the process of security sector reform - ISAC Fund

Robert S. Tomasovic PEACE KEEPING MISSIONS
Robert S. Tomasovic PEACE KEEPING MISSIONS
• Factional Political Groupings & Leadership
• State Infrastructure broken down
• Judicial & Police Breakdown
• Military factions & Warlords
• Weapons proliferation
• There is no rule of law, and no rules
• Intermingled with Populations
• Full Range of Civilian Agencies / NGOs
United Nations Secretaré-General Kofi Annan in 1998 stated: “Traditional
peacekeeping operations of the kind deployed during the Cold War are unlikely
to be repeated. Peacekeeping today requires not only rethinking the means but
also the methods of implementing mandates set out by the Security Council.”
more, the record now shows that UN operations are only one part of the spectrum
of activities under the broad peacekeeping banner. Peacekeeping missions (or,
to use the more exact term explained below, “peace operations”) offer flexible,
low-key, low-cost, options for the pursuit of national security and foreign policy
interests. They are hardly a panacea for the problems of the planet, but that
does not make individual peace operations inconsequential or ineffectual. To the
contrary, when it comes to ameliorating suffering, establishing order, promoting
negotiations and reconciliation, and accomplishing sundry associated goals,
peace operations can be among a policymaker’s most effective instruments”.
Peacekeeping is a collective responsibility of member states of the United Nations
as a means to contribute to collective security and a means of pursuing national
security and foreign policy interests. It also represents a specific and unique tool
available to the international community to help resolve international conflicts,
and prevent internal wars from destabilizing regions.
These are the nine significant changes for military forces in modern peacekeeping
operations:
• Chapter VII Operations will be the norm
• Multi-dimensional, mMulti-national operations
• Multi-national forces / coalitions of the willing will start up peace support
operations
• Focus on integrated political, economic and social solutions
• Integration of tasks under one mandate
• Full range of civilian intervention
• New coordination mechanism
• Broader range of military tasks
• Complementary roles for components
The costs of peacekeeping are tiny compared to the costs of conflict and its
toll in lives and property. Although UN peacekeeping cost about $2.6 billion in
2002, in the same year governments worldwide spent $794 billion on arms - a
figure representing 2.5 per cent of world gross domestic product. The United
States Institute of Peacekeeping, June 19996, defined the period of modern Peace
Operations as: “Peacekeeping is a good cause; many countries subscribe. What is
International Peace Operations Today
The UN is clear in separating peacekeeping from peace enforcement. Peacekeeping
is Chapter VI and Peace Enforcement is Chapter VII. But, in fact, during
execution these distinctions blur and we have what some have called the gray
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