The Center for International Studies

October 19, 2009

The World Beyond the Headlines:
The U.N. Security Council and the Making of the Modern World

Professor and journalist David Bosco reflects on the real value of the United Nations Security Council for keeping the peace.

In the October 8th installment of the World Beyond the Headlines lecture series, David Bosco addressed a diverse audience packed in the International House Home Room with insight into the main issues of his most recent book, Five to Rule Them All: The U.N. Security Council and the Making of the Modern World.

In his frequently humorful remarks, Bosco, Assistant Professor in American University's School of International Service, explained the origins of the United Nations Security Council, its ups and downs, personalities, and infamous high profile clashes. In contrast to its important presence in US media when early meetings were open and televised, Bosco noted that the Council today is less a place for public political theater and rather a smoke filled room where ambassadors debate issues and hash out compromises through quiet and secluded negotiation.

As Bosco explained to the audience of University students, faculty and staff, high schoolers and community members, the environment that has evolved in the Council brings many benefits for the member states, especially the Great Powers. Drawing on major issues the Council has previously confronted and is now dealing with—the atrocities in Darfur, piracy off the coast of Somalia, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, nuclear proliferation—Bosco argued that the real success of the Security Council comes not from asking how it has solved problems but how it immediately affects the relations between member nations. Serving on the Council helps foster better connections among the Great Powers and prevent conflicts that could be of disastrous consequence to the international community, a valuable end in itself.

Most audience members seemed to agree with Bosco’s concluding reflections, in which he situated himself in the “passionate middle ground” regarding the Council’s significance. He urged those in attendance not to immediately deem the UN or Security Council wholly useless due to its limited legislative success, but rather, to see the important advantages of sustaining the Security Council body itself.

Answering several questions from the enthusiastic audience, Bosco ended on the hopeful note that, in the future, other powerful nations will benefit equally from serving on the Council.