by Trudy Fraser

Author:Trudy Fraser [Fraser, Trudy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, Intergovernmental Organizations, General
ISBN: 9781350312012
Google: O_tGEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 22609764
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2014-11-20T10:57:41+00:00

Of the G4 states, India contributed the least financially, with a 2006 budgetary assessment of U$7 million (see UN 2006a), but it had no outstanding dues to the UN and was the largest contributor of troops among the G4 states. Indeed, India ranked fourth out of all UN member states in terms of military personnel contributions, with a 2005 troop contribution of 7,204 (see UN 2005c). According to Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh:

The management of global interdependence requires strong international institutions and a rule-based multilateral system. The reform of the United Nations must be based on this principle [but] unfortunately, the United Nations suffers from a democracy deficit. Its structure and decision-making process reflect the world of 1945, not 2005. (ICR2P 2005)

Japan

The Japanese candidacy was based on a perceived disunity between Japanese political power and its non-permanent status in the Security Council. Since 1950, Japan has been contributing to the international system as an economic and political power, and it was the position of the Japanese government that Japan should have a Security Council position relevant to its status. Japan’s candidacy was based on addressing the perceived political imbalance of its position and creating a newer, more relevant position from which to contribute.

Japan’s quest to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council has played a key role in Japanese foreign policy since the late 1980s (see Green 2003: 200–7) and is reflective of Japan’s attempts to recover from its ‘enemy’ image, and how Japan sees the UN as a positive forum in which to project and participate as a trusted and contributing member of international society.

Japan has come to view the UN as a primary multilateralist tool for addressing global issues. As a contributor to the UN system, Japan ranked second in terms of finance, with a 2006 budgetary assessment of US$332 million (see UN 2006a), making Japan the largest contributor among the G4 states. However, like Germany, Japan was limited in terms of being able to contribute militarily, despite a dramatic increase in Japanese contributions to peacekeeping since their first dispatch of 27 electoral observers to the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia in 1989 and the subsequent 1992 enactment of the International Peace Cooperation Law that enabled the deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to UN peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance operations. Since then, Japanese Self-Defense forces have been operational in Cambodia (UNTAC) in 1992, Mozambique (ONUMOZ) in 1993, Zaire and Tanzania (UNAMIR) in 1994, the Golan Heights (UNDOF) since 1996, East Timor (UNTAET) in 2002 and there again (UNMISET) from 2002 to 2004. However, in 2005 Japan was responsible for contributing only 30 troops. Japan’s pacifist constitution serves as a real obstacle to the country’s ability to project military force, and Japanese public opinion has a strong streak of pacifism which rejects any [military] activity even to the extent of very modest, classical peacekeeping activities.

The Japanese candidacy was, however, based on what Japan believed it would be capable of contributing should the curtailment of nonpermanency

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