IV. Main players and their positions

Most of all, it is up to the UN Security Council Permanent Members to find the proper solution to the problem. One of the reasons for it is that all of the states mentioned below (obviously, except for the observer) have the veto power. As for the other members of the Security Council, their arguments and motivation depend on the internal situation within the country and their traditional foreign policy.

Russian Federation. On the one hand, Russia strongly opposed to the declaration of Kosovo independence. At the same time, taking into account the Crimean case, it is clear that the right to self-determination served as the grounding in this situation. Geopolitical tensions with the Anglo-Saxon bloc can heavily influence Russia’s position.

People’s Republic of China. China is usually supportive of Russia’s position on many issues; however, keeping in mind that there are such regions as Xinjiang and Tibet, along with numerous border conflicts and territorial disputes (e.g. over Diaoyu islands), the PRS is very likely to be rather moderate. One has to remember that China abstained during the voting procedure on Crimea.

France. Despite traditional rivalry with England (that showed itself throughout the history), France is now UK’s partner in the EU. Besides, separatism is also strong within some parts France (in Corsica, for instance).

United Kingdom. The UK is willing to retain its territorial integrity, claiming that there is no justification to the actions of the separatists (see Chapter III).

United States of America. Being a strategic partner and military ally of the UK, the U.S. is unlikely to encourage Irish separatism. Still, the Irish lobby is very powerful in the United States which can leave imprint on their position.

Ireland (observer). As stated before, Ireland seeks reunification with Northern Ireland. Ireland is ready to support separatists in many ways including military (see Chapter III).

Conclusion

Within the framework of the United Nations Security Council, the participants are being offered an opportunity to propose their points of view on the problem (which, of course, should go well with the official positions of their countries). In an attempt to find a compromise and minimize the damage of the clashes, one has to bear in mind national interests of the state.

Curiously enough, almost all of the UN SC member states have regions that potentially could claim independence (under certain circumstances). This will definitely have implications on their official stances.

To sum it up, the goal of the member states is to come up with the solution that would satisfy all actors in these conditions. In order to achieve it, the states have to conduct negotiations taking into account positions of their counterparts, create a working paper (or several of them), then draft resolution, and develop it to a full-scale UN SC resolution. Finally, this agenda is rather important in the modern globalizing world, so the urgency of the problem cannot be underestimated.