CHINA'S INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING CONTRIBUTIONS AND THE EVOLUTION OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Neethling
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
African Continent ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
The One ◽  
International Peacekeeping ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Following the end of the Cold War and significant changes in the international community, Chinese leaders moved from a reluctant stand in United Nations (UN) activities to a position of active cooperation in UN peacekeeping. In fact, China became the biggest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping operations among the permanent members of the Security Council. Towards the mid-2000s, China was involved in all seven UN peacekeeping operations on the African continent. This dramatic surge in Chinese peacekeeping participation coincided with Beijing's efforts in the early 2000s to deliberately expand its economic and diplomatic influence globally through trade and diplomatic links, as well as through its participation in international organisations, including UN peacekeeping operations. However, there have always been limits to China's involvement in peacekeeping operations. Beijing's views on peacekeeping have consistently been based on a sound respect for state sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention. In this context, this article points out that on the one hand, China is increasingly expected to concern itself with the global responsibilities of a great power,but as its strategic and material interests have become more integrated and entangled with the African continent, Beijing is more and more compelled to consider its national interest and to protect those interestsin Africa. Consequently, China's growing involvement in peacekeeping has become more difficult to reconcile with the country's commitment to non-interventionism, particularly as witnessed in the case of South Sudan. 

Marching for a More Open, Confident and Responsible Great Power: Explaining China's Involvement in UN Peacekeeping Operations

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 101-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Tiewa
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Community ◽  
Great Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Permanent Member ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThis article briefly reviews and explains China's expanding involvement in UN Peace Keeping Operations, especially after the end of the Cold War. The reader will see the political issues arising from the peacekeeping operations of China, including perceptions, guidelines, principles and main concerns. China's evolving posture and capacity prepares it for future participation in UN peacekeeping operations and highlights China's reaction to the demands of its increased integration into the international community. China's involvement in UN PKO is examined from the perspective of mainstream IR theories. The article concludes by asserting that in the new century China will function as a more open, confident and responsible permanent member of the Security Council through its contributions to UN Peace Keeping Operations.

United Nations, Peacekeeping Operations, and Peacebuilding Framework: A Critical Analysis of ‘Security- Development’ Nexus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yosuke Nagai
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Development Paradigm

The security-development nexus has become one of the most important agendas especially in the field of peacebuilding in response to urgent needs in complex humanitarian assistance in war-torn areas. With the changing dynamics of conflict since the end of the Cold War, recent peacebuilding efforts have employed a combination of security and development paradigm to ameliorate severe human rights situations in different contexts. In particular, the functionality of security-development nexus has been well observed in post-conflict scenarios where broader state-building, institutional, security, and governance-related reforms were implemented to ensure sustainable peace processes. In addition, it has been criticized in terms of the imposed liberal values. This article critically analyzes the security-development nexus and attempts to examine how and why the nexus has become essential to the post-Cold War peacebuilding framework. It further elucidates the role of the United Nations (UN) as the leading actor in peacebuilding operations, especially in the form of UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) which have played a significant role in establishing and consolidating peace in various conflict-ridden societies.

scholarly journals THE EVOLUTION OF CHINAʼS POSITION ON UN PEACEKEEPING

2017 ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Yu. Skorokhod
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The Cold War

Since the accession of the People’s Republic of China to the UN in 1971, its approach to UN peacekeeping operations underwent significant alterations at least three times: after 1981, 1989/1990 and after 2003. This article examines the peculiarities of China’s approach to UN peacekeeping operations in 1971–1980 as to the tool of interference in the internal affairs of small states exercised by superpowers. The article claims that although Beijing’s approach to participation in UN peacekeeping efforts changed when in 1981 China began to vote on the UN Security Council for extending the mandates of UN current operations and began to pay contributions to the budget for peacekeeping, the evolution of China’s stance towards UN peacekeeping activities in fact became apparent only following the end of the Cold War, when China was able to take part in launching and implementation of the new peacekeeping operations. Beijing’s vision of the settlement of conflicts in the Persian Gulf (1990–1991) and Somalia, which had a significant impact on China’s position on the new trends in the development of UN peacekeeping practices, was also explored in the article. The author provides a thorough analysis of the main features of Chinaʼs stance on the development of theory and practice of UN peacekeeping in 1981–2003 and points out that in contrast to the previous period of 1971–1980 the countryʼs opposition to it was limited but not overwhelming, since China had elaborated its attitude towards peacekeeping in terms of its own national interests but not ideological reasons, in particular because of the need to create favorable external conditions for implementation of domestic reforms. The article also pays much attention to the study of changes which Chinaʼs peacekeeping policy has undergone since 2003 and which were marked by a significant increase in Chinaʼs participation in UN peacekeeping. The author explains the reasons behind reconsideration by the Chinese leadership of the role which UN peacekeeping played in Beijingʼs strategy of foreign policy; the article also defined political and reputational benefits which China derived from participating in UN peacekeeping operations. The conclusion is that Beijingʼs position on UN peacekeeping evolved from vivid obstructionism to active participation because of significant changes in Chinaʼs foreign and security policy and the development of theory and practice of UN peacekeeping in the post-Cold War period. The article proves that the core traits of Chinaʼs policy towards UN peacekeeping are flexibility and pragmatism.

