On January 31, 1992, the Security Council met for the first time in its history at the level of Heads of State, indicating the importance of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to address the maintenance of international peace and security in the post-Cold War world. As noted by the President of the Security Council "this meeting takes place at a time of momentous change. The ending of the Cold War has raised hopes for a safer, more equitable and more human world. Rapid progress has been made, in many regions of the world, towards democracy and responsive forms of government, as well as towards achieving the Purposes set out in the Charter." However, the Security Council recognized that change had also brought new risks for stability and security. In response to these new challenges in the search for peace, the Security Council acknowledged the need to strengthen and improve the United Nations. Thus, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to prepare, for circulation to the Members of the United Nations, "his analysis and recommendations on ways of strengthening and making more efficient within the framework and provisions of the Charter the capacity of the United Nations for preventive diplomacy, for peacemaking and for peacekeeping."
On June 17, 1992, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali submitted his report, An Agenda for Peace, to the Security Council. The report began by recognizing the unique nature of the post-Cold War world.
"We have entered a time of global transition marked by uniquely contradictory trends. Regional and continental associations of States are evolving ways to deepen cooperation and ease some of the contentious characteristics of sovereign and nationalistic rivalries. National boundaries are blurred by advanced communications and global commerce, and by the decisions of States to yield some sovereign prerogatives to larger, common political associations. At the same time, however, fierce new assertions of nationalism and sovereignty spring up, and the cohesion of states is threatened by brutal ethnic, religious, social, cultural or linguistic strife. Social peace is challenged on the one hand by new assertions of discrimination and exclusion and, on the other, by acts of terrorism seeking to undermine evolution and change through democratic means.
The concept of peace is easy to grasp; that of international security is more complex, for a pattern of contradictions has arisen here as well. As major nuclear Powers have begun to negotiate arms reduction agreements, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction threatens to increase and conventional arms continue to be amassed in many parts of the world. As racism becomes recognized for the destructive force it is and as apartheid is being dismantled, new racial tensions are rising and finding expression in violence. Technological advances are altering the nature and the expectation of life all over the globe. The revolution in communications has united the world in awareness, in aspiration and in greater solidarity against injustice. But progress also brings new risks for stability: ecological damage, disruption of family and community life, greater intrusion into the lives and rights of individuals."
To address these new dimensions of insecurity, the report identified four goals that should be pursued by the United Nations: preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace building. Preventive diplomacy consists of action to prevent disputes from arising, to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts and to contain conflicts when they occur. Such action requires establishing confidence building measures between states, improving fact-finding and developing early warning mechanisms to identify potential problems before they arise. It may also require preventive deployment of UN forces to discourage hostilities and the establishment of demilitarized zones to minimize the potential for conflict. Peacemaking brings hostile parties together to resolve a dispute. It involves a wide variety of activity including resort to the International Court of Justice or other dispute settlement bodies, providing financial or humanitarian assistance to the parties, or the use of sanctions. It can also involve the use of military force. Thus, the Secretary-General urged member states to make armed forces, assistance and facilities available to the Security Council pursuant to Article 43 of the Charter and to establish a UN peace enforcement unit. These peace-enforcement units would be more heavily armed than traditional peacekeeping units. Peacekeeping involves the deployment of UN military and civilian personnel with the consent of all the parties concerned. It includes such actions as establishing demilitarized zones, supervising disarmament agreements, monitoring peace accords, providing humanitarian assistance, maintaining civil order and monitoring elections. Finally, post-conflict peace building involves comprehensive efforts to establish support structures that will strengthen and solidify the development of peace. This may include agricultural development projects between countries, cultural exchanges, youth and educational programs. According to Boutros-Ghali, "these four areas for action, taken together, and carried out with the backing of all Members, offer a coherent contribution towards securing peace in the spirit of the Charter."
In addition, the report addressed several administrative matters. It suggested that the United Nations should increase its interaction with regional arrangements such as the Organization of African Unity, the Association of South East Asian Nations and the European Union. It urged the Security Council to address the safety of UN personnel and to provide an immediate response to those who put UN personnel in danger. The report requested that member states comply with their financial obligations towards the United Nations. It also suggested a number of proposals to address the problem of UN finances including the establishment of a Peacekeeping Reserve Fund to meet the initial expenses of peacekeeping operations, a Humanitarian Revolving Fund to be used in emergency humanitarian situations and a United Nations Peace Endowment to fund peacekeeping operations and other conflict resolution measures. Above all, An Agenda for Peace was designed to reaffirm the role of the United Nations in the post-Cold War world. In the words of the Secretary-General, "the United Nations was created with a great and courageous vision. Now is the time, for its nations and peoples, and the men and women who serve it, to seize the moment for the sake of the future."
On January 5, 1995, the Boutros-Ghali issued a reassessment of An Agenda for Peace to the Security Council. The report was issued following the perceived failure of UN operations in Somalia and the former Yugoslavia. While the Secretary-General did not alter his conclusions regarding the need for peace enforcement, he acknowledged the practical limitations facing such actions. He indicated that the United Nations currently lacked financial resources, military personnel and capable leadership to effectively pursue peace enforcement operations. "Enforcement action at present is beyond the capacity of the United Nations except on a very limited scale. It would be folly to attempt to alter this reality at the present time." In addition, the Secretary-General indicated that UN peacekeeping operations were also affected by financial and military limitations. "Nothing is more dangerous for a peacekeeping operation than to require it to use force when its existing composition, armament, logistic support and deployment deny it the capacity to do so. It is therefore important to avoid mandating enforcement tasks to a peacekeeping mission." He suggested establishing a UN rapid reaction force that could respond immediately to emergency situations such as Rwanda. "This will be a complicated and expensive arrangement, but I believe that the time has come to undertake it." In his report, the Boutros-Ghali also questioned the efficacy of UN sanctions, which he viewed as a blunt instrument. "They raise the ethical question of whether suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups in the target country is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on political leaders whose behavior is unlikely to be affected by the plight of their subjects." Thus, he suggested establishing a system to assess the consequences of sanctions imposed by the Security Council. Despite any limitations in the current UN system, however, the Secretary-General reiterated the integral role of the United Nations in pursuing international peace and security and its moral obligation to intervene in crisis situations.
