Commentaries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Commentaries - Essay Example Having intelligence definitely â€Å"impedes the effectiveness of fulfilling [the UN’s] goals† (â€Å"Intelligence Collection at the United Nations for Peace Keeping Operations,† 2011, pp. 4). It is beneficial that member states do share information, to some degree. Of course, it’s important that such information is shared to the benefit of the United Nations. This paper accurately points out, however, that US Secretary of State Colin Powell introduced WMD as being valid intelligence, which led the United States to engage in a war that lasted eight (8) years and cost $700 billion dollars. Breakdown in communication between ONUC forces and the civilian leadership in the Congo due to interference of UN intelligence-gathering is even yet another piece of evidence that intelligence-gathering by the UN may not be a smart idea, because, in this case, the UN member countries were not willing to supply intelligence to the military. In another situation in Haiti, t here was incorrect information being disseminated from informants, and the paper uses this piece of information to support the fact that the UN should not be involved in collecting intelligence for peacekeeping operations. One of the greatest difficulties the UN has, however, is to strike a delicate balance between spying and open secrets. â€Å"For the UN, a great dilemma arises when the information is gathered and kept secretly, since the world body is dedicated to transparency, impartiality and the rule of law† (Dorn, 2011, pp. 4).† Knowing this, it is important to realize how difficult it can be, and is, for the United Nations to continue such operations—not only when such an unreliable piece of information was announced in front of the UN by Colin Powell—but because of the fact that the UN must remain transparent while conducting covert operations. It doesn’t make much sense. III. The Weaknesses of the Seminar Paper First off, in terms of techn ical aspects, there are some minor grammatical errors on the title page and in the introduction. To begin with, â€Å"peacekeeping† is one word, not two separate words. The references or bibliography page also needs to be overhauled, as there is much incorrect referencing structure. Also, the in-text citations for Harvard require more work. Details will be discussed in the Suggestions for Improvement section. Secondly, one has to be realistic about what intelligence is, which is deception. Nations that are not part of the United Nations are game to be spied on. The UN cannot simply rely on informal information from member states. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s information which he introduced before members of the world community in the UN was not good intelligence. This is one of the greatest pieces of evidence why the UN should not get involved in the intelligence community, if there are any. Colin Powell declared, â€Å"Numerous human sources tell us that the Ira qis are moving not just documents and hard drives, but weapons of mass destruction, to keep them from being found by inspectors† (Rockefeller, 2009, pp. 40). Later this information was refuted. â€Å"The question of to what extent Iraq could rebuild and reconstitute its WMD program in four years (1998-2002) is the real issue† (Mauroni, 2006, pp. 116). At the time, however, everyone believed Powell’