scholarly journals Maintien de la paix et réforme des Nations Unies

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Legault
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Financial Changes ◽  
The Cold War

Even though substantial administrative and financial changes have been introduced in the United Nations since the early 1980s, the end of the Cold War has brought about a turning point in its process of reform. The impressive growth of UN peacekeeping operations has tipped the balance in favor of major transformations in this field. Indeed, since the publication of the Secretary General’s (Agenda for Peace) many changes have been undertaken and improvements achieved. However much still needs to be done. This paper addresses three particular issues: institutional reforms, organizational reforms and reforms through adjustments. While little will be said on the first two issues, since they are relatively well known and treated elsewhere, this paper will focus on UN'S peacekeeping operations and their actual evolution as a way of assessing the continuing process of reform in the United Nations.

The Futurists. Experts in World Futures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Way

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.

‘There shall be no musical servitude’: Towards a Multitudinous Shostakovich in the West

2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-505
Author(s):  
EIRINI DIAMANTOULI
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

Ideologically motivated attempts to elucidate Shostakovich’s political views and to determine whether and how they may be coded into his compositions have come to characterize the Western reception of the composer’s works since his death in 1975. Fuelled by the political oppositions of the cold war, Shostakovich’s posthumous reputation in the West has been largely shaped by two conflicting perspectives. These have positioned him on the one hand as a secret dissident, bent and broken under the unbearable strain of totalitarianism, made heroic through his veiled musical resistance to Communism; and on the other hand as a composer compromised by his capitulation to the regime – represented in an anachronistic musical style. Both perspectives surrender Shostakovich and his music to a crude oversimplification driven by vested political interests. Western listeners thus conditioned are primed to hear either the coded dissidence of a tragic victim of Communist brutality or the sinister submission of a ‘loyal son of the Communist Party’.1 For those prepared to accept Shostakovich as a ‘tragic victim’, the publication of his purported memoirs in 1979, ‘as related to and edited by’ the author Solomon Volkov, presents a tantalizing conclusion: bitterly yet discreetly scornful of the Stalinist regime, Shostakovich was indeed a secret dissident and this dissidence was made tangible in his music.

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.

John Leighton Stuart and U.S.-Chinese Communist Rapprochement in 1949: Was There Another “Lost Chance in China”?

1982 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-ming Shaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Working Relationship ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
June July ◽  
The Cold War

Reverend John Leighton Stuart (1876–1962) served as U.S. ambassador to China from July 1946 until August 1949. In the many discussions of his ambassadorship the one diplomatic mission that has aroused the most speculation and debate was his abortive trip to Beijing, contemplated in June–July 1949, to meet with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Some students of Sino-American relations have claimed that had this trip been made the misunderstanding and subsequent hostility between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the post-1949 period could have been avoided; therefore, the unmaking of this trip constituted another “lost chance in China” in establishing a working relationship between the two countries. But others have thought that given the realities of the Cold War in 1949 and the internal political constraints existing in each country, no substantial result could have been gained from such a trip. Therefore, the thesis of a “lost chance in China” was more an unfounded speculation than a credible affirmation.

Civil conflicts and the conditions for successful international intervention: a comparative study of Cambodia and El Salvador

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo L. Munck ◽  
Chetan Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
New World Order ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Civil Conflicts ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Territorial Conflicts ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

As the Cold War has receded, it has left behind a world system characterized by two divergent trends. On the one hand, as the two superpowers have withdrawn their security umbrellas, a host of ethnic and territorial conflicts have sprouted around the globe. On the other hand, as former rival blocs now create alliances, international mechanisms for the peaceful resolution of contentious issues have proliferated. A central concern of our times, then, is whether, and under what circumstances, these new mechanisms will be successful in dealing with the disorderly aspects of the new world ‘order’.

Navigating the Complexity of HIV/AIDS in African Peacekeeping Missions: Challenges and Prospects

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 361-384
Author(s):  
Ayodele Akenroye
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hiv Aids

The end of the Cold War witnessed the resurgence of ethnic conflicts in Africa, which necessitated the deployment of peacekeeping missions in many crisis contexts. The risk of HIV transmission increases in post-conflict environments where peacekeepers are at risk of contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS. In response, UN Security Council Resolution 1308 (2000) stressed the need for the UN to incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention awareness skills and advice in its training for peacekeepers. However, troops in peacekeeping missions remain under national command, thus limiting the UN prerogatives. This article discusses the risk of peacekeepers contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS, as well as the role of peacekeeping missions in controlling the spread of the disease, and offers an account of the steps taken within UN peacekeeping missions and African regional peacekeeping initiatives to tackle the challenges of HIV/AIDS. While HIV/AIDS remains a scourge that could weaken peacekeeping in Africa, it seems that inertia has set in, making it even more difficult to tackle the complexity of this phenomenon.

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