Essay - UN Unable to Address Modern Conflicts

[McArthur]

This could quite possibly be the last copy. Too much going on with other assignments and projects, not to mention I kick off on a big field exercise in two days.

M-A Lagrange, after reading the previous posts and deciding to narrow my subject a bit more, I came to similar conclusions as yourself. The one part you hit on which I completely missed was a potential lack of accountability within the UN system. Very good point.

TheCurmudgeon, as somebody who is likely to make a career out of both soldiering and as a student of security studies, it would not be right for me to simply be regurgitating whatever my professor has fed me. While I do need the grades, my own credibility and honor takes priority over that. I have never been one to align myself with my professors for the sake of earning some easy credits. Last year I was asked to write an essay on whether or not war was less likely as a result of increasing economic interdependence, and I was to argue for either a Realist perspective (Increased trade increases chances of war) or the Liberal perspective (Increased trade decreases chances of war). Out of several hundred essays, mine was the only one which directly challenged the professor and said "No. Neither theory is correct, and I abhor the idea that you can simplify war down to that level" and I went on to argue that neither theory was right or wrong. I guess I'm not an easy student.

Some of the others who bought up points might notice the influence they had on this essay. I sorely wanted to include Entropy's point about sovereignty, and if the word limit was increased that would probably be a point (or paragraph) I would be discussing.

Would like to say thanks to all who provided feedback and debate. It is appreciated very much. Hopefully one day I can provide back to the community with some work of my own.

Regards,

Mac