NATO today

What the UN does for peace

Preserving world peace is a central purpose of the United Nations. Under the Charter, member states agree to settle disputes by peaceful means and refrain from threatening or using force against other states. UN efforts have produced dramatic results. The UN helped defuse the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the Middle East crisis in 1973. In 1988 a UN-sponsored peace settlement ended the Iran-Iraq war. In the 1990s, the UN was instrumental in restoring sovereignty to Kuwait and played a major role in ending civil wars in Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mozambique. UN peacemaking brings hostile parties to agreement through diplomatic means. The Security Council may recommend ways to avoid conflict or restore or secure peace — through negotiation, for example, or undertake mediation, or recourse to the International Court of Justice. In the event of fighting the UN tries to secure a ceasefire. It may send a peacekeeping mission to help the parties maintain the truce and to keep opposing forces apart. Peacekeeping operations may last for a few months or continue for many years.

2. Give Russian equivalents of the following words and phrases. To preserve peace; to set out basic principles; to maintain peace; conflict resolution; most pressing problems; two-thirds majority; mediation; under the charter; to resume; according to the charter/under the charter; subjects of particular concern; to settle disputes by peaceful means; to secure ceasefire; to maintain the truce, to commit to. 3. Give English equivalents of the following words and phrases and reproduce the sentences from the text with this active vocabulary. Насущные проблемы; сохранять мир; сохранять перемирие; устано­вить основные принципы; обеспечивать прекращение огня; посред­ничество; по уставу; урегулировать конфликты мирными средствами вопросы, вызывающие особую озабоченность; поддерживать мир; взять обязательство; разрешение конфликтов; большинство в 2/3; в соответствии с уставом; возобновить.

­1. Read the article and look up the underlined words and phrases in the dictionary.

Is NATO the right organization to assume the regional security responsibilities in Europe? It is not Europe's only security organization, not even its largest one. One alternative to NATO is Europe's largest collective security group, the 55-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Unlike the OSCE, NATO is an exclusive organization involving about half of Europe's states. The alliance's selective nature inevitably raises questions about its legitimacy. By what right does a group of minority states enforce order among Europe's majority states? NATO's Bosnia mission was launched on the request of the United Nations' Security Council. But the Kosovo war received no such endorsement. NATO acted on the basis of a vote in the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's own highest decision-making Ь-Qdy. NATO's unilateral action appeared to violate, if not the letter, then the spirit, of the UN Charter.

NATO remains a self-appointed interpreter and enforcer of these yules, and it is willing to enforce them with military might, and as such it inevitably arouses suspicions among some neighbors. Russia's objections to NATO's Kosovo operation focused not as much on the tactical issuesas they did on the fact that the alliance launched the air war without a UN Security Council authorization. Even more worrisome to Moscow, nothing theoretically prevents the alliance from launching a similar operation against Russia itself. In polls conducted in April 1999, in the midst of the Kosovo war, 70 per cent to 73 per cent of Russians said they considered the NATO military operation in Yugoslavia a direct threat to Russia's security. Fears that NATO may potentially abuse its military might have translated into tensions and insecurity as countries such as Russia seek to form alliances implicitly aimed against NATO. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, justified the union between Russia and Belarus as a response to NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia.

2. Give Russian equivalents of the following words and phrases. To assume security responsibilities; minority; to enforce; legitimacy; majority; endorsement; North Atlantic Council; decision-making body; unilateral; to violate; might; authorization; to prevent smb from doing smth; a poll; to conduct; to abuse; the letter and spirit; to raise a question. 3. Give English equivalents of the following words and phrases. Орган, ответственный за принятие решений; меньшинство; злоупо­треблять чем-либо; поддержка; взять на себя ответственность за безо­пасность; большинство; законность; проводить (опрос); односторон­ний; опрос общественного мнения; нарушать; сила/мощь; дух и буква; поднимать/ставить вопрос; заставлять/навязывать; Североат­лантический совет; одобрение; мешать кому-либо делать что-либо.

­1. Read the article and look up the meaning of the underlined words and phrases in the dictionary.

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