The COVID-19 test of the United Nations Security Council

Abstract

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has failed the COVID-19 test, unable to promote or facilitate multilateral cooperation in dealing with the outbreak. This is worrying given its relevance as a principal organ of the United Nations (UN) that could enable or constrain international cooperation and given the need for such cooperation in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure of the UNSC to respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the historical limits of the UNSC as a forum for international cooperation. It also suggests that highlighting and debating UNSC reforms are not sufficient or even productive ways to move forward, especially in the context of the challenges that pandemics and climate change represent for global cooperation. It is far from clear if the UN system can change the global structures on which it was built. What does seem clear is that the UNSC is not where one will find the seeds of change for reimagining global order.

Accommodation available: China, Western powers and the operation of structural power in theUNSecurity Council

“…It should be noted that this period was hardly one of consistent and harmonious accommodation between Beijing and the P3 in the Council, especially as the Trump administration took an increasingly anti‐Chinese posture against the backdrop of the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020. The Council was, for example, unable to agree on a thematic resolution on the pandemic for months that year because of a dispute between the US and China over whether the text should reference the World Health Organization, which President Trump accused of covering up China's role in the disease outbreak (Charbonneau, 2021a). The US and UK compounded the resulting tensions by calling for Council consultations on China's crackdown in Hong Kong in May 2020.…”

International Cooperation in the Fight Against Covid-19 as an International Security Problem: An Analysis Within the Framework of the Principle of Indivisibilty of Security

“…Diğer yandan Rusya Federasyonu ve ABD'nin Irak, Afganistan ve Suriye'de yürütmekte oldukları terörizmle mücadele operasyonlarını sekteye uğratma olasılığına karşı tasarıya çekingen yaklaştıkları yönünde görüşler de mevcuttur (Borger, 2020;Gowan, 2020, ss. 66-69, 72;Charbonneau, 2021, ss. 12-13, TRT Haber, 2021a.…”

Developing a conceptual framework for the health protection of United Nations peacekeepers against the COVID-19 pandemic from global health perspectives

“…For example, no members of the Chinese Anti-Ebola medical team deployed to provide vital medical care in Liberia were infected because comprehensive and multi-disciplinary measures were taken from global health perspectives [ 3 ]. Similarly, comprehensive measures taken from global health perspectives may support the health protection of UN peacekeepers against the COVID-19 pandemic [ 22 , 23 ]. Therefore, a conceptual framework with features to understand the issue and strategies to address it may be necessary for UN peacekeepers’ health protection against COVID-19.…”