World countries showed
their determination in peace and security,
especially by the establishment of the
United Nations, after the Second World
War. War, might be the last mean to
be applied, after this period. Instead
of war, only in certain cases, power
can be used, with the authorization
of UN, which is responsible to maintain
international peace and security. Having
a very important place in international
law, "the use of power", was
also the source of inspiration for the
last book of Enver Bozkurt. Bozkurt's
book, in which the use of power in UN
system is analyzed, presented both to
students as a textbook and to readers
as a contemporary book.
The first edition of the book (Atlas
Kitabevi, Konya 1996) was published
under the (Turkish) title of "The
Use of Power in the UN System and the
Case of Gulf Crisis" as inspired
by the Gulf Crisis, which occupied the
agenda of the world in 1990's. It is
a clear reality that the assumption
that the Gulf Crisis would lose its
affectivity by the end of 1990's, turned
out to be wrong as of today. So the
author, indicated in the preface of
the second edition that he needed a
new edition by considering the significance
of Iraq's case in the world agenda and
the new developments in relation to
the use of power.
The book comprises of three parts in
which the recent developments are also
included. In the first part, the mechanism
of the use of power is analyzed under
the title of "The use of power
in UN system". An introduction
is made in relation to the use of power
system before the UN; and the operation
of the system in UN is explained by
historical cases in this part. The organs
of UN organization are analyzed in this
section, and the decision making process
for the use of power of Security Council
and General Assembly are illustrated
as per the procedural content with case
studies. Following these, we see the
titles of Self Defense, and the UN Agreement
Provisions in View of Current Events.
This subject matter is analyzed in two
sections as UN Agreements and Certain
Cases and Subsequent Developments after
Cold War. In the first section, the
articles of the Agreement permitting
the use of power are analyzed. The explanations,
related to the Article 51 of the Agreement,
are specifically attracting attention.
In the second section, the provisions
of the Agreement are analyzed in the
content of the developments recorded
following the disintegration of the
Soviet Union, the effects of Gulf Crisis,
and the effects of the September 11
attack. This section is finalized with
the explanations on UN Peace Force and
Regional Arrangements.
In the second part of the book, the
use of power is studied with the Gulf
Crisis example. Beginning with Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait, Bozkurt presented
the subject in this part, the economic
sanctions applied by UN and from the
use of power to ceasefire in a chronological
order. This systematic of the book enabled
the submission of everything related
to the subject to the reader, from A
to Z. The human factor, which is especially
important in war times in international
law, is not forgotten, and including
historical development, the human rights
and humanitarian regulations at pre-during
and post Gulf Crisis are mentioned.
The Gulf Crisis is analyzed with all
its dimensions and also the intervention
to Iraq, which became one of the hottest
subject of the agenda after September
11 attack, is discussed. The USA administration
announced that struggle with terrorism
shall continue after Afghanistan and
that was pointing the next step is going
to be the Iraq (p.183). The author,
in that context, touched on USA's possible
intervention to Iraq and analyzed its
effects on Turkey, which is also a very
important matter for Turkey. Significant
sections of the resolution, numbered
1441 and dated November 8, 2002 of the
Security Council, which was requested
by the USA, in order to legitimize an
operation against Iraq; are given at
the end of this section as it is. Bozkurt,
while presenting the resolution as it
was, did not neglect to add his interpretation
as well. Bozkurt pointed out that the
resolution is related to disarmament
of Iraq rather than giving USA the authority
to use power, but indicated also the
request for the excessive use of disarmament.
The title of the third part of the
book is "Terrorist Attack to USA
and Intervention to Afghanistan. The
terrorist attack to USA on September
11 has started a new era in the world.
This attack to the super power of the
world, increased the importance of "terrorism
and struggle against the terrorism"
concept. Terrorism, which caused great
troubles for many countries including
Turkey for years, became the hottest
issue of the world's agenda with this
attack. In this book, Bozkurt started
this section by defining terrorism and
conveying the legal arrangements on
this field. The author perceives the
lack of a commonly accepted definition
of the terrorism concept, as the main
obstacle for the elimination of terrorism.
(p.198) The overall prevention of terrorism,
which causes the death of several innocent
people, seems very difficult today.
Bozkurt, in his book, expressed his
discomfort by pointing out to the ruins
of terrorism in national and international
arenas and continued his study by analyzing
meticulously the developments in states
and international organizations. Especially,
relative to the subject matter, the
topics and the goals of the resolution
numbered 1368, and the subsequent resolution
numbered 1373, dated September 12, 2001
of the UN Security Council are also
explained in this section. Bozkurt also
mentioned about the contradictions of
USA in the use of power by relying on
those resolutions. The developments
at NATO and the report on "The
Prevention of the financial sources
of terrorism" are given under the
title of "The Developments perceived
in International Organizations"
in this section. In the light of developments
following the September 11 attack, the
intervention of USA to Afghanistan is
analyzed with its all dimensions in
this book. The third part of the book
is finalized with Turkey's, as a country
of strategic importance, reactions and
policies related to September 11 attack
and intervention to Afghanistan.
The book, we tried to present you in
brief, analyses the legal dimension
of the most important issue of the world's
agenda. Having very few samples in Turkish
literature, especially the references
related to the resolutions numbered
1368, 1373, 1441, qualify Bozkurt's
study as a source book. As one of the
few studies in the field of international
law literature in Turkey, this book
might lead way to the new ones, on the
issues explained above.
