The Cuban Missile Crisis
Study Guide PDF: here Doodle: here
Introduction to the Committee
The Security Council’s primary responsibility is for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 Members, five permanent and ten non-permanent ones. The non-permanent members get elected for a two year period by the General Assembly. The five permanent members are Russia, USA, UK, France and China. Each Member has one vote - the permanent members have a Veto Right. Under the Charter of the United Nations, all Member States are obligated to comply with Council decisions.
The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Introduction to the Topic
History
After the end of World War II, the League of Nations was no more; following a series of conferences organised by the Allies still during hostilities, the United Nations were born. The international order was completely reshaped, and amongst the ashes of fascism the Cold War began. Capitalism and communism faced off in an ideological struggle, which, despite never officially ending up in actual conflict, kept the new international order on notice.
The two superpowers, aided by their respective allies (NATO for the United States and the members of the Warsaw Pact for the Soviet Union), tried to expand their influence and ideology as much as possible. The Soviet Union had managed to close the technological gap that separated it from the US, and in 1957 launched the first ever International Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Just a year later, they sent the first satellite in space, thus starting the Space Race. The United States managed to replicate the Soviet achievement with only a short delay, but the tension between the two powers could be cut with a knife.
In 1959, the Cuban Revolution came to a close, and the Fidel Castro-led faction established a communist regime mere miles off the shores of the United States. This development, naturally, was not welcome by the American government: in 1961, the United States tried to retake Cuba by cooperating with a group of Cuban exiles that opposed the Castro regime. The operation, known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was a complete failure. But this was not the only blow that the Americans had to suffer in that year: the construction of the Berlin Wall and, most noticeably, the first ever manned mission in space were significant reminders of how strong the Communist reality of the world had become.
Problem Area
Both Cold War superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, had expanded their nuclear arsenal throughout the 50s and early 60s. Both nations have proclaimed their investment into nuclear weapons as their most beneficial security strategy against the other. While the nuclear weapon arsenal of the USA is far bigger than the one of the Soviet Union it is said that the Soviet Union is in the possession of a missile that if positioned near enough to the US mainland it could actually reach it. Regarding the disposition of conventional weaponry, the United States has a set of ballistic missiles located in Italy, Turkey and the continental USA that could reach the Soviet Union.
Now that there are reports going around that the Soviet Union is in the process of stationing missiles and other weaponry on the Cuban Island the Security Council is faced with a heated stand-off between both Cold War superpowers that could escalate in an actual war. It now lays within the responsibility of the Security Council to solve the issue through diplomatic means.
What has been done so far
As of the date of this Security Council meeting, there is no existing international treaty regulating the use of nuclear weapons. The first ideas of safeguarding access to nuclear technology was discussed as early as 1946, just a few months after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No agreement could be reached, because of the several ideological differences between the major players of the international scene. At the same time, both the United States and the USSR had already started testing their nuclear devices, and had began stockpiling them. The potential and the dangers of nuclear technologies were well known to the world during the 1950s already. Of particular relevance in this period was the 1953 Atoms for Peace speech by the then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower; this speech, part of a larger program aimed at informing the larger public about the risks and hopes of a nuclear future, was delivered in front of the UN General Assembly in New York. Although most agree that the speech was just an attempt to reassure the world after the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it kickstarted the process of creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which came to life in 1957. Its technical activities, mostly aimed at the control of nuclear technology and the promotion of its peaceful uses, began immediately. In the same year, the principle of non-proliferation was first introduced within the United Nations framework. Just a year later, the Republic of Ireland officially proposed the first resolution whose goal was to ban the further dissemination of nuclear weaponry. The United Nations GEneral Assembly Resolution 1665, based on the Irish proposal, was unanimously adopted in 1961: as per its content, countries without nuclear weapons would agree not to manufacture any, while countries that possessed some already would refrain from instructing other countries on how to manufacture them.
Questions a Resolution must answer
Given the severity of the situation, and with so much at stake, the Security Council has to act quickly and decisively. The aim should be to create solutions that will prevent similar situations in the future, as well as finding a way to deescalate the current situation in the Caribbean. The United States feels under particular threat at this point in time, and an escalation of the situation is not out of the picture. It is not unlikely that such an escalation would result in the deployment of nuclear weapons, which is something that nobody desires. However, the two superpowers seem to be willing to stop at nothing to assert their dominance over the other. The international community has therefore to step in and play the role of mediator to prevent the start of another war. The UN Security Council is meeting in this turbulent context, hoping to solve the crisis as smoothly as possible. These are some points that will need to be addressed:
Is the Soviet presence in Cuba a proven threat to the United States, and should it therefore be punished in some way?
How can the future of nuclear weaponry be addressed?
Sources
https://titanmissilemuseum.org/about/cold-war-timeline/
https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Timeline-of-the-Treaty-on-the-Non-Proliferation-of-Nuclear-Weapons-NPT
