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"No nation needs to face or fight alone the threats which this organization was established to diffuse" Kofi Annan Secretary General

Part I

Introduction

1. Pre-reading task. Answer the following questions:

1. What do you know about the United Nations and its activities?

2. Can you quote any recent developments associated with the UN?

3. What do you know about Russia's participation in the UN's work?

4. How can you get information about the UN?

2. Read the following text

What is the United Nations?

One of the points is that the UN is not always what it seems to be. Consider the following: many people, if asked to define the UN, would probably respond that it is a large organization devoted to world peace, and that it has several main bodies, such as the General Assembly and the Security Council, and an executive leader, the Secretary General. It is headquartered in New York City, they would say, but has operations all over the world.

A look at the UN's organisational flowchart largely confirms this general picture. At the top are the six principal organs (the International Court of Justice, the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly, the Trusteeship Council¹ and the Secretariat)

When we move to the second tier of organisations, the scene is more complicated. Here we find an amazing collection of entities and organisations some of which are actually older that the UN itself and operate with almost complete independence from it. The first group is "Specialized agencies" (UNESCO, WHO, IMF and some others), another group called "Programmes and Funds" includes one very well known body UNISEF and several others that appear frequently in the news like UNHCR. The last block is "The Related Organisations" including IAEA, WTO,WTO², CTBTO and OPCW

We now have a good schematic picture of the UN's structure. But this is only a beginning. When we think about all these organizations in action all abovementioned contributes nothing to answering such simple questions like whether the UN has a military establishment or whether it can raise taxes. Nor does it help to ask the people around you, because polls have revealed that even people in countries that have a pretty friendly view of the UN know little about even its basic workings and often attribute to it powers and authority it doesn't have.

Richard Holbrooke, the US Ambassador to the UN during the last years of Klinton administration has once put it as following: "There are people …who think that the UN has that kind of power and insidious influence, and the truth is the exact opposite, the UN is too weak, not too strong, You start with a certain percentage of people completely misunderstanding the UN, criticizing it from the wrong point of view. Too strong is their fear when in fact too weak to be effective is the truth".

One former US Ambassador to the UN, Nancy Soderberd, claims that "there is no such single thing as the UN". Rather the UN "is 191 countries with different agendas and a whole collection of civil servants who work there and it's all Jell-O. You can't say what the UN is because you touch one area and it comes out looking differently on the other side".

According to Michael Sheehan, an American who served in the UN's peacekeeping department, "the UN is an organisation that has enormous talent, but often its mandates are so obtuse that its actual ability to function is limited. It may be blamed for failing to meet goals for which its members – the world nations – don't give it sufficient resources"

Former Secretary of State Madlene Albright states that "In diplomacy an instrument like the UN will be useful in some situations, useless in others, and extremely valuable in getting the whole job done".

3. Answer the following questions:

1. What can be said about the UN in general?

2. What do the abbreviations mentioned in the text stand for?

4. What are the main difficulties in discussing and understanding the UN?

4. Comment on the heading of the article. How would you answer this question?

5. What is the first thing that occurs to you when you hear about the UN?

6. Do you agree that "the UN is not always what it seems to be"? Why?

7. Which of the abovementioned definitions of the UN seem most appropriate to you? Why? Discuss

8. How would you define the UN?

9. What does the UN mean to you personally? Discuss.

Chapter 1

1. Read the following text

Preamble to the UN Charter

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

And for these ends

• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and

• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and

• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

2. Give Russian equivalents for the following Russian expressions:

1. дважды в нашей жизни

2. бедствия войны

3. вновь утвердить

4. основные права человека / принципы / проблемы

5. обязательства, вытекающие из договоров

6. поддерживать справедливость / мир и безопасность во всем мире

7. поддерживать дружественные отношения /связи

8. общее дело

9. придерживаться точки зрения, что…

10. поддержания мира и безопасности

11. в этих целях

12. проявлять терпимость / быть терпимым к чему-либо

13. в общих интересах

14. экономический и социальный прогресс

15. принять решение что-либо сделать (2 варианта)

16. разрешить проблему

17. разрешить сомнения

3. Answer the following questions using the following clues

1. What are the basic ends the UN aims to attain?

Спасти грядущие поколения от бедствий войны; вновь утвердить веру в основные права человека, в равноправие мужчин и женщин, а также больших и малых стран; обеспечить поддержания уважения к обязательствам, вытекающим из договоров; более широко содействовать социальному и экономическому прогрессу всех народов.

2. How is the UN supposed to attain its ends?

путем проявления терпимости и мирного сосуществования стран с разными социальными системами; путем объединения всех стран членов организации для поддержания мира и безопасности во всем мире; путем обеспечения неприменения военной силы, за исключением случаев, когда это делается в общих интересах; путем использования системы международных отношений для обеспечения экономического и социального прогресса народов.