Wenyi Lai
Oct. 8, 2000
According to the Charter of the UN, the United Nations is an international organization ¡§ to save succeeding people from the scourge of war¡¨, ¡§to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security¡¨ and ¡§to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace¡¨. Accordingly, the UN has many approaches to promoting peace and security. The Security Council proceed the approaches. They are peaceful settlement, collective security, disarmament, and preventive diplomacy etc.
Also in the Charter of the UN, the UN is to ¡§promote social progress and better standard of life¡¨, and ¡§to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character¡¨. Hence, committees under the General Assembly and ECOSOC were the main body to adopt effective movements to promote mankind welfare.
Between peace and security on the one side, and economic and social development on the other, which holds out a greater promise for world prosperity?
In the one hand, peace and security will contribute to world prosperity. Here are the reasons:
1. If there were no WW II, the United Nations would not been founded. If there were no threaten from wars, the states would not give away its authorities to international organization. Peace and security is critical to international organizations. And without peace and security, the world prosperity will not happened.
2. As Immanual Kant taught us, ¡§Perpetual Peace¡¨ is the ultimate goal of all human being. International organization, world government, economic, social, cultural cooperation, and aid are ¡§means¡¨. Peace and security is ¡§end¡¨.
In the other hand, some argued that economic and social development is more critical to world prosperity. As Chief Arthur C.I. Mbanefo argued: ¡§The United Nations that has to do with economic and social development¡K.because that is what people primarily aspire to,¡K.peace and security itself is not durable if it doesn¡¦t rest on a foundation of development and justice among peoples¡¨. Here are the reasons that economic and social development is more important lately:
1. After the Cold War era, the world is relatively more peaceful now. Neoliberal theorists hold that in the post-Cold War world, security issues no longer play the dominant role in international affairs. The possibility of devastating war is pretty low. The international economic, social and cultural cooperation is likely to happen.
2. The world problem at stake is that there are still billion people¡¦s living standard are below poverty. The unbalance of North-South relation will finally contributes to economic stagnation. The UN lead aid projects are necessary to change the status quo.
For now, economic and social development holds out a greater promise for world prosperity.