The Great Power Balance, the United Nations and What the Framers Intended: In Partial Response to Hans Kochler

This article is partly a reply to Professor Hans Köchler,who argues that the total absence of a balance of power hasbecome the fundamental predicament of the United Nations Organizationin the 21st century. He locates that problem in the veto powerof the permanent five members, saying that it creates an irreconcilablenormative contradiction with the doctrine of sovereign equality.On the contrary, this article takes a historical view and arguesthat the Framers of the United Nations (UN) Charter clearlysaw the greater opportunity which greater power brings to oilthe wheels of the machinery which they built. Choosing betweena Security Council that could act unchecked and therefore decisivelyand one which evinces a separation of powers in its design,the Framers opted for the latter. The veto separates power.Finally, Professor Köchler argues that the UN has beenmarginalized in recent events. This article argues that hisunderlying assumption, that the shift in the global power balanceof 1945 to the current unipolar imbalance of power automaticallycontroverts the power balance envisioned in the Charter, isnot wholly borne out. The Charter was not simply meant to reflectthe actual patterns of global power outside the organizationbut was intended to foster an enduring understanding of theneed to maintain a specific power balance. By putting the vetoin several hands, the Framers have required the permanent fivemembers to continuously negotiate and seek agreement among themselves.It is this which, in large part, explains observable attemptsby even would-be transgressors today to bring their action withinthe framework of Charter legality.