Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, 1982–1991

When Javier Pérez de Cuéllar came to office in 1982 the threat of nuclear annihilation had receded but the collegiality among the Security Council’s permanent members was still absent. The scope for a UN role in the search for peace, particularly in proxy conflicts, remained small. Pérez de Cuéllar’s cautious demeanor masked a willingness to unexpectedly move in a swift and bold fashion. He worked within the constitutional no man’s land between the Security Council and the Secretary-General, sometimes at a slight remove from the Security Council so as to dissociate himself from its mistakes or omissions, using the “reservoir of authority” and “wide margin of discretion” implicit in the Charter. The combination of a Secretary-General to whom the post came unsought and a Security Council which had confidence in him produced the crucial synergy that developed between these two principal organs at a critical juncture.