International Organization and Violence with Special Reference to the Performance of the UN System

Abstract

The article seeks to bring together perspectives of peace research and of the study of international organization. The common meeting-ground for both perspectives is the analysis of the perform ance of international organization, particularly with respect to eliminating violence in international society.

The discussion begins by ascertaining the meaning of the concept of violence as it has regularly been defined in the theory and practice of international organization. It is argued that, due to the genesis of international organization as an adaptive outgrowth of the modern state system, 'violence' is usually seen as identical with 'direct' or 'personal' violence, and that it does not encompass 'indirect' or 'structural' violence.

In the analysis of international organization per formance, it is shown that international organi zation has failed, by and large, in fulfilling its major open function: the elimination of direct violence in international society. The article then takes up the question whether and in which ways international organization activities bear on the existence of structural violence in international society. Here, we note first of all a certain lack of research - as compared with the large number of studies on the impact of international organiza tion on direct violence. Based on the available evidence, the tentative answer to the perviously- raised question is that, whereas international orga nization may have been instrumental in attacking some secondary manifestations of structural violence, it has served more often to perpetuate and even strengthen structural violence in inter national society.