The Military Staff Committee (MSC) is the United Nations Security Council subsidiary body whose role, as defined by the United Nations Charter, is to plan UN military operations and assist in the regulation of armaments. Although the Military Staff Committee continues to exist, negotiation efforts between the United States, the Soviet Union and other nations in the late 1940s failed, and the committee has since been largely defunct, only serving in an advisory capacity.

The greatest purpose of the MSC, arising from Article 45 of the UN Charter, was intended to provide command staff for a set of air-force contingents. The Declaration by United Nations was made on 1 January 1943 by an initial 29 states representing the Allies of World War II in support of the principals of the Atlantic Charter. A security subcommittee was established on 15 April 1942, and in 1943, members of the US Joint Strategic Survey Committee (JSSC) joined the committee. The JSSC soon began leading planning for a joint-military force after the end of World War II. They changed the terminology of the organization from an "international police force" to "international military force" and recommended creating spheres of influence around the world, where the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union would maintain international forces. Under the plan, the United States was to have responsibility for the Americas, Great Britain and the Soviet Union would have joint responsibility the rest of the world; with the exception of the Far East, which would be the responsibility of all three powers and China. The JSSC approached planning from a nationalistic angle, believing a multi-national force impractical.

After being modified by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the plan was spread through the United States Department of State, where Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State, favored an multi-national organization. Hull was dedicated to the project and formed a new drafting committee that discarded the spheres of influence plan. After the Moscow Conference of 1943, the Moscow Declarations were issued on 30 October 1943. The declarations favored establishing a multi-national organization.

After extensive planning, a draft charter was completed by 29 April 1944. The draft proposed having member nations maintain forces that could be called into action. If the forces were used, they would be led by a Security and Armaments Commission. Though written by Americans, some senators feared the nation's autonomy would be lost under the plan. Hull countered by saying that the troops would not be under United Nations control, and that details would be decided later and voted on by the Senate. At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944, the Soviet Union and United Kingdom supported the plan over Soviet proposals for an international air force. The Soviet Union also proposed putting bases in smaller nations at the conference, but withdrew the proposal after American resistance.

It was at the conference that the concept of a Security and Armaments Commission was replaced by a Military Staff Committee, a British proposal based on the US/UK Combined Chiefs of Staff command structure used in World War II. Minor changes to the plan were made at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945. The UN was formally established 24 October 1945, upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The MSC was established in Article 46 and 47 of the Charter, which defines the membership of the Committee as "the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives". In the first United Nations Security Council Resolution, the Military Staff Committee was established and directed to meet in London on 1 February 1946.

In the UN Charter, the MSC is designated to advise and assist the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on "plans for the application of armed force" and is made "responsible under the Security Council for the strategic direction of any armed forces placed at the disposal of the Security Council". The MSC was not considered to command troops in the Korean War, though it was fought by troops under the United Nations Command. In 1992, the United Nations Department of Peace Operations was established "to provide political and executive direction to UN peacekeeping operations and maintain contact with the UNSC, troop and financial contributors, and parties to the conflict in the implementation of UNSC mandates." Such organizations in the United Nations Secretariat supplanted the MSC's role, and it currently functions in an advisory capacity to the UNSC.

British naval historian Eric Grove describes the MSC as "a sterile monument to the faded hopes of the founders of the UN". Proposals for reviving the MSC have been presented. Every two weeks the MSC meets, largely to set the date of its next meeting.

Role

The role of the Military Staff Committee is to advise and assist the UN Security Council on all questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and security. The Committee's recommendations and assistance were initially expected to be provided to the UN Security Council in the following areas:

  • Actions requiring the use of military forces under article 42
  • Agreements to provide military forces to the Security Council under articles 43 and 44

Membership

The MSC is made up of the chiefs of staff of the military branches of the UNSC's permanent members, represented by delegated representatives. The chairmanship of the MSC rotates in alphabetical order (by country name) at the beginning of each month through the representatives of the five permanent members.

Meetings of the Committee are held at the call of the chairman at any time they deems necessary, but the interval between meetings shall not exceed fourteen days. The Committee's programme of work is prepared in advance and published in the UN Journal and on the Committee's website.

References

; Bibliography

  • Kennedy, Paul. The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations. New York: Random House, 2006.