Primus Inter Pares? Challenges to Un/Regional Organizations’ Cooperation in Peace and Security
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chapter 4 Primus Inter Pares? Challenges to un/Regional Organizations’ Cooperation in Peace and Security The field of the maintenance of international peace and security is marked by the close ties between the un and regional organizations. The un Charter devotes one chapter—Chapter viii—to these relations, but a singular focus on this chapter does not suffice to understand these relations in their entirety. Other provisions of the Charter and the ensuing practice give way to other modes of interaction. The relations between the un and regional organizations will initially be un- derstood through the definition and identification of “regional arrangements” or “regional agencies” to which Chapter viii of the Charter makes reference. Such an approach will allow us to grasp the evanescent character of these no- tions. In this framework, we will also highlight the principles that appear to guide these relations.1 We will then present the ensuing evolution through the prism of Articles 52 and 53 of the un Charter, while reference will also be made to Chapter vii. Chapter viii is a benchmark of sorts in discussions concerning the relations between universal and regional institutions in the area of the maintenance of peace and security. However, in practice, the Security Council (sc) refers only rarely to Chapter viii as the framework of any proposed action. The possible causes of the “marginalization” of Chapter viii will be examined. The result- ing activities often respond to ambiguous legal formulae and political com- promises on the responsibilities of the various institutional actors involved. Considerations of efficiency and pragmatism are privileged in the cooperation between universal and regional organizations without much importance be- ing attached to the normative consequences of their actions.2 The evolution of the legal framework of cooperation between the un and regional organizations in the field of international peace and security has led to the emergence of various phenomena that are not always easy to grasp in 1 See also Peyró Llopis, A., Force, onu et organisations régionales: Répartition des responsabili- tés en matière coercitive, Brussels, Bruylant, 2012. 2 See Villalpando, S., “L’évolution des relations entre les Nations Unies et les organisations ré- gionales de la Charte à nos jours”, in Aznar, M., Footer, M. (eds.), Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law, Oxford, Hart, 2015, pp. 119–128, pp. 127–128. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi �0.��63/9789004�58969_006 <UN> Peace and Security 143 a legal sense, especially with regard to questions on responsibility allocation between the un and regional organizations. These phenomena involve, inter alia, the migration of regionalism towards Chapter vii of the Charter, the at- tempted circumvention of the monopoly of the sc concerning the use of force in international relations, and hybrid cooperation models between the un and regional organizations. One key feature is that there has always been a contin- ual oscillation between universalism and regionalism in the collective security field,3 with various positions in between the two extremes also reflecting the rich practice. After having identified institutional arrangements that fall within Chapter viii of the un Charter, we will analyze the composite character of the relations between the un and regional organizations in the field of the maintenance of international peace and security, with a particular focus on institutional inter- action, operational partnerships and the allocation of responsibility. Finally, we will inquire as to the most appropriate model for conceptualizing univer- sal-regional relations in this field. A Chapter viii of the un Charter and Its Reference to Regional Institutional Arrangements The Charter does not provide a definition of the concept of a regional arrange- ment or agency, and the travaux préparatoires and subsequent practice offer no further clarification. Different criteria have been proposed to define a re- gional organization under Chapter viii and the relatively flexible nature of the relevant criteria facilitates efficiency in the system of the maintenance of peace and security, as well as increased synergy between the un and regional organizations. The particularities of the notion of “regional organization” as applied in the context of a Chapter viii analysis must be compared to the generic concept of “regional organization”, whose contours have been sketched above.4 While the first notion is subject to the restrictive criteria concerning the regional ar- rangements that fall under the scope of application of Chapter viii, the sec- ond is not subject to those restrictions and is, thus, applicable to any other case of interaction between the un and regional organizations in the field of international peace and security. 3 The concepts of regionalism and universalism encompass regional agencies and institutions and the un respectively. 4 See, supra, Chapter i of this book. <UN>.