Membership in the United Nations isn’t compulsory, is it? Couldn’t Iraq avoid the interfering world by just cancelling its membership in the United Nations? Can this be done? Is an official petition needed, or maybe cease sending in their membership dues and refuse to “resubscribe”?
Seriously, are there any countries in the world not represented in the UN, or is one of the perks of membership, being allowed to call oneself a country.
And were Iraq, or any other country to leave the UN, what could be the repercussions. They wouldn’t have to abide by UN mandates any longer, but then I guess they couldn’t object if the rest of the members decided to attack, as they wouldn’t be an officially recognized entity any longer, right? Are there any provisions within the UN charter on dealing with peoples outside their influence?
I’m not sure if the can just quit the UN, but they have no reason to want to. The support they have now internationally would probably evaporate if they did.
The UN has no power to enforce its will. If Iraq wanted out of the UN, they could just say, “we’re out of the UN” and stop showing up. Nobody would stop them. The UN’s power lies in the will of the member countries for enforcement. The US and UK and allies are using their military and economic power to enforce UN resolutions regarding Iraq, but those countries are free to ignore them if they wanted to. So, supposing Iraq were to leave the UN, and they continued to piss people off anyway, the UN could still take action against them, and that action would be backed up by UN countries, if they so choose. On the other hand, the countries in question could choose to act by themselves without UN approval.
Yup, Walloon…they carry automatic pistols along with those medieval spears.
In one of his books–It All Started with Marx, I believe–humorist Richard Armour mentioned “the toughness of the Swiss Guards, who trained on Swiss steak.” Having eaten Swiss steak myself I can imagine how they would be after a while…
No, it certainly isn’t compulsory, but quitting wouldn’t do Iraq any good. North Korea isn’t a member, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to coerce them into behaving the way we think is appropriate. As a side note, many countries are waaaaay behind in their dues. This is one of the perrenial complaints about the UN.
Membership is not required in order to be considered a country. Non-member countries can still petition the UN to be heard, so if they were attacked by a member nation, they’d still have some recourse to the UN. There’s no automatic right to be heard, but a member nation that attacked a non-member nation would still be sanctioned by the UN, unless it could demonstrate compelling reasons for doing so, as the US just tried to do. The fact that Iraq is a member is really not the issue. It’s the fact that the US is a member, and doesn’t really want to “go it alone”, that’s the key.
Isn’t it the time where Iraq will play the UN Head of disarminent and something like N Korea gets to play the UN head of Human Rights.
I seem to recall something like this, if so wouldn’t it be against Iraq’s best interest to pull out right when they get to play the fire cheif of the departments that are currently leaning on them.
Yes, they could leave, and there are countries that are not members.
No, it would not be a solution to anything. All the international problems would still exist and would eventually be dealt with wether or not the UN is involved.
The United Nations, which represents almost every country in the world, has 189 members. However, Switzerland and Vatican City have chosen not to become members of the United Nations. Therefore, many people believe the number is 191. But not so fast…
Taiwan ostensibly meets all the requirements of an independent country, but, due to political reasons, much of the world refuses to recognize it as such. Taiwan considers itself an independent nation and continues to push for recognition from other countries, but two of the world’s powers, the U.S. and China, have yet to be swayed. from here
I sit corrected. Apparently the web site from which I got that information was wrong.
Not that it really matters. The point I was making is still valid; dropping out of the UN would not prevent a country from being harassed by member nations.
