In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER FOUR Intervention in Somalia INTRODUCTION This chapter continues with the themes articulated thus far with an analysis of the intervention in Somalia from 1992 to 1993. While the normative elements of this intervention are more well-known, the political ones will also be explored here. This chapter also expands the book’s arguments beyond the liberal democracies that have been the focus of the other case studies. The final section examines how the UN’s role in Somalia also contains normative and political aspects. If it is the case that the UN somehow represents the “sense of the international community” then its role in this intervention can be scrutinized to discover a meaning for intervention that is more broadly shared than simply among the liberal democracies. While it is true that the liberal democracies were instrumental in the foundation of the UN, it is also true that the Soviet Union played a key role in its formation, and that the role of developing countries in the General Assembly and in the various economic and social bureaucracies has been important in the development of its role in world affairs. The UN does not simply reflect liberal democratic values, it also reflects more wider ranging values and beliefs. Thus its role in the intervention in Somalia should reveal some of these more global values. Even more importantly, using the UN to make my argument demonstrates that political agency should not be limited only to states. The UN is composed of its member states. The UN has, however, taken on a form of agency that has transcended those states. Institutionally, this can be seen in the growth of influence of the Secretariat’s Office and in the work of social and economic councils. More importantly for my analysis, however , is how the UN has narrated itself a form of political agency. At one level, this can be seen in the body of international law and norms generated by the Security Council and the General Assembly. These laws, 155 passed by member states, have given the institution a normative presence that differs from the sum of its parts. At another level, writers both from within the institution and outside of it have constructed the UN as an agent that represents the best in the international community. Not only does it represent certain values, it puts them into action. On the question of intervention, the agency of the UN has vastly increased. As I have argued, intervention is one of the most direct manifestations of global political agency. While certainly constrained by the wishes of the member states and rarely going beyond the mandate of peacekeeping, the UN has in both actions and words pushed its political agency in these missions. The current Secretary General, Kofi Anan, who also served as Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations, has recently published his thoughts on intervention. In one of those speeches, he clearly presents the UN as its own political agent within the context of its normative role as a defender of human rights: And let me therefore be very clear: even though we are an organization of Member States, the rights and ideas the United Nations exist to protect are those of peoples. As long as I am Secretary General , the UN as an institution will always be a place where human beings are at the center of everything we do. (Anan 1999, 24) In an even more striking passage from the same publication, Anan hints at a form of agency completely removed from its member states. In reviewing the UN’s failure in Rwanda, Anan suggests that perhaps the UN would have been better served in Africa by one of the many new private security firms: “[I] even considered [as Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations] the possibility of engaging a private firm. But the world may not be ready to privatize peace” (Anan 1999, 13). If the UN had taken such a step, it would have been more than just “privatizing peace”; it would have meant a qualitative change in the UN’s political agency by giving it an independent military force for engaging in peacekeeping operations. Two other documents reveal the political agency of the UN, an agency that arises, in part, from narration. A key element of political agency is responsibility (Lang 1999). In two recent reports, the UN qua institution has taken responsibility for failed interventions. In its special report on the massacre at Srebencia in July 1995, the institution notes “there...

Share