SRJC 08 JC2 P1 Prelims QNS

SERANGOON JUNIOR COLLEGE JC2 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2008 HISTORY Higher 1 / Higher 2 8814 / 9731 Paper 1 Friday 22 August 2008 3 hr Additional materials: Answer paper Cover page INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES • Write your name and civics tutorial group in the spaces provided on the cover page and on every answer. • Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper. • Do not use staples, paper clips, highl ighters, glue or correction fluid. • Write your answers on the separate answer paper provided. • Candidates are to answer Question 1 in Section A, and answer any 3 questions in Section B. INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES • You are reminded of the need for good Eng lish and clear presentation in your answers. This question paper consists of 4 printed pages.

Section A You must answer Question 1 UN PEACEKEEPING IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD 1. Read the sources and then answer the question Source A There can be little doubt that the worst days for the organization are behind it. During the Cold War, the Security Counc il could never function as in tended, because the Soviet Union used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to thwart actions opposed by its client st ates or by General Assembly blocs that Soviet diplomacy sought to estrange from America and the West. Deadlock in the Security Council was not the only result of the Cold War. A ‘nonaligned’ bloc of Asian, African and Lat in American countries sought to exploit the rivalry between the Western alliance and t he Soviet bloc. As long as their defections to the Soviet camp were a credible threat, Third World countries could attempt to extort concessions from the USA and its allies. Michael Lind, ‘The New World Order: Opposing Viewpoints’, 1994 Source B Never before in the history of the Organiza tion (since 1988) were there so many new insights gained about the varied tasks of keeping, making or building the peace in areas riven or threatened by conflict. Never before were such precedents set as has been done, in different ways, in Nami bia, Haiti, Angola , Nicaragua and now, most notably, in Central America, particularly El Salvador. Indeed, today, the Organization is conducting some missions that were unthinkable in the previous era. The UN Secretary-General, Perez de Cueller in 1991 Source C The weakness of the UN is a reflection of bot h the structure of the international system and of the individual states. Since the mid-1980s, member states have requested services from the UN to an extent which is totally out of propor tion to what they are willing to contribute, and is more or less systematically undermined by the action of some of the members themselves – particularly th e five permanent Security Council members. Consequently, the UN has failed, more or less, to stick to its mandate. A Vision of Hope: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, 1995 2

Source D One of the problems in the Cold War period was that its effectiveness was curbed by superpower rivalry. Since 1988, it has launched more peac ekeeping missions than it did in the previous 40 years. Japan and Germany have joined the ranks of peacekeepers. And the Security Council has been able to display unanimity over weighty issues concerning international peace and securi ty. On the other h and, whereas the UN appeared previously susceptible to influence vis-à-vis the power of the veto, now it appears susceptible to the whims of the so called Cold War “v ictor”, the US. In short the UN is in a period of transition and ambiguity as it operates in world characterized more by “disorder” than “order”. It is still facing massive under-funding for these peacekeeping operations. Although peacekeeping missions have become a common means to try and defuse and stabilize violent conflicts, the word “peacekeeping” appears nowhere in the UN Charter. A British and a Canadian lect urer giving a lecture at a local university in 1993 Source E After congratulating itself on a number of su ccesses, the UN suddenly faced a series of catastrophic failures, and the international media did not hesit ate to heap criticism on the Organization. Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia are examples of the inability of the UN to cope with new and festering internal conflicts where the parties had no interest in finding a peaceful solution. Pressured by the catastrophic humanitarian cr isis in Somalia, the UN (and the United States) entered a situation in which there wa s no ceasefire and no reliable consent from the parties. The international force became caught up in the conflict by going on the offensive against one of the parties, removing its legitimacy as an impartial facilitator. The debacle in Somalia contributed to the hu miliating failure of the UN to respond some months later to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Pleas to t he UN Security Council went unheeded as the United St ates, fearing another Somalia, refused to acknowledge that genocide was taking place. The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society, 2004 Now answer the following question: How far do sources A-E support the view that the United Nations was effective in maintaining international peace in the post-Cold War years? 3

4 Section B You must answer 3 questions from this section 2. How far do you agree that ideology played a more crucial role than security concerns in leading to the outbreak of the Cold War? 3. “The Cuban Missile Crisis broke out because of the aggression of the superpowers.” How far do you agree? 4. “The USA was the key driver in the dev elopment of the world economy from 1945 – 2000.” Examine the validity of this statement. 5. “The growth of religious fundamentalism in the 1970s to the 1990s was caused by superpower involvement in the Third World.” How far do you agree? 6. How far do you agree that the inability to resolve the Kashmir dispute was due to the role of Pakistan? End of Paper