Does the UN have intelligence?

Survival

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 149-164

  Chesterman, Simon ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33746608209     PISSN: 00396338     EISSN: 14682699     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00396330600905445     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. 'Powell's Address, Presenting "Deeply Troubling" Evidence on Iraq', New York Times, 6 February 2003.
2. See Report on the US Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq (Washington DC: US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 7 July 2004), available at http://intelligence.senate.gov, p. 14.
3. See Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, A/59/565 (New York: United Nations, 2004), available at http://www.un.org/secureworld.
4. See Michael Herman, Intelligence Power in Peace and War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 61-81. Many more -INTs appear in the literature, but these three will be the focus here. Wider definitions of intelligence are sometimes used, such as 'information designed for action', but this would appear to encompass any data informing policy at any level of decision-making.
5. See generally Michael Warner, 'Wanted: A Definition of Intelligence', Studies in Intelligence (Unclassified Edition), vol. 46, no. 3, 2002, pp. 15-22, http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol46no3/article02.html.
6. Herman, Intelligence Power, pp. 111-12.
7. Quoted in Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy and Peter Beaumont, 'US Dirty Tricks to Win Vote on Iraq War', Observer, 2 March 2003.
8. Colum Lynch, 'Spying Report No Shock to UN', Washington Post, 4 March 2003.
9. Stephen Schlesinger, Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2003), pp. 93-4.
10. Cees Wiebes, Intelligence and the War in Bosnia, 1992-1995 (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2003), pp. 25-6.
11. Georgie Anne Geyer, 'Limited Tools for Complex Tasks', Dallas Morning News, 28 September 1993.
12. Compare Warren Strobel, 'UN's Brave New World: Peacekeeping Turns Complex, Violent', Washington Times, 12 July 1993 (quoting Canadian Major-General Lewis MacKenzie to the same effect).
13. Conor Cruise O'Brien, To Katanga and Back (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962), p. 76
14. Brian Urquhart, Hammarskjöld (New York: Knopf, 1972), pp. 159-60.
15. 'Nine Senators Try to Block Funds for UN Office Asked by US', New York Times, 16 April 1987
16. Lewis H. Diuguid, 'Soviets are Changing their Obstructionist Ways at UN', Washington Post, 24 July 1988
17. 'A UN Office Looks to Prevent Wars', New York Times, 16 April 1989.
18. A proposal to create an intelligence capacity focused on early warning, encouraged by the European Community, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, Australia, Canada and New Zealand was quickly killed: Leonard Doyle, 'Washington Opposes Spy Role for UN', Independent, 20 April 1992
19. Mark Curtis, The Great Deception: Anglo-American Power and World Order (London: Pluto Press, 1998), pp. 200-201.
20. Robert E. Rehbein, Informing the Blue Helmets: The United States, UN Peacekeeping Operations, and the Role of Intelligence (Kingston, ON: Centre for International Relations, Queen's University, 1996), http://www.queensu.ca/cir/pdf/Martello16.pdf, p. 30.
21. GA Res 51/243, 15 September 1997; 'UN: Fifth Committee Approves Draft Texts on Financing and Support Staff for Peacekeeping', M2 Presswire, 29 June 1998.
22. William J. Durch, Victoria K. Holt, Caroline R. Earle and Moira K. Shanahan, The Brahimi Report and the Future of UN Peace Operations (Washington DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, 2003), http://www.stimson.org/ fopo/pdf/BR-CompleteVersion-Dec03.pdf, p. 38.
23. David M. Malone and Ramesh Thakur, 'UN Peacekeeping: Lessons Learned?', Global Governance, vol. 7, no. 1, 2001, p. 11.
24. Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (Brahimi Report), UN Doc. A/55/305-S/2000/809 (21 August 2000), available at http://www.un.org/peace/reports/peace_operations/, para. 51.
25. See, for example, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Comprehensive Report on Lessons Learned from United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) (New York: Lessons Learned Unit, 1996), http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/lessons/UNAMIR.pdf, p. 4.
26. Brahimi Report, paras 65-75. The existing units included DPKO's Policy Analysis Unit; DPA's Policy Planning Unit; OCHA's Policy Development Unit; and the Department of Public Information's Media Monitoring and Analysis Section.
27. Brazil, for example, noted that the Secretariat should not be transformed into an intelligence-gathering institution: Fourth Committee: Agenda Item 86 - Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects (continued), UN Doc. A/ C.4/55/SR.21 (16 March 2001), para. 75.
28. See generally Kofi A. Annan, The Question of Intervention: Statements by the Secretary-General (New York: UN Department of Public Information, 1999).
29. Iraq: Prime Minister's Meeting (Memorandum by David Manning; Secret and Strictly Personal - UK Eyes Only) (London: S 195 /02, 23 July 2003), available in 'The Secret Downing Street Memo', Sunday Times (London), 1 May 2005.
30. In addition to the reports cited earlier, see also Intelligence and Analysis on Iraq: Issues for the Intelligence Community (Langley, VA: Central Intelligence Agency, 29 July 2004), available at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20051013/kerr_report.pdf, pp. 2-3: 'In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right.'
31. See generally Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: W.W. Norton, 1969)
32. Robert A. Divine (ed.), The Cuban Missile Crisis (Chicago, IL: Quadrangle Books, 1971).
33. Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq (New York: Pantheon, 2004).
34. Sometimes referred to as Joint Mission Assessment Cells (or Centres) or Joint Military Analysis Cells.
35. SC Res. 1608 (2005), para. 9 (Haiti). Such cells have also been created in Western Sahara, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Report of the Secretary-General on the Situation Concerning Western Sahara, UN Doc. S/2005/648 (13 October 2005), available at http://documents.un.org, para. 20 (Western Sahara)
36. Sixth Progress Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Liberia, UN Doc. S/2005/177 (17 March 2005), available at http://documents.un.org, para. 83 (Sierra Leone and Liberia)
37. Special Report of the Secretary-General on Elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN Doc. S/2005/320 (26 May 2005), available at http://documents.un.org, para 41 (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
38. See Budget for the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the Period from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006, UN Doc. A/60/389 (28 September 2005), available at , pp. 10, 97.
39. UN Charter, art. 47(1).
40. See 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, UN Doc. A/RES/60/1 (16 September 2005), available at http://www.un.org/summit2005, para. 178.
41. George W. Bush, 'State of the Union Address', Washington DC, 28 January 2003, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov.
42. SC Res. 1530 (2004), para. 1.
43. But see Letter dated 15 March 2004 from the Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council, UN Doc. S/2004/204 (15 March 2004), available at http://documents.un.org.
44. Barton Whaley, Codeword Barbarossa (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1973), chapters 3-5.
45. See further Simon Chesterman and Sebastian von Einsiedel, 'Dual Containment: The United States, Iraq, and the UN Security Council', in Paul Eden and Thérèse O'Donnell (eds), September 11, 2001: A Turning Point in International and Domestic Law? (New York: Transnational Publishers, 2005).