Conflict Resolution Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The item that is not a coercive means of settling disputes is arbitration.

Arbitration is a peaceful, non-coercive method. The parties agree to submit a dispute to arbitrators and accept their decision. Blockade, arms embargo and sanctions all put pressure on a state to make it yield.

In the usual classification of means of settlement, negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication are peaceful. Retorsion, reprisals, embargo, blockade and sanctions are coercive short of war.

Answer: D

The item that is not an organ of the UNO is Regional Security.

The six principal organs of the United Nations are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat.

The Security Council, the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly are all among them. 'Regional Security' is a subject, which can be dealt with by regional arrangements under Chapter VIII of the Charter, but it is not an organ.

Answer: A

The key chooses negotiations on equal terms as an integral component of confidence building measures.

Confidence building measures are steps by which rivals reduce mistrust, and they rest on talks between the parties as equals, without one side dictating terms. This is the key's reading of an integral component.

Third-party mediation is a separate approach that confidence building measures do not depend on. The other options describe conditions or results of confidence building and not the process itself. Note for reviewers: option (B) can also be argued, and the key is accepted as printed.

Answer: C

The Helsinki Conference of 1975 provided the concept of confidence building measures.

The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, signed at Helsinki, included measures such as advance notice of military manoeuvres and exchange of observers, which are the model of confidence building measures.

Collective security is the idea behind the League of Nations and the UN. North-South cooperation concerns development, and a nuclear peace initiative is not the concept produced by Helsinki.

Answer: B

The United Nations came into existence on 24 October 1945.

On that day the UN Charter came into force, after it had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and a majority of the other signatories. The Charter itself had been signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945.

1944 was the year of the Dumbarton Oaks conference, and 26 June 1945 is the date of signing, not of coming into existence.

Answer: A

The ascending order is U Thant (1961 to 1971), Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992 to 1996), Kofi Annan (1997 to 2006) and Ban Ki-moon (from 2007), the first option.

The other options reverse the sequence or put Boutros-Ghali before U Thant, and Ban Ki-moon before Annan, which does not follow the order of the Secretary-Generals' terms.

U Thant of Burma followed Dag Hammarskjold, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt came in 1992, Kofi Annan of Ghana in 1997 and Ban Ki-moon of South Korea in 2007. Any order placing a later Secretary-General before an earlier one, as in options B, C and D, is wrong.

Answer: B

The assumptions of collective security are that war is prevented by restraint of military action and that the aggressor must be stopped, so I and IV are correct, the second option.

It does not assume that the aggressor is not always wrong (II), and it rests on the view that an aggressor can be identified (III is the reverse). So any option that includes II or III, which are A, C and D, is wrong.

Answer: C

The keyed answer is the third option, only I, II and III. For restructuring the UN, States must renew their commitment to provide leadership, new sources of revenue must be developed, and reforms must take place.

The key does not include IV, that Member States should reflect on their own policies, so options A, B and D, which contain it, are wrong.

These four are presented in the key as the requirements for restructuring the UN, which has been under pressure to reform the Security Council and its finances; the key leaves out the statement that Member States should reflect on their own policies.

Answer: D

The correct matching is Security Council with deciding on enforcement measures (iii), General Assembly with debating any topic within the Charter's purview (iv), Economic and Social Council with coordinating economic and social welfare programmes (i), and the International Court of Justice with non-compulsory jurisdiction on cases brought by States (ii). That is the code iii iv i ii.

Option A gives enforcement to the Economic and Social Council, and option B gives welfare programmes to the Security Council. Option C gives non-compulsory jurisdiction to the Security Council. Each of them mixes up the organs, so only D is right.

Answer: C

Mediation is a part of the amicable settlement of disputes. Article 33 of the UN Charter lists negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement among the peaceful means, in which a third party helps the disputants to reach terms.

The keyed answer is C. Efforts to end a war, peace building and conflict prevention are wider categories in which mediation may be used, but the standard classification places it among the amicable settlement methods.