Dr. Edward Burke:

I am very sympathetic to the idea that the General Assembly should be more proactive. Unfortunately, we have not seen that in recent years. Richard Gowan, the UN director of the international crisis group has done a study of various attempts by member states to try to get the General Assembly to break the deadlock we see in the Security Council. Unfortunately, that has not borne much success. There does not seem to be a huge appetite to take on this role, sadly. We saw that in Myanmar in 2021, when the attempt there did not really get anywhere. I would be concerned that there is not an alternative, and UN reform, including of the Security Council, is something we have been an advocate for. Various governments have advocated for that for years. Of course, the P5 is completely unrepresentative. It should be reformed, but, unfortunately, we are deadlocked because of the veto, etc.

Chapter VIII of the UN Charter is very important. The UN was not designed for the Security Council to always be arbiter of everything, particularly when it comes to regional peacekeeping. This is specifically outlined in Chapter VIII. I would hate to see a situation such as Operation IRINI, where the Bosnian Government is asking us to stay and help it and there is a veto from Moscow which means that suddenly we have to tell it that we cannot help and that we cannot be part of EUFOR's Operation Althea. That seems to be counterproductive and against the terms of Chapter VIII, particularly if it is very much peacekeeping by consent and at the request of the host government. For Ireland to pack its bags at a time of major growing tensions in the Balkans, where we will probably need more peacekeepers rather than fewer in future because of those tensions, would be really regrettable for our reputation on the Continent and, indeed, in Sarajevo.