Since the adoption of UNSCR 1325, more female peacekeepers are participating in peacekeeping missions than ever before. Nevertheless, the current literature on peacekeeping effectiveness is largely ...gender neutral, discounting the unique role female peacekeepers may play in peacekeeping operations. This article addresses this missing piece in the literature by assessing how female peacekeepers and locals view the role of women in peacekeeping operations. Using interviews and focus groups conducted with peacekeepers in the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and original surveys conducted in Liberian communities, it finds that there is an "access gap" that prevents female peacekeepers from fully contributing to the mission's operations and therefore prevents the peacekeeping mission from reaching its full potential. The findings have broader implications for how to improve peacekeeping missions' effectiveness moving forward.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Security Sector Reform (
ssr
) is one of the key mechanisms of the UN norms of liberal peacebuilding. After the end of a 14-year-long civil war,
ssr
in Liberia has faced enormous challenges ...but opened a new space for peace and democracy for the people. Under the comprehensive supervision of the USA, two private military companies, DynCorp International and Pacific Architects and Engineers (
pae
), have played a pivotal role in army reform. Alternatively,
unmil
has been involved in police reform, which has not been considered successful enough. Furthermore, this study has observed that before
ssr
, disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (
ddr
) was not properly managed, which has had a pessimistic impact on
ssr
. The study has also found that the reformed army and police have been strongly criticised due to a lack of local ownership and citizen oversight, gender inequality, and poor democratic control. Nevertheless, beyond its limitations, the study shows that
ssr
has achieved a mixture of success in the current security, stability and peace in Liberia.
Abstract This article presents a broad assessment of Chinese personnel deployments to peacekeeping operations (PKOs) for the past three decades (1990-2019). To this end, an original dataset was built ...with data collected from the UN Department of Peace Operations. The following four indicators were considered in the analysis: (i) total personnel contribution per year; (ii) personnel contribution per mission; (iii) personnel contribution in relation to the mission’s total contingent; and (iv) personnel in a given mission in relation to the total personnel dispatched by China that year. Generally speaking, UN missions in Liberia (UNMIL) and South Sudan (UNMISS) have been the main destinations of Chinese peacekeepers in the 21st Century, while Cambodia (UNTAC) was by far the only place where China got deeply involved during the 1990s. In addition to displaying descriptive data, the paper also briefly analyses Chinese engagement in these operations.
Resumo O presente artigo apresenta uma ampla avaliação sobre o destacamento de pessoal chinês para operações de paz ao longo das últimas três décadas (1990-2019). Para tanto, um conjunto de dados original foi construído a partir de dados coletados do Departamento de Operações de Paz da ONU (DPO). Os seguintes quatro indicadores foram analisados: (i) contribuição total de pessoal por ano; (ii) contribuição de pessoal por missão; (iii) contribuição de pessoal em relação ao contingente total da missão; e (iv) contribuição de pessoal em uma determinada missão em relação ao total destacado pela China naquele ano. De modo geral, as missões da ONU na Libéria (UNMIL) e no Sudão do Sul (UNMISS) foram os principais destinos das forças chinesas de manutenção de paz no século XXI, enquanto o Camboja (UNTAC) foi, de longe, o único lugar onde a China se envolveu profundamente durante a década de 1990. Além de exibir dados descritivos, o artigo também analisa brevemente o envolvimento chinês nessas operações.
The UN Security Council meeting on 18 September 2014 represented a major turning-point in the international response to the Ebola outbreak then underway in West Africa. However, in the light of ...widespread criticism over the tardiness of the international response, it can be argued that the UN, and particularly the Security Council, failed to make best use of a potential resource it already had on the ground in Liberia: the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). This article examines whether UNMIL could have done more to contribute to the emergency response and attempts to draw some lessons from this experience for potential peacekeeper involvement in future public health emergencies. UNMIL could have done more than it did within the terms of its mandate, although it may well have been hampered by factors such as its own capacities, the views of Troop Contributing Countries and the approach taken by the Liberian government. This case can inform broader discussions over the provision of medical and other forms of humanitarian assistance by peacekeeping missions, such as the danger of politicising humanitarian aid and peacekeepers doing more harm than good. Finally, we warn that a reliance on peacekeepers to deliver health services during 'normal' times could foster a dangerous culture of dependency, hampering emergency responses if the need arises.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, INZLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
This article discusses the tensions in security sector reform that stem from a conceptual-contextual divide in statebuilding practice. It uses the case of the United Nations Mission in Liberia ...(UNMIL) drawdown to understand how tensions between international policy and local practice manifest and impact on reform of internal security capacity in real time. The theme of hybridity links the analytical framework with the reality of SSR performance and explains the fallacies of liberal-institutionalist reform choices. Research findings offer important lessons that point towards the need for developing local institutions and capacities in place of externally driven social engineering projects that enhance dependency. This focus on empowering the local complements, and is commensurate with, the ultimate goal of SSR, namely, the reconstruction of legitimate and people-centred security institutions.
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In this article, we examine how the tension between justice and force informs the efforts of the United Nations (
un
) to promote the rule of law through its peace operations. We begin by showing how ...the
un
’s discourse of ‘securing