Hoorcollege 6: Peacekeeping Flashcards
What is peacekeeping
Deployment of military forces to promote peace
Goals of peacekeeping before war
To contain violence and prevent it from escalating to war
Goals of peacekeeping during war
- To limit intensity
- Spread duration of war
- Create humanitarian/political space
Goals of peacekeeping after war
- Consolidate ceasefire
- Create space for reconstruction
- Assist in implementing peace agreements
- Lead state through transition to stable government based on democratic principles and economic development
The UN and peacekeeping
- One of the main purposes of the UN is to maintain international peace and security
- PK has become one of the main tools UN uses to achieve this purpose
- Relies on member states to contribute troops
Legal basis of peacekeeping UN
- Force allowed only in self-defense or threat to international peace/security
- UN security council decides (P5 (US, FR, UK, RU, CH) can veto)
- Peaceful settlement
- Peaceful enforcement
- Authorising peace missions by regional organisations
Responsibility to protect (R2P)
- 2005 World Summit: R2P populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing
- This responsibility lies first with state concerned, but if unwilling/unable, it shfits to the international community
- Use of force as last resort
- After 2005 governments withdrew support/ambivalent as they were afraid it might apply to them at some time
- Security Council has invoked R2P on several occassions
- Decisions to use force remains subject to UNSC P5 approval
First generation peacekeeping
- 1948-1990 (Post WWII and Cold War)
- Mainly to monitor borders and buffer after ceasefires
- Mainly between states (sovereignty, state-intervention)
- Consent, impartiality, non-use of force except self-defense
Second generation peacekeeping
- 1990-2001 (Post Cold War pre war on terror)
- Expansion in number and scope (peacebuilding)
- Peace enforcement
Third generation peacekeeping
- 2001-present
- No longer always based on peace agreement or consent
- No longer always based on SC decision ‘coalition of the willing’; regional PK forces
- Blurred boundary PK and peace enforcement
- Uneasy relationship UN PK and counterterrorism; what counts as a peace operation?
- R2P debate
Debate about peace operations
- Neo-realist
- World politics as limited society of states
- Universal humanitarian values trump sovereignty
- Cosmopolitan values
- Critical theory approach
Neo-realist position peacekeeping
- Dismissive of UN and international law (anarchy)
- See violence/war etc. as stabilisation forces
World politics as limited society of states
- Common interest in preserving order, but no universal interventionary principles
- Sovereignty important
- In favour of traditional UN PK –> preserving ceasefire, protecting borders etc. but not nothing more
- No R2P
Universal humanitarian values trump sovereignty
Internationally sanctioned interventions for human security
Cosmopolitan values
- Global governance, civil society
- Plans for UN standing intervention force
Critical theory approach
- PK produces power imbalances
- Liberal peace critiques
- Response Ramsbotham: abandoning precarious 60 year old UN PK experiment won’t lead to a safer world
Critique on critiques about functionality of PK
The critiques that say it doens’t work mix different cases and different types of missions of different organisations and those that are different from e.g. the successful mission in Liberia where only the UN was present
