Task 1(P1, P2, M1, M2)
In this repot, I am going to be discussing the key international institutions and intern ational laws, as
well as analysing how decisions made by international institutions will affect operations carried out
by UK public services.
International Institutions
To begin with, the European Union is one of the many international organisations. It was created
after the second World War hoping it would help stop conflict and maintain peace between each of
the European countries. It has several different aims with the first one being that it wants to help
Europe develop in order to become an area in which both freedom and human rights are
implemented. Another one of its aims is to promote both social and economic progress. The
European Union can also pass new laws and it is the public services responsibility to follow and
enforce them in their member countries. The EU also has a law enforcement agency known as
Europol and its responsibility is to help member countries fight against more serious crimes such as
fighting human and drug trafficking, illegal immigrations and terrorism.
The second international institution is an intergovernmental organisation known as the United
Nations. It was created in the year 1945 with the responsibility of maintaining security and
international peace. It also ‘increases political and economic cooperation among its member
countries.’ (investopedia.com) The United Kingdom is also one of the UN’s founding members and
their roles is to enforce the responsibilities that the UN have. The UK is one of the several countries
that helps by contributing troops to the UN in order to provide support in their peacekeeping
missions which aim to maintain peace. Another way in which the United Kingdom helps is by
contributing £180 million per year towards the United Nations. This is equivalent to 5% of their
overall budget.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, also known as NATO for short, was created in the year of
1949 to act as a military alliance against Russia. To this current date (October 2019) there is a total of
27 member countries. NATO’s main purpose is to defend all member nations from threats that are
sparked by communist countries. NATO has several effects on UK forces. For example; an estimated
25% of NATO’s air force is provided by the United Kingdom. Britain contributes $60 billion to NATO
and the British armed forces also contributes 174,000 troops to their total of 3,370,000 troops.
There are many cases where the UK’s public services have been participated in international
institutions. My first example would be the United Nations involvement in Cyprus, where the
security council set them up in 1974 hoping to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriots
and the Turkish Cypriots. It began in the year 1974 when Turkey decided to invaded Cyprus and as a
result, it is still split to this current day. This operations code name is called ‘TOSCA’ and this involves
an estimate of 3,500 UK troops that are under the UN’s command to guard the border in between,
also known as ‘no man’s land ‘to keep them separate.
My second example is the British public services involvement with Sierra Leone. This operation was
active from 1999 to 2005 and 1000 British troops were deployed in the small African county of Sierra
Leone to provide aid for the government. The British public services brought peace and stability to
the country and as a result it was labelled as one of the UN’s most successful peacekeeping
operations.
Overall, the UK has a responsibility to protect and intervene a country due to a poorly run
government, which is either unable, unwilling or in the worst case scenario, hurting their own
citizens because the UK is an active member of NATO and the UN.