Did the UNSC Authorise Use of Force?
It is appropriate to reaffirm that it is the UNSC that has assumed responsibility for activities engaged in by Iraq that are thought to be undesirable, and it must be the UNSC that decides whether force is required for enforcement of UN requirements.[66] The UNSC authorises use of force under Chapter VII by issuing a resolution to that effect. Consequently, it is necessary to look at terminology employed by the UNSC in the past that authorised use of force and next, the resolutions relevant to Iraq and OIF. In this manner it is possible to ascertain whether the force employed in OIF was authorised by the UNSC. Given the gravity and consequences of force authorisations, unambiguous wording is required. To illustrate, an early resolution authorising force, which clearly ’employed language universally understood to do so’,[67] was UNSC resolution 83 which recommended that UN member states provide ‘such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and t
