After grappling for two decades with the realities of the post-Cold War era, the UN Security Council must now meet the challenges of a resurgence of great power rivalry amid a context of rising crises. Reflecting this new environment, The UN Security Council in the 21^st Century provides a comprehensive look at the Security Council today, exploring key themes and drivers in its decision making, its internal dynamics, its role and relevance in world politics, and its performance in addressing today’s major security challenges.

The UN Security Council in the 21^st Century covers a wide range of topics and country cases, providing both historical analysis and contemporary insight. A set of ten case studies assess some major Security Council-mandated peace operations and provide concrete examples of the cross-cutting approach the volume adopts. Encyclopedic in scope, this book features contributions by leading scholars on the Security Council as well as key practitioners. In addition, it features useful appendixes that include lists of all UN peacekeeping operations since 1948 and all Security Council sanctions regimes imposed between 1945 and 2014.

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With this kind of breadth and depth of study, this volume will contribute to a better understanding of the Security Council for many years to come. This book follows an earlier volume, The UN Security Council: From the Cold War to the 21^st Century (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004), edited by David Malone, which has become a standard reference volume on the Council, widely used in academia and among UN delegates, UN Secretariat officials, and NGOs.

The UN Security Council in the 21^st Century is a project of the International Peace Institute, published by Lynne Rienner Press.

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Contents

Introduction
The UN Security Council: Decisions and Actions

I.   Competing Interests on the Security Council
II.  Addressing Thematic Issues
III. Enforcing Council Mandates
IV.  Evolving Institutional Factors
V.   Key Country Cases
VI.  The Security Council and International Order

About the Editors

Sebastian von Einsiedel is director of the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research.

David M. Malone is under-secretary-general of the United Nations and also rector of the United Nations University.

Bruno Stagno Ugarte, most recently executive director of the Security Council Report, now serves as deputy executive director for advocacy at Human Rights Watch.