ABSTRACT
The whirlwind of international crises, conflicts and tensions that have arisen in the wake of the Cold War have resulted in a dramatically fluid landscape of international politics that stands in stark contrast to the quondam predictability of the bi-polar rivalry. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) appears marginalized, seemingly unable to fulfill its main role to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war as intended by its founding Charter. The new collegiality of the UNSC allowed its members to act with increased flexibility in seeking to fulfill their primary responsibility of preserving international peace and security. The UN's involvement in Somalia, northern Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina led a number of commentators to suggest that the actions of the UNSC demonstrated that the international community had begun a shift away from the centrality of state sovereignty towards the development of a doctrine of humanitarian intervention.
