The Security Council and Regional Arrangements: Towards Effective Engagement

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The relationship between the Security Council and regional arrangements has long been the subject of debate. This debate has received renewed attention since the publication of A New Agenda for Peace, which highlights the role that regional arrangements can play in efforts to maintain international peace and security, and also in the lead up to the Summit of the Future, particularly given there are several references to regional arrangements in the current draft of the Pact for the Future. As such, it is important to closely examine the relationship between the Council and regional arrangements. With this in mind, this report seeks to provide insights into several aspects of the relationship, including the legal framework underpinning it and the manner in which it has worked in practice.

The introductory section sets the scene and considers some factors that have contributed to the push towards regionalisation in more detail, before briefly touching on some of the advantages and disadvantages of greater regional involvement in the maintenance of international peace and security.

The next section undertakes a legal analysis of Chapter VIII of the UN Charter, which forms an important part of the legal framework that governs the relationship between the Council and regional arrangements, and offers an interpretation of its provisions.

The final section explores models of cooperation between the Council and regional arrangements that have been used in the past, with a view to capturing some of the lessons from these models and inspiring future thinking. Short summaries of examples of previous models are incorporated throughout, giving a high-level overview of each model and a short summary of some of the relevant background. It analyses some of the issues that have arisen in these examples, exploring questions surrounding mandating decisions, strategic disagreements, the importance of Council unity and coordinated regional diplomacy, Council oversight of regional efforts to peacefully settle disputes, the benefits of political alignment, re-hatting, operational coordination, resourcing, doctrinal differences, and complementarity and comparative advantage.