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CHAPTER NINE: “POLICEKEEPING” AND THE NEED FOR<br />

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES 265<br />

Introduction<br />

Traditional peace support operations differ by degrees of consent,<br />

force, and impartiality. Peacekeeping operations require the consent of the<br />

belligerent parties, the use of force only in self-defense, and the maintenance of<br />

impartiality. Peace-enforcement missions do not require absolute consent; force<br />

can be used to compel or coerce, and impartiality is usually strained.<br />

Today, peace support operations are caught between these two<br />

extremes. Peace support personnel deal more often with crowds than armies<br />

and with questions of ownership of houses and pigs rather than buffer zones.<br />

Population resource control is as important as equipment control. Missions are<br />

increasingly intrastate with a police mission overtone. These missions do not<br />

fall neatly into either the peacekeeping or peace-enforcement categories but<br />

approach “police-keeping” performed by “policekeepers.” 266<br />

Luckily for peace support personnel facing these new missions, there<br />

has been a rapid proliferation of information technology (IT). If properly<br />

understood, these new technologies can help policekeepers prevent or control<br />

conflict.<br />

New Peacemaking/Peacekeeping Model<br />

On 7 September 2000, the United Nations Security Council voted<br />

unanimously to overhaul its peacekeeping operations. There was strong support<br />

in the Council for a more professional, high-tech UN force that would work<br />

harder at conflict prevention. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright<br />

agreed with this reassessment. She had stated earlier that<br />

Old models of peacekeeping don’t always meet current challenges.<br />

Peace operations today often require skills that are neither strictly<br />

military nor strictly police but, rather, a combination of the two. The<br />

265 This article was originally titled “IT Requirements for ‘Policekeeping.’” It was<br />

published in <strong>Military</strong> Review, September-October 2001, pp. 29-35. This is a slightly<br />

expanded version of that article. The editors of <strong>Military</strong> Review inserted the term<br />

“policekeeper” in many places where the term “peacekeeper” would normally be found.<br />

266 Author’s term to describe the current situation. No such term actually exists in the<br />

peace support operation lexicon. It has been brought to the author’s attention that<br />

Graham Day used this term in the past when he described another peace support<br />

operation.<br />

153

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