UNITED NATIONS MECHANISMS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF INTERSTATE CONFLICTS

Abstract

In today’s multipolar world, the topic of maintaining peace and security is of utmost importance. The United Nations (UN) plays a key role in resolving international conflicts. It has been established that the main mechanisms of the United Nations in the settlement of interstate conflicts are: preventive diplomacy, peacemaking/peacekeeping, coercion, peacekeeping, and peace building in the post-conflict period. In the initial phase of a “stable peace” conflict, “conventional diplomacy” without international intervention is effective. In conditions of “unstable peace”, the mechanism of “preventive diplomacy” is involved. If the conflict turns into an open form of armed confrontation, international organizations or other mediators begin their activities to stop it and reach peace agreements between the warring parties. When the conflicting parties refuse to stop the armed confrontation, the international community can use the mechanism of “compulsion to peace”. After that, the hot phase of the conflict usually turns into a phase of “finding ways out of the crisis” and reaching peace agreements. At this stage, the UN or another international organization can send in forces to “keep the peace” and separate the warring parties. After this (or simultaneously), “post-conflict peace building” begins − activities at different levels of the communities involved in the conflict to address the root causes of the conflict and prevent its recurrence. The successful implementation of these components leads to “sustainable peace”, i.e., the achievement of a systemic balance of interests in which the resumption of conflict would be unthinkable and unprofitable. The effectiveness of the UN mechanisms in the context of the Russian state's war against Ukraine has been determined.