Incredible Commitments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Negotiation Processes ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping

Why do warring parties turn to United Nations peacekeeping and peacemaking even when they think it will fail? Dayal asks why UN peacekeeping survived its early catastrophes in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans, and how this survival should make us reconsider how peacekeeping works. She makes two key arguments: first, she argues the UN's central role in peacemaking and peacekeeping worldwide means UN interventions have structural consequences – what the UN does in one conflict can shift the strategies, outcomes, and options available to negotiating parties in other conflicts. Second, drawing on interviews, archival research, and process-traced peace negotiations in Rwanda and Guatemala, Dayal argues warring parties turn to the UN even when they have little faith in peacekeepers' ability to uphold peace agreements – and even little actual interest in peace – because its involvement in negotiation processes provides vital, unique tactical, symbolic, and post-conflict reconstruction benefits only the UN can offer.

Beyond Keeping Peace: United Nations Effectiveness in the Midst of Fighting

2014 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA HULTMAN ◽  
JACOB KATHMAN ◽  
MEGAN SHANNON
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Cold War

While United Nations peacekeeping missions were created to keep peace and perform post-conflict activities, since the end of the Cold War peacekeepers are more often deployed to active conflicts. Yet, we know little about their ability to manage ongoing violence. This article provides the first broad empirical examination of UN peacekeeping effectiveness in reducing battlefield violence in civil wars. We analyze how the number of UN peacekeeping personnel deployed influences the amount of battlefield deaths in all civil wars in Africa from 1992 to 2011. The analyses show that increasing numbers of armed military troops are associated with reduced battlefield deaths, while police and observers are not. Considering that the UN is often criticized for ineffectiveness, these results have important implications: if appropriately composed, UN peacekeeping missions reduce violent conflict.

scholarly journals Mapping a Norm of Inclusion in the Jus Post Bellum

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Catherine Turner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Jus Post Bellum ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Sustainable Peace ◽  
International Human ◽  
United Nations Charter

This chapter maps the existence of provisions requiring the inclusion of traditionally excluded groups in peace negotiations. It argues that international law now require inclusion not only as an aspiration or an optional political gesture, but as a fundamental general principle of the jus post bellum. It shows that inclusion as a norm emerges from within existing shared principles embodied in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and existing international human rights treaty law. It proposes inclusion as an underpinning norm of jus post bellum, ensuring sustainable peace by engaging with those most affected by peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions.

European Involvement in United Nations Peacekeeping

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Gowan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Medical Evacuation ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
And Control

European soldiers played a major part in United Nations peacekeeping during the cold war, and were heavily involved in missions in the Balkans and Africa in the early 1990s. The disasters of Rwanda and Srebrenica led most European states, with exceptions such as Ireland and Sweden, to limit their role in blue-helmet peacekeeping missions. European multinational forces and EU-flagged missions have, however, backed up UN missions in cases such as Sierra Leone, and Europeans returned to UN peacekeeping in cases including Lebanon and Mali. Officers used to NATO and EU standards remain wary of UN command and control, medical evacuation, and intelligence gathering. When Europeans deploy in UN missions, they often find their non-Western comrades ‘exotic’. Nonetheless, since the end of major operations in Afghanistan, a number of European countries have taken UN operations more seriously, especially as a tool to handle threats of terrorism and uncontrolled migration from Africa.

scholarly journals Peace Governance and Multiculturalism: What role for Peace Education in the Balkans

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidija Georgieva
Keyword(s):  
Peace Education ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Negotiated Settlements ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Violent Conflicts

This article will focus on theoretical and practical dilemmas related to the concept of peace governance, and within this context on the possible transformative role of peace education trough facilitation of contact between communities in conflict. The basic assumption is that violent conflicts in the Balkans have been resolved trough negotiated settlements and peace agreements. Yet, education strategy including peace education and its impact on post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation are underestimated. Peace governance is recognized as a dynamic but challenging process often based on institutional and policy arrangements aimed to at least settle conflict dynamics or in some cases even to provide more sustainable peace after signing of negotiated settlement in multicultural societies. We will argue that education in general is one of the critical issues of peace governance arrangements that could facilitate peacebuilding and create a contact platform between communities. The first question addressed in this article is to what extend peace agreements refer to education as an issue and the second one relate to the question if education is included in peace agreement to what extent it contributes for contact between different conflicting communities. Although it is widely accepted that contacts between former adversaries contributes for multicultural dialogue it is less known or explained if and in what way peace agreements provisions on education facilitate contact and transformation of conflicting relations.

The Relationship between Contributors’ Domestic Abuses and Peacekeeper Misconduct in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cale Horne ◽  
Kellan Robinson ◽  
Megan Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Military Forces ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Recent research has begun to examine patterns of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) perpetrated by peacekeepers deployed in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations (PKOs). Yet, SEA makes up only a fraction of credible allegations of misconduct by peacekeepers. In this article we explore the contours of misconduct in UN PKOs beyond SEA allegations. We argue that the behavior of military forces in their own countries should easily predict their behavior when deployed as part of UN PKOs, which are typically set in fragile, postconflict countries where civilians have minimal protections or legal recourse. Using an original dataset of misconduct in PKOs from 2009 to 2016, we find the behavior of PKO contributor states toward their own populations strongly and consistently predicts the behavior of these states’ military forces in UN PKOs. These findings have implications for the vetting, supervision, and composition of PKOs.

scholarly journals Spoilers of peace: Pro-government militias as risk factors for conflict recurrence

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph V Steinert ◽  
Janina I Steinert ◽  
Sabine C Carey
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Simulation ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Material Benefits ◽  
The Government ◽  
Personal Interests

This study investigates how deployment of pro-government militias (PGMs) as counterinsurgents affects the risk of conflict recurrence. Militiamen derive material and non-material benefits from fighting in armed conflicts. Since these will likely have diminished after the conflict’s termination, militiamen develop a strong incentive to spoil post-conflict peace. Members of pro-government militias are particularly disadvantaged in post-conflict contexts compared to their role in the government’s counterinsurgency campaign. First, PGMs are usually not present in peace negotiations between rebels and governments. This reduces their commitment to peace agreements. Second, disarmament and reintegration programs tend to exclude PGMs, which lowers their expected and real benefits from peace. Third, PGMs might lose their advantage of pursuing personal interests while being protected by the government, as they become less essential during peacetimes. To empirically test whether conflicts with PGMs as counterinsurgents are more likely to break out again, we identify PGM counterinsurgent activities in conflict episodes between 1981 and 2007. We code whether the same PGM was active in a subsequent conflict between the same actors. Controlling for conflict types, which is associated with both the likelihood of deploying PGMs and the risk of conflict recurrence, we investigate our claims with propensity score matching, statistical simulation, and logistic regression models. The results support our expectation that conflicts in which pro-government militias were used as counterinsurgents are more likely to recur. Our study contributes to an improved understanding of the long-term consequences of employing PGMs as counterinsurgents and highlights the importance of considering non-state actors when crafting peace and evaluating the risk of renewed violence.

Security Council

1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-353 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping

During its 1180th meeting held on December 18, 1964, the Security Council had before it the report by the Secretary-General on the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus for the period September 10–December 12, 1964. The object of the meeting was to determine, on the basis of the report, whether or not it was desirable to extend the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) beyond its expected date of expiration on December 25, 1964. At the President's invitation, Spyros Kyprianou, Foreign Minister of Cyprus; Orhan Eralp (Turkey); and Dimitri S. Bitsios (Greece) took places at the Security Council table.

scholarly journals Unintended Consequences: Reconsidering the Effects of UN Peacekeeping on State-sponsored Violence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William George Nomikos
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Vicious Cycle ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Armed Violence

This essay challenges theoretical and empirical arguments about peacebuilding effectiveness that put the state at the center of United Nations peace operations. We argue that state-centric UN peacebuilding operations inadvertently incentivize local-level violence in post-conflict zones. We demonstrate that when the UN supports central governments it unintentionally empowers non-professionalized militaries, paramilitaries, and warlords to settle local scores. Armed violence against civilians in turn triggers a vicious cycle of reprisals and counter-reprisals. As an alternative to state-centric peacebuilding operations that incentivize local violence, we suggest that the UN should shift strategic resources away from central governments and toward UN policing, support of traditional and religious authorities, and the training of local security institutions.

scholarly journals Gender Neutral? Revisiting UN Cold War Peacekeeping

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-124
Author(s):  
Martin Ottoway Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
The Status ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
Modes Of Governance

Scholarship has not explored gender in relation to Cold War United Nations peacekeeping. I argue that this is far more problematic than a cursory glance would suggest. It has, I contend, important implications for UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding projects in the different ‘mission areas’ and their scholarly critiques, thus limiting the potential for profound change in how we go about both. By way of an analysis that begins to explore how gender informed the workings of the first UN peacekeeping operation in its ‘mission area’, I point to ways in which scholars can engage in challenging the status quo by historicising and gendering the undertakings of the UN in its multiple and diverse ‘mission areas’. In doing so, I link neoliberalism to the deeper dynamics of inter-imperial modes of governance, which have never quite faded.

scholarly journals Attacks on United Nations Peacekeeping Forces: A Violation of International Humanitarian Law

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-37
Author(s):  
Bolaños Tania Gicela
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Peacekeeping Forces ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping

This paper raises the question as to whether the United Nations peacekeeping forces could be awarded a civilian status during the armed conflict in which they are deployed; which is important for the determination of prohibition of attacks against them. The paper is based on the premise that distinction between civilians and combatants is crucial under international humanitarian law. In doing so, this paper briefly analyses the nature of UN peacekeeping operations and the qualification of the UN forces’ members as civilians or combatants. It also delves into the emerging category of UN robust peacekeeping operations to ascertain whether its personnel would be treated as civilians or combatants in the context of an international armed conflict.

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