Power in Peacekeeping by Lise Morjé Howard

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-100
Author(s):  
Natasha Khan
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Central African Republic ◽  
Verbal Persuasion ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

Howard is an experienced scholar in the fields of international relations, civil wars, peacekeeping and conflict resolution. She has authored several works on peacekeeping such as Learning to Keep the Peace? United Nations Multidimensional Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (2001), and UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (2007). Her recent work, Power in Peacekeeping, takes a novel approach to explore UN Peacekeeping Operations. This book makes a case for looking at the dynamics of power in peacekeeping missions and exploring how peacekeepers wield their authority in peacekeeping missions. The author suggests that while most studies on peacekeeping document empirical accounts of the successes and failures of PKO’s, it can prove beneficial to understand what kind of powers peacekeepers wield on the ground. These powers are grouped into three major categories: financial and institutional inducement, verbal persuasion, and coercion. The author further categorizes these into, persuasion in Namibia, financial inducement in southern Lebanon and coercion in the Central African Republic. Acting as part of a journalist team, the author has first-hand experience in the areas explored in the book and offers detailed accounts backed by existing research in the field of peacekeeping.

4. Peacekeeping to peacebuilding

2015 ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

Peacekeeping is among the most visible roles of the United Nations. But how much do people trust in UN peacekeeping operations? ‘Peacekeeping to peacebuilding’ shows how the UN has struggled to live up to the expectations of its founders in this area. Between 1948 and 1988 the UNSC authorized only thirteen peacekeeping missions. In those years, a number of interstate and an increasing number of intrastate (or civil) wars took place. Cold War pressures explain, to some extent, this imperfect record. Today's more numerous peacekeeping activities are far more complex in nature than they used to be: keeping peace is more than just making and building peace.

Assessing UN Peacekeeping Missions in Central African Republic (CAR) through the Lens of Returning Pakistani Peacekeeping Troops: Perceptions and Challenges

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayesha Ishfaq
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Central African Republic ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
And Training ◽  
Field Area

The research surrounding the effectiveness of UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs) has been an on-going process ever since the inception of these operations. The available literature discusses the successes and failures of the missions depending on variables such as the host country‘s dynamics, mission mandate, and end result etc. However, the experience of the peacekeepers is rarely, if ever, a consideration in understanding the success/failure. Pakistan is one of the largest troops contributing countries to UNPKOs; therefore, it has a huge reservoir of returning and actively serving peacekeepers. The field area challenges and host country‘s environment experienced by the troops play a significant role in discerning the outcome of a UN mission. This research focuses on assessing the challenges and perceptions of Pakistani-UN Peacekeeping Troops in achieving the underlying objectives of United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA). The assessment is based on the primary data collected through interviews from Pakistani UN peacekeepers discussing their in-field challenges, motivations, perceptions, experiences and training. The study endeavours to highlight the contribution of Pakistani Troops to achieve global peace in today‘s complex peacekeeping environment.

UN Peacekeeping Operations and Successful Military Diplomacy: A Case Study of Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bakare Najimdeen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
Military Diplomacy

Few years following its creation, the United Nations (UN) with the blessing of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to establish the UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO), as a multilateral mechanism geared at fulfilling the Chapter VII of the UN Charter which empowered the Security Council to enforce measurement to maintain or restore international peace and security. Since its creation, the multilateral mechanism has recorded several successes and failures to its credit. While it is essentially not like traditional diplomacy, peacekeeping operations have evolved over the years and have emerged as a new form of diplomacy. Besides, theoretically underscoring the differences between diplomacy and foreign policy, which often appear as conflated, the paper demonstrates how diplomacy is an expression of foreign policy. Meanwhile, putting in context the change and transformation in global politics, particularly global conflict, the paper argues that traditional diplomacy has ceased to be the preoccupation and exclusive business of the foreign ministry and career diplomats, it now involves foot soldiers who are not necessarily diplomats but act as diplomats in terms of peacekeeping, negotiating between warring parties, carrying their countries’ emblems and representing the latter in resolving global conflict, and increasingly becoming the representation of their countries’ foreign policy objective, hence peacekeeping military diplomacy. The paper uses decades of Pakistan’s peacekeeping missions as a reference point to establish how a nation’s peacekeeping efforts represent and qualifies as military diplomacy. It also presented the lessons and good practices Pakistan can sell to the rest of the world vis-à-vis peacekeeping and lastly how well Pakistan can consolidate its peacekeeping diplomacy.

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.

The protection of civilians mandate in UN peacekeeping operations: reconciling protection concepts and practices

2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (891-892) ◽  
pp. 517-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haidi Willmot ◽  
Scott Sheeran
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Physical Protection ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe ‘protection of civilians’ mandate in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations fulfils a critical role in realising broader protection objectives, which have in recent years become an important focus of international relations and international law. The concepts of the ‘protection of civilians’ constructed by the humanitarian, human rights and peacekeeping communities have evolved somewhat separately, resulting in disparate understandings of the associated normative bases, substance and responsibilities. If UN peacekeepers are to effectively provide physical protection to civilians under threat of violence, it is necessary to untangle this conceptual and normative confusion. The practical expectations of the use of force to protect civilians must be clear, and an overarching framework is needed to facilitate the spectrum of actors working in a complementary way towards the common objectives of the broader protection agenda.

