Revitalizing the United Nations Making and Keeping the Peace

Abstract

As we noted in the Preface, the seminar held at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies in September 2024 provided some examples of the major role the UN has historically played in resolving and policing greatpower conflicts. The book addresses this experience of the United Nations in building and keeping peace in global hot spots around the world during its 80-year existence. We hope the book will contribute to a rejuvenation of the UN’s storied role in creating and maintaining world peace. At the time of the September 2024 seminar, we noted, first of all, regarding Israel/Palestine, that several UN agencies are active in humanitarian work, including in Gaza. But beyond that indispensable task, proposals urging a leading role for the UN in post-war Gaza had been offered already at that time by UN University scholars Emma Bapt and Adam Day (2023) and by international scholars and politicians, including former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, who argued for a UN Trusteeship for Palestine in Foreign Affairs (Axworthy et al. 2024). In this volume, these and other proposals regarding the UN’s role in Israel/Palestine/Gaza are reviewed and greatly expanded with historical context, including the contributions by Chas Freeman, Georgios Kostakos, Fotini Zarogianni, Jeffrey Sachs, Sybil Fares and Larry Johnson.