The infrastructures of war and peace

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the need for and develop a framework for research on the effects UN peace operation infrastructure has on a host nation. Mission infrastructure serves primarily to sustain a mission. As the mission terminates, infrastructure is often transferred to the host nation. The mission infrastructures could have both positive and negative implications for the host nation and for local communities.Design/methodology/approachExploratory approach to develop a foundation for a research agenda in an area with little existing research. Identify theoretical contributions related to infrastructures, combine with primary data from one peace operation, secondary data from five other peace operations and from the UN repositories.FindingsThis study proposes a research agenda. As such our findings relate to the identification and classification of different infrastructures and their interdependencies.Research limitations/implicationsThis framework would contribute to new ways of exploring and analysing both the effectiveness of peace operations and the impact a mission has on the development in the host nation.Practical implicationsThis study proposes a framework for research. As such, it will have implications primarily for researchers.Social implicationsUnderstanding the interdependencies between mission infrastructures and the material and social infrastructures of a host nation would help understanding what value mission infrastructure brings to a host nation and the local communities.Originality/valueAnalysing the logistics in peace support operations as networks of infrastructures bring new perspectives into humanitarian logistics.

20 The Law of International Peace Operations

This chapter assesses the law of international peace operations, comprising both peacekeeping operations and peace enforcement operations conducted in support of diplomatic efforts to establish and maintain peace. Peace operations will derive their legitimacy from the authority of the Security Council. In establishing a peace operation, the Security Council follows the Charter of the United Nations, exercising its primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Legitimacy confers a privileged legal status on a peace operation and its personnel that is essential in implementing its mandate. The rules of engagement for the operation, which form the legal authority for the use of force, specify how and when peacekeepers are authorized to use force, including deadly force. Other international legal instruments and norms guide the activities of peacekeepers and define the relationship between the operation and the host country. Altogether, the apparatus of authority and law composes the legal framework for peace operations.

Guinea-Bissau’s Embalo will seek to centralise power

Significance The end to the UN peace operation came almost three months after the departure of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Mission in Guinea Bissau (ECOMIB). The completion of both missions comes amid a tense political standoff between President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and the former ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Impacts Embalo’s heavy-handed approach could bring short-term stability but poses a long-term threat to a fragile political and security situation. Drug trafficking will remain a major challenge for the new administration, despite hard-line government commitments. Embalo is looking to regional allies to attract much-needed funds for his administration and provide technical and financial assistance.

Are You an Observer or a Supporter of War?

This chapter presents a framework for narratives of war news in consideration of Galtung's war and peace journalism theories. News narratives are discussed in the light of BBC's ethical principles of war journalism. Additionally, transformation of war journalism with the advances in communication technologies is analysed. The method of research is through review of literature and interviews in depth. Five war journalists were interviewed. These five Turkish journalists witnessed five different eras. Ergin Konuksever is the oldest war journalist in Turkey. He was reporting the news from Cyprus Peace Operation in 1974. İsmail Umut Arabacı is the first journalist to announce ‘Operation Peace Spring' live from the border. Cem Tekel is the editor and war journalist who joined the operation. Coşkun Aral is an international Turkish photographer and war journalist. He won SIPA PRESS award in 1977 with his photograph of 1st May National Labor Day. Kerim Ulak is an A Haber editor and journalist who joined the operation. His news about the operation turned out to be fake.

The Local Turn and the Framing of unoci’s Mandated Activities by the UN

This article engages specifically with the local turn in UN peace operations by looking at local engagement and empowerment in the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire. After the closure of a long-serving UN peace operation it is important to take stock of the activities pursued under the mandate and reflect on how the mission has contributed to peacekeeping practice. UN peace operations have increasingly undertaken peacebuilding activities at the local level with current literature emphasising the need to involve local actors in decision-making and reconciliation activities. In seeking to uncover how the UN understands the need to involve local actors, the mission activities of unoci are broken down into a number of themes looking at how the local are engaged, given agency and empowered, and also where the UN recognises specific vulnerabilities of persons. The article shows how the UN portrays its activities and where it has either expressly or impliedly sought to demonstrate a concern for the local in Côte d’Ivoire.

Deterrence in Peace Operations: Look Beyond the Battlefield and Expand the Number of Targets and Influence Mechanisms

The peace operations literature suffers from a narrow focus on battlefield deterrence. It ignores the need to deter actors beyond the battlefield from supporting the combatants using force, and analyses the use of military threats and force in peace operations in a vacuum without taking into account the other instruments that deterring actors employ simultaneously to influence the combatants, combatant allies, combatant supporters and bystanders that undermine deterrence in peace operations. Since most peace operation forces lack the capacity and willingness to threaten and use force in accordance with the requirements stipulated by rational deterrence theory, influencing actors beyond the battlefield is more important with respect to deterring violence than the military efforts undertaken by peace operation forces to deter combatants from using force or to compel them to stop doing so. Accordingly, this chapter develops a new analytical framework that will enable peace operation theorists and practitioners to target all the actors that undermine deterrence on the battlefield and beyond with all the tools at their disposal—persuasion, inducement and coercion. The framework will improve both theory and practice by providing a better understanding of the conditions under which peace operations can contribute to deterring and, if need be, compelling combatants from using force as well as identifying the tools that practitioners can employ to this end. It highlights that peace operations merely constitute the top of the deterrence iceberg, and that peace operation forces must be supported by other actors and tools to succeed with respect to deterring violence and facilitating conflict resolution.

Keeping the Peace in Somalia: Are “African Solutions to African Problems” Enough?

After suffering significant casualties in peacekeeping operations in Africa, several powerful countries, including the U.S. and some of its western allies, exhibited reluctance to deploy their troops in Africa in significant numbers or for long periods of time. Since then many western powerful states exhibited fatigue and reduced their involvement in peace initiatives on the continent where Somalia is could be taken as one of those best cases. “Africa fatigue” by the powerful Western countries motivated and necessitated for the emergence of the “African solution to African problems” maxim. It is in this context that the AU authorized a range of peace operations, among them, AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), to respond to the complex conflicts that have engulfed the continent. The objective of this study is to explore whether the approach of “African solutions to African problems” is enough to address the severe humanitarian situation of Somalia or not. The study looks at the case of Somalia for two reasons. First, Somalia has faced a prolonged civil war fuelled by intense internal conflict and exacerbated by external influences. Secondly, the AU has been playing a leading role in the resolutions of the conflicts using a multidimensional approach that involved diplomatic, mediatory and military mechanisms over a longer period of time. More importantly, the case of Somalia is chosen mainly because the case is among the glaring example of AU‟s comprehensive peace operation. Other African countries such as Burundi, Comoro Islands, Mali, Central African Republic and the like have also hosted peace support operations however; these missions were conducted for short period. Hence, examining the AU‟s relatively short-term responses presents challenges as these short-term missions may not test the capacity of African Union compared to the long-term peace operations (Somalia).

Sustaining the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda: The Role of UN Peacekeeping in Africa

Peacebuilding is less likely to succeed without the participation and consideration of women. In the last two decades, peace operations deployed on the African continent under the banner of the United Nations and the African Union have included mandates focused on strengthening women’s participation in peace processes, ensuring the protection of women and girls, and integrating gender considerations into the approach of missions at building sustainable peace. This chapter examines the approaches undertaken in two case study countries—Liberia (where a long-standing UN peace operation has recently departed) and South Sudan (where a UN peace operation continues to operate with significant constraints)—in order to examine some of the challenges and opportunities that UN engagement has offered in terms of advancing equality and women’s security in each country.

Venetian Walls of Nicosia: Between Kyrenia Gate - Barbaro Bastion

Nicosia today has the characteristics of being the only divided city in Europe. By examining the inside of the walls, one observes that the structure of the city is determined by the circular plan of the walls that were constructed during the Venetian period. There are 11 bastions on the walls and three Venetian gates, namely Kyrenia Gate, Famagusta Gate and Paphos Gate, were originally designed to allow entrance to the city that is encircled by the walls. Nicosia continued to be the islands capital which has fallen under Ottoman rule in between 1571-1878. In the period of British occupation 1878-1960, as a result of the increasing population, the city of Nicosia overflew the walls and developed by spreading beyond the city walls and 8 new passages were opened. The organic fabric of the walled city, with the establishment of buffer zones after the peace operation of 1974, resulted in the division of the island that divided the capital city into two. In 1931, because of the increased vehicle needs through the north side, the walls around the Kyrenia Gate (Porta del Proveditore) were trimmed and designed as a single monumental building. Between Kyrenia Gate and Barbaro bastion wall height is lower than the existing. Public lavatory and 9 small shops were inserted. Sitting steps were designed on the walls and two stairs were constructed to reach these area. To give an access from the moat to the inner city there is a passage. In this context, identifying changes of the Kyrenia Gate-Barbaro bastion site, during this historic period, is the main goal of this study. Decisions with regard to these walls and observations to be made on right places to determine the changes are main focuses of the study.