Questions of peace, security, human rights, justice and development have always been of great concern to the international community. The established global intergovernmental platforms love to talk about international issues by passing Resolutions and maintaining documented records of their efforts. So, the archival history of world politics witnesses countless attempts of world leaders for improvement of relations between nations. The rapidly changing dynamics of the international system portrays a weird picture of world politics in which a complex web of intrastate and interstates conflicts have encircled the globe. The post –Cold War environment has, in this way, transformed the nature of conflict from its traditional domain to the non–traditional political settings of the twenty first century in which the epoch–making alteration of conflict and its existence in international system has heavily outdated the previous patterns of threats and their associations to Westphalian state system.
The classical foundations of the centuries old Westphalian state are now under immense pressure of new forces in the age of globalization. The new era has witnessed a strategic environment and underestimated the traditional debates of Westphalian notion of sovereignty. The exclusion of external influence by respecting the non–intervention role of other states was a well–defined and well–structured principle founded in Westphalian peace. Thus, a matured conception of political sovereignty emerged in 1648 at the end of thirty years of war, and it strongly laid the foundations of modern state system. But contrary to the old ideas for the development of state– system under the shadows of Westphalian lines defining the doctrinal structure of sovereignty is vanishing from the international system. In contrast to the old notion, Westphalian sovereignty is losing its legitimacy before the growing ideals contingent sovereignty. The upgraded idea of sovereignty is firmly opposed to the norm of non–intervention in the domestic affairs of the states. The updated and revised notion of sovereignty which is not codified in international law echoes the “sovereign rights and immunities are not absolute. They depend on the observance of fundamental state obligations. These include the responsibility to protect the citizens of the state. When a regime makes war on its people or cannot prevent atrocities against them, it risks forfeiting its claim to non-intervention. In such circumstances, the responsibility to protect may devolve to the international community.”
There are a number of authors of diverse nationalities who have worked on the realist – driven policies of powerful states of the developed world against the weak nations of developing or underdeveloped regions. Different opinions based on arguments of academicians, political activists, state officials and leaders of diverse backgrounds have attempted to highlight the allegedly justified approaches of weakening the conventional wisdom of state – sovereignty. The study of an Indian diplomatic under Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos talks about the politics of the great powers or the Big Five (also known as Permanent Five – P 5). Hardeep Singh Puri who served as a permanent representative of India to the UN is an ex–officer of Indian foreign services. While serving as a career diplomate in different countries, Puri was a chairman of UN Security Council Counter–Terrorism Committee. While expressing his views on different issues of national security, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013.
Puri’s book represents an analytical record of whimsical decision making process of the Security Council. The six chapters of the book, apart from a comprehensive introduction are followed by an inclusive account of appreciation of different eminent personalities. The starting five pages of the book, in this way, noticeably reflect high admiration of Puri’s work which clearly sketches an image of perplexing politics among the P–5. The politics based on the powers of the veto in addition to different formats of coercive diplomacy for the maintenance of international peace and security and imposition of sanctions over the civil war like situations of Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, and Sri Lanka is the main theme of the book. Chapter three to seven focus on the unstable political environment before the challenging insurgencies to the legitimate basis of abovementioned states. The first two chapters theoretically speak about the nature of ongoing crisis in the prism of ongoing politics among five recognised nuclear weapons states or the five permanent members of the sixth principal organ of the United Nations–the Security Council.
The book emphasizes the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) or commonly known as RtoP – a global commitment adhered by the international community at the 2005 World Summit. The Summit hosted 191 members of United Nations at New York and concentrated on the need of formalized efforts of nations for the elimination of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity parallel to the declaration of Millennium Declaration Goals (MDGs). The efforts for the prevention of mass atrocity crimes and human rights violations under R2P has introduced a new pattern of destructive intervention or the violation of non – intervention principle of sovereignty. In the UN General Assembly meeting of September 2001, the thirty sixth Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, suggested the replacement of R2P with the Responsibility while Protecting (RwP). Because the R2P has brought massive destruction of political, social, and economic spheres of states (p.18).
The ongoing wave of political instability combined with destruction of major infrastructures of states has caused an unstoppable flood of more security challenges. The emergence of different sectarian groups, the growth of aggressive insurgents, and the rise of terrorist organizations (Al–Qaeda, Bako Haram, and ISIS) have mutually developed a more devastating depiction of crisis – ridden states (p.26). The second last chapter of the book focuses on the problem of refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who are forced to leave their stable lives as a result of foreign intervention. The examples of Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Ukraine show an awful portrait of a humanitarian crisis. The UNHCR report of 2015 shows an overview of refugees, asylum seekers, and IDPs from aforementioned countries (p.194). In the end, the final chapter analytically examines the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect and its common elements to the notion of Protection of Civilians (PoC) functioning under the UN peacekeeping operations (p. 205). The last argument of Puri at the end of the ninth chapter suggests an amendment in the main structure of UNSC – the reforms in the decades old system of the Security Council needs to be reformed according to contemporary realities of the new world. The broader structure of UN Security Council could be expanded to both the permanent and non–permanent members.
A well–pronounced and well–articulated account of Puri’s experiences while working on behalf of his country in the UN presents a fascinating story of five powerful states which carelessly adopted reckless policies for other states. The irresponsible politics and irresponsible behaviours of the permanent five often resulted in famine, misery and brutality for ordinary citizens of other states. Intervention on human grounds is the most frequently used pretext and a most preferred policy option for the great powers to direct their coercive powers (military forces) towards other nations. The central theme of the book revolves around the destructive aftermath of humanitarian intervention carried by the five leading proponents of world peace and security. Puri, in this way, provides an insight into the record of passing different Resolutions for the conflict–torn states immersed in protracted militant conflicts.
The work of the Indian diplomat shows the readers the growing theory of contingent sovereignty in contrast to conventional principles of state sovereignty. Students of international relations, world politics, diplomacy, security and conflict resolution can easily comprehend the contemporary wave of Arab Spring, and the responses of UNSC. The main stakeholders, specialists, and experts studying politics of Middle Eastern, Gulf, and Eastern European regions can truly understand the actual game going on within US–UK–Russia–China–France.