The Promise of Peacekeeping: Protecting Civilians in Civil Wars

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 810-832
Author(s):  
Allison Carnegie ◽  
Christoph Mikulaschek
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
Identification Strategy

AbstractDo peacekeepers protect civilians in civil conflict? Securing civilian safety is a key objective of contemporary peacekeeping missions, yet whether these efforts actually make a difference on the ground is widely debated in large part because of intractable endogeneity concerns and selection bias. To overcome these issues, we use an instrumental variables design, leveraging exogenous variation in the rotation of African members of the United Nations Security Council and looking at its effects on African civil wars. We show that states that wield more power send more peacekeepers to their preferred locations, and that these peacekeepers in turn help to protect civilians. We thus demonstrate the robustness of many existing results to a plausible identification strategy and present a method that can also be applied to other diverse settings in international relations.

Making Peace or Preventing It? UN Peacekeeping, Terrorism, and Civil War Negotiations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisa Hinkkainen Elliott ◽  
Sara M T Polo ◽  
Liana Eustacia Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Direct Test ◽  
Monthly Data ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Un Peacekeeping

Abstract Previous studies have highlighted that United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are effective at reducing violence during civil wars. But can these operations also change the incentives of the warring parties and lead them to pursue non-violent alternatives? This article provides the first direct test of UN peacekeeping troops’ effectiveness at inducing non-violent engagements, specifically negotiations during civil wars. Our analysis of disaggregated monthly data on peace operations, negotiations, and violence in African conflicts (1989–2009) reveals that sizable deployments of UN military troops, by themselves, are insufficient to foster negotiations, even when they reduce battlefield violence. Instead, the probability of negotiation instances is conditional on rebel tactics. We posit, when rebels engage in terrorism, peacekeeping troops can inadvertently alter the “power to hurt” of the belligerents in favor of rebel groups and create conditions conducive to negotiations. Our results have important implications for research on the effectiveness of both peacekeeping and terrorism and for policy-making.

scholarly journals Challenges in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
N. N. H. Nordin ◽  
Wan Norhasniah Wan Husin ◽  
M. Z. Salleh
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The World ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
Political Economic

Given the variety of actions concentrating on peacekeeping with significant successful operations, the United Nations (UN) continues to encounter concerns and challenges that have hampered its peacekeeping operations’ efficiency, effectiveness, and performance. This article aimed to investigate the primary challenges that adversely influence peacekeeping operations and challenge them based on the security theory proposed by Barry Buzan. According to the study’s findings, UN peacekeeping missions have been successful in addressing conflict situations and promoting peace in many regions of the world. Nevertheless, faults and challenges, notably in terms of the operations’ political, economic, and societal factors, have restricted the peacekeeping operations’ ability to achieve their objectives successfully. Therefore, a better policy that includes all involved actors, especially local government and the population, should be established in order to rebuild a conflict-torn country.

Ethos of ‘Vasudhiva Kutumbakam’ in Nepal’s Contribution to UN Peacekeeping Operations

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-150
Author(s):  
Gaurav Bhattarai ◽  
Beenita Nepali
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Policy Objective ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations Peacekeeping ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

After joining the United Nations in 1955, Nepal not only initiated its non-isolationist foreign policy, but also effectively championed the policy of non-alignment, world peace and non-intervention at several multilateral forums and UN bodies. The most outstanding and globally applauded effort has been Nepal’s contribution in the maintenance of global peace and security through UN peacekeeping missions. Adhering to the eastern philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which envisions the entire world as one family, today, Nepal is the 5th largest troop contributor to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO). But most of the literature produced on Nepal’s role in the United Nations peacekeeping mission are either too general and mere archival or focussed only on glorifying the contribution of Nepali soldiers in different peacekeeping missions. Identifying the same research gap, this study aims to appraise Nepal’s participation in UN peacekeeping missions from Nepal’s foreign policy objective of world peace. To fulfill the same objective, the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam has been foregrounded in the study. Initially, the general understanding of UN peacekeeping in Nepal was associated with bravery, which was later replaced by the concept of ‘kamaune’, which means to earn from the missions. But this study has deliberately cloaked the economic variable of peacekeeping and foregrounds the philosophical drive to highlight how Nepal’s peacekeeping should find more places in political and foreign policy measurement rather than being confined to the financial and institutional variables.

scholarly journals UN Peacekeeping: the Origins of the Concept of Oversight Operations

2020 ◽  
pp. 142-154
Author(s):  
Olena Skrypnyk
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Military Installations ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Initial Form ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
History Of ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

The purpose of the article is to explore the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the concept of UN oversight operations as the initial form of peacekeeping operations and to clarify their role in peacekeeping through the work of such first groups as the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) and the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan. The methodology of the research based on the principles of systemicity, authenticity, historicism, logics. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-typological, historical-system) methods have been used. The events are considered according to their interrelation and in the totality of the revealed historical facts. The scientific novelty is that for the first time the historical aspect of UN involvement in resolving regional conflicts of the second half of the twentieth was explored, since most of the works were written by professional lawyers, political scientists, etc., and thus, due to the specific nature of their research, historical aspects could not be covered in full. Conclusions. In the course of the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the United Nations has developed new methods of peacekeeping. In the late 1940-s – early 1950-s, the concept of UN oversight operations as the initial form of peacekeeping operations was developed by member-states. The creation of this concept gave a significant impetus to the development of UN peacekeeping. The function of the UN observers included: surveillance, daily reports, incident investigations, military installations inspection. Thus, they were the main source of information for the Security Council on the situation in the region. On May 29, 1948, a group of military observers called the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to monitor the truce was created, which is considered was reference to the history of this crucial and necessary UN activity. In 1949, the United Nations Group on India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) formed. The experience of these first groups became the basis for developing other forms and methods of peacekeeping: missions to find out the facts, plebiscite observations, good-service missions, reconciliation teams, mediators and special representatives, and more. The author draws attention to the fact that regional conflicts mentioned in the article, despite the efforts of the UN, remain unresolved today, so the UN should develop more effective measures for their settlement.

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