South African National Defence Force advisory for the United Nations Security Council Resolutions: an exploratory Afrocentric perspective.

Abstract

Many scholars have expressed disappointment at South Africa’s voting patterns in respect of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. In the UNSC, South Africa’s voting has been marked by controversies about correctness and consistency when measured against the underlying principles of its foreign policy. Yet South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee were responsible for the strategic direction to advise and assist their government on voting consideration. This is a standing testimony to the fact that South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee are taking a clear backseat in their potentially effective role to carry out the military objectives of the UNSC. South Africa's primary international platform for promoting multilateralism and the rule of international law is the UNSC. The aim of this research was to explore the UNSC resolutions from an Afrocentric perspective. To achieve the aim, the study examined the South African military advice to UNSC decisions on peace and security resolutions; established the South African military advice to UNSC decisions on regional organisations resolutions; and developed an appropriate framework for enhancing participation by South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee for UNSC resolutions for international peace and security. The foregoing position emerges from different imperatives. First, the current researcher is an African in his own right and is alive to the reality that all theories are based on particular ideologies. As such, he opted for Afrocentricity which is rooted in Afrocentricism.The United Nations (UN) Charter served as the foundation for this thesis because international peace and security resolutions of the UNSC contain elements of the UN Charter. The interpretivism paradigm was most appropriate for this study. This is due to the study's use of a purely qualitative research methodology to gain an in-depth understanding of the South African National Defence Force's (SANDF) participation in the maintenance of UNSC international peace and security resolutions from an exploratory Afrocentric perspective, 2007-2020. The population for this study consisted of four South African military officials who were deployed to the UNSC Military Staff Committee for the years 2007-2008, 2011-2012, and 2019-2020 to advise and assist the UNSC in maintaining international peace and security resolutions. The sample size for this study was all 4 South Africa’s military officials.Findings confirmed that South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee advice to the UNSC decision-making processes and practices of the UNSC’s resolutions were not effective. The advice to the UNSC decisions on the UNSC’s reform resolutions were also not effective. Further, the research found that advice to the UNSC decisions on the Sanction Committee resolutions were not effective.Based on the findings, the study recommends that South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee advice should be realising the decisions of UNSC. This is because the UN Charter is about the realisation of the decisions of UNSC. There is also a need for South Africa’s military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee to be advising on consensus among the rest of the world on the UNSC reform agenda. This is due to the fact that reform efforts that receive the support of UNSC permanent members can be incorporated into UN Charter amendments. The study further suggests that South Africa's military officials in the UNSC Military Staff Committee should be advising that UN sanctions are explicitly mentioned in Article 41 of the UN Charter. This point does not in any way suggests that the selected military officials of South Africa are not conversant with their general duties or some parts of the UN Charter. Instead, the context of the foregoing line of argument is UNSC resolution 1973 about the no-fly zone in Libya during the year 2011. While South Africa’s pro-voting of the resolution was driven by prevailing civilian atrocities at the time, its officials did not realise the silence of the resolution when it comes to operability. This left a room for the Unites of America (USA) and its allies to invite the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to intervene militarily and successfully drive an illegal regime change within the geographic jurisdiction the African Union (AU) and the Arab League of Nations (ALN).Contextually, a no-fly zone as travel sanction is one of the tools at the UNSC's disposal for preserving international peace and security. Furthermore, the same study could be replicated after a period of time, which is a suggestion for further research. This can help determine whether military instructors in the SANDF who will use the proposed framework will be able to improve future South African military officials who will bedeployed to the UNSC Military Staff Committee to advise and assist their government on voting consideration. First thing to remember is that Afrocentricity is the study of ideas and events from the standpoint of Africans as the key players rather than victims. What the present article shares is that Afrocentricity is fast emerging as an alternative theoretical tool in academia, particularly in the human and social sciences. Keywords: United Nations Security Council, United Nations Charter, resolution, chapter, article, measures, coercive action, peace, security, breach of the peace, threats to the peace