Essentially, peacekeeping occurs after a conflict and UN peacekeepers are often deployed after a ceasefire has been negotiated in an attempt to maintain the peace. Between 1948 and 2013, the UN has carried out 67 peacekeeping operations, and the 2012-2013 budget for UN peacekeeping operations was about $7.33 billion.
THE CHANGING NATURE OF PEACEKEEPING
At first, peacekeeping involved the placing of a UN force between the parties of a dispute once a ceasefire had been negotiated. Examples of this include 1948, when UN peacekeepers were used to monitor the truce after the first Arab-Israeli war, and in 1949 a UN military observer group was deployed to the Kashmir region to monitor the ceasefire after the separation of Pakistan and India and consequent large scale killings.
At first, peacekeeping involved the placing of a UN force between the parties of a dispute once a ceasefire had been negotiated. Examples of this include 1948, when UN peacekeepers were used to monitor the truce after the first Arab-Israeli war, and in 1949 a UN military observer group was deployed to the Kashmir region to monitor the ceasefire after the separation of Pakistan and India and consequent large scale killings.
However, the traditional approach to peacekeeping became increasingly unsustainable in the post cold war period due to the increase in peacekeeping operations. This has been caused by increased civil strife and humanitarian crises as a result of a lessened focus on 'the enemy ideology' and more on the internal ethnic divisions. Therefore the task of peacekeeping become more difficult as interstate war became less frequent and civil war more common - more conflicts are due to ethnic and cultural rivalries and endemic socio economic divisions.
After the cold war peacekeepers were increasingly dispatched to areas where violence was an ongoing threat or a reality and so there was a greater emphasis on robust peacekeeping (the use of military force), sometimes portrayed as peace enforcement. As conflict situations became more complex, there was a recognition that the focus of peacekeeping operations must change also. This led to multidimensional peacekeeping which along with the implementation of a peace agreement, includes the use of force to achieve humanitarians ends, the provision of emergency relief and steps towards political reconstruction.
DOES PEACEKEEPING WORK?
A 2007 study of 8 peacekeeping operations found that seven of them had succeeded in keeping the peace and six of them had helped to promote democracy. These included the Congo, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and El Salvador.
However, some major peacekeeping missions have failed.
UN peacekeepers were little more than spectators to the Rwanda Genocide in 1994 and UN backed US intervention in Somalia led to humiliation and withdrawal in 1995 and the conflict continued. Another failure saw the Bosnian-Serb military carry out the worst mass murder in Europe since the second world war in an area which had been under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers.
The UN's reliance on deterrence by presence has not worked in such cases, not to mention its reluctance to use force in the face of peace breakers who use force freely and criminally. The inconsistency in the success of peacekeeping missions can be explained by the varying quality of peacekeeping forces, and failings at a higher level are due to conflicting priorities and agendas in the security council and P5.
Further evidence that UN peacekeeping has not been effective can be seen in the 1992 UN report, 'An agenda for peace', which acknowledged that peacekeeping alone is not enough to ensure lasting peace. This is also reflected in the growing emphasis on peace building , which along with military force, uses economists, police officers, legal experts, electoral observers and human rights monitors to promote peace in peacekeeping operations.
Overall, while the UN has been successful in some earlier peacekeeping operations, more recently its operations have been in countries with civil war rather than conflicts between two states. This makes its mission more complicated and inevitably has led to some failures. While the UN has not been entirely successful in its peacekeeping role it has evolved to include peace building in its activities which has been and will likely continue to be more successful.
A 2007 study of 8 peacekeeping operations found that seven of them had succeeded in keeping the peace and six of them had helped to promote democracy. These included the Congo, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and El Salvador.
However, some major peacekeeping missions have failed.
UN peacekeepers were little more than spectators to the Rwanda Genocide in 1994 and UN backed US intervention in Somalia led to humiliation and withdrawal in 1995 and the conflict continued. Another failure saw the Bosnian-Serb military carry out the worst mass murder in Europe since the second world war in an area which had been under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers.
The UN's reliance on deterrence by presence has not worked in such cases, not to mention its reluctance to use force in the face of peace breakers who use force freely and criminally. The inconsistency in the success of peacekeeping missions can be explained by the varying quality of peacekeeping forces, and failings at a higher level are due to conflicting priorities and agendas in the security council and P5.
Further evidence that UN peacekeeping has not been effective can be seen in the 1992 UN report, 'An agenda for peace', which acknowledged that peacekeeping alone is not enough to ensure lasting peace. This is also reflected in the growing emphasis on peace building , which along with military force, uses economists, police officers, legal experts, electoral observers and human rights monitors to promote peace in peacekeeping operations.
Overall, while the UN has been successful in some earlier peacekeeping operations, more recently its operations have been in countries with civil war rather than conflicts between two states. This makes its mission more complicated and inevitably has led to some failures. While the UN has not been entirely successful in its peacekeeping role it has evolved to include peace building in its activities which has been and will likely continue to be more successful.
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