Unit 5D: Issues in International Politics Andrew Williams Professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations writes for BBC Parliament

Round-table discussions attempt to preclude the need for conflict

International organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) have responded to the problems of international intervention by a series of major conferences and discussion papers to try and develop new and more effective techniques for dealing with the world's problems.

The most important of these was the UN Secretary General's "Agenda for Peace" of 1992, which changed the basis for the discussion of peacekeeping and Collective Security.

ALSO IN THIS SECTION: Unit 5D - Issues in International Politics Regional Conflict International Intervention Reading list

Some of the key questions it addressed were: How can it respond in a world where conflicts are as likely to be civil as inter-state wars?

Are regional or global solutions better, and should IO's intervene in the affairs of sovereign states if there is no obvious threat to international peace and security? What is the threshold for such a threat to be real?

Global security through regional cooperation

Regional IOs have gained in importance since the end of the Cold War, both in the development of a united Europe and in the development of regional security organizations, of which the best example is the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The response of the international community to new challenges, organised in the UN or regional organisations, has been on occasion confused.

The first reason for this confusion is due to organisations often set up in Cold War conditions having to adapt very rapidly to new conditions.

Over the last dozen years a number of new priorities have emerged, the most obvious being an emphasis on human rights, rather than national sovereignty (see previous section).

And confusion also emerges over implementation, which needs large-scale military forces and resources.

The United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) have often undertaken such military actions, sometimes in the context of the United Nations, sometimes not, as in Kosovo in 1999.

Regional organizations like the OSCE and the EU have often then taken on the task of reconstruction in such areas.

Economic and social challenges

The UN and other IOs have also had to try and deal with the world's economic and social problems.

Since the end of the Cold War this task has largely been given to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

International Trade has been given a new impetus by the setting up of the World Trade Organization in 1995.

There has been an increased emphasis on the need to tie economic development into the principles of human rights and environmental sustainability.

This emphasis was underlined by the UN conferences in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in South Africa in 2002.

Attempts to increase the profile of human rights in the UN have included the appointment of a High Commissioner for Human Rights and the conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001 on racism.

The clash between the emphasis on human rights and the need to maintain peace and security was highlighted by the detention of many Taliban prisoners without trial after the UN - sponsored attacks on Afghanistan in 2001 by the United States Government.