(a) "UNO was the necessity of the time when the World War II ended." Critically examine its achievements and shortcomings. (20…

(a) The United Nations: a necessity of its time, its achievements and shortcomings

The statement is sound. Two world wars and the League's failure had shown the need for a collective security body, and the UN Charter was signed at San Francisco in June 1945 by fifty states, coming into force in October. Its structure gave the five victors permanent seats and a veto in the Security Council.

Its achievements are substantial. It has helped settle or contain disputes and run peacekeeping operations, from Suez (1956) to later missions. It supported decolonisation through the Trusteeship Council and the Declaration of 1960, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) set international standards. Specialised bodies such as the WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO and the UNDP have worked on health, education, food and development, and the UN offers a forum in which smaller states can speak. There has been no third world war.

Its shortcomings are equally clear. The veto paralysed the Security Council during the Cold War, and it has done so later over Syria, Ukraine and Palestine. The UN failed to prevent or stop the genocides in Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica (1995), and could not restrain interventions by great powers, such as the Iraq war of 2003. Its membership in the Security Council reflects 1945, not today's world, and India, Brazil, Germany, Japan and African states seek reform. It depends on funding and troops from members, and has limited enforcement power.

The judgement is that the UN was necessary and has done valuable work, but its effectiveness is bounded by the power politics of its leading members.

(b) Causes of anti-colonial movements in South-East Asia

The three factors in the statement are real, but they interacted with others. Cultural difference mattered because the colonial powers, the Dutch in Indonesia, the French in Indochina, the British in Burma and Malaya and the Americans in the Philippines, ruled over societies with their own religions and identities. Buddhist associations in Burma (the Young Men's Buddhist Association, 1906), Islamic organisations such as Sarekat Islam in Indonesia (1912) and Vietnamese scholar-gentry movements used cultural identity to resist alien rule.

Western education created an intelligentsia that read of liberty and nationalism and then found itself excluded from power. Sukarno was trained in Dutch-run schools, Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in France, and Filipino ilustrados such as Rizal were educated in Europe.

The emergence of communist ideas gave organisation and a programme. The Indonesian Communist Party (1920), Ho Chi Minh's Indochinese Communist Party (1930) and the Burmese Thakins reached peasants and workers, often combining nationalism with social demands.

Other causes were equally important: economic exploitation through plantations, forced cultivation and heavy taxation, the Great Depression, the example of Japan's victory over Russia in 1905, and above all the Japanese occupation (1941–45) that broke the prestige of the colonial powers and armed local movements. The judgement is that the three factors explain the nature of the movements, while economic grievance and the Second World War explain their timing and success.

(c) Arab nationalism as a cultural and anti-colonial movement

The statement is correct. Arab nationalism began in the nineteenth century as a cultural revival, the Nahda, with language, literature and history as its core. Writers such as Butrus al-Bustani and Ibrahim al-Yaziji revived Arabic and Arab identity, later also against Ottoman Turkification.

It became political and anti-colonial as European powers took Arab lands. The Arab Revolt (1916) led by Sharif Hussein was undercut by the secret Sykes-Picot agreement (1916) and the Balfour Declaration (1917). The mandates of Britain and France in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine provoked revolts, such as Iraq in 1920 and Syria in 1925. After 1945 nationalism took the form of Nasser's Egypt, the Suez crisis of 1956 and the Baath movement, directed against Western control and Israel.

But it was also divided. Loyalties to states, Islam and local dynasties competed, and pan-Arab unity such as the United Arab Republic (1958–61) failed. The judgement is that it was both cultural and anti-colonial, and the two dimensions reinforced each other.