Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations has been a major help in keeping peace around the globe. The UN has striven to create forums as an alternative to war, it has made efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons, and it has placed diplomatic and economic sanctions in peacekeeping efforts. The UN also has the authority to dispatch troops in peacekeeping efforts and mediation. Debate arises when the idea of a standing UN army is proposed. While the UN has been using military troops and police from countries all over the world for the past 50 years, it has never had a true standing army totally under control of the United Nations. Proponents of this idea claim that many wars and disasters could have been averted if the UN had a standing army that could be dispatched quickly. It could also potentially save everyone a lot of money. The opponents of this idea say that the army will have little use and will be too costly (148-149).

At the moment, no proposal of a UN standing army is being seriously considered but in the article “A New Perspective on Peacekeeping”, Joseph Schwartzberg proposes a possible solution for this debate. Joseph Schwartzberg cl

aims that so much can be improved if a UN peace core is established. Schwartzberg says that every day there is a growing need for an all-volunteer force of peacekeepers, which are under the sole control of the United Nations. Schwartzberg does an excellent job in his essay. He proposes a detailed way of creating a standing army at the UN’s disposal without a ridiculous cost. Schwartzberg discusses UN failures in countries such as Rwanda and Bosnia. He explains that these major disasters could have been averted if the UN had acted in time. Schwartzberg goes on to explain how growing ethnic, religious, and racial conflicts pose a treat to safety around the world. The current military forces used by the UN are unreliable and not readily available (150-

Possibly Schwartzberg’s most impressive information is his proposition that in the long run billions of dollars could be saved in war cost. While it would only cost slightly more money than already spent to create this army it could turn out to make a huge difference. Schwartzberg concludes by explaining that if a UNPC were created it would not be ready to implement for many years, but it is almost certain that the implementation of a large standing military by the UN would help every one in more ways than one (157-160).

The idea of a standing military controlled by the UN is not popular with everyone. In his article “Policing the New World Order: the Operational Utility of a Permanent UN Army,” John Hillen III suggest that a standing UN army would have little use and be fueled by outside political reasoning. Even though some of Hillen’s arguments are valid, his article is confusing and seems to wander off to

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