Selective Responsibility in the United Nations: Colonial Histories and Critical Inquiry

(Hardback)

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The United Nations claims to exist in order to maintain international peace and security, providing a space within which all states can work together. But why, then, does the UN invoke its responsibility to protect through humanitarian intervention in some instances but not others Why is it that five states have the power to decide whether or not to intervene This book challenges the dominant narrative of the UN as an institution of equality and progress by analyzing the colonial origins of the organization and revealing the unequal power relations it has perpetuated.

Harsant argues that the United Nations is unable to fulfill its claims around the protection of international peace and security due to its very structure and the privilege of certain states. Moreover, through a rigorous examination of the history of the UN and how those structures came to be, she argues that the privilege afforded to these states is the result of power relations established through the colonial encounter.

In order to understand the pressing contemporary issues of how the United Nations operates, particularly the Security Council, this book discusses issues of power and sovereignty by de-silencing the narratives of resistance and reconstructing a history of the United Nations that takes this colonial and anti-colonial relationship into account. This is a bold challenge to the eurocentrism that dominates International Relations discourse and a call to better understand the colonialisms role in preserving the existing global order.

Reviews

Selective Responsibility in the United Nations provides a thoughtful critique of the Responsibility to Protect by reconsidering the history of the UN and the League in the context of the global struggle against colonialism. It is essential reading for students of global governance today.

-- Craig N. Murphy, Wellesley College; former president of the International Studies Association; former chair of the Academic Council on the UN System

Author Bio

Katy Harsant is a Teaching Fellow in the sociology department and Deputy Director of Undergraduate Studies in sociology at the University of Warwick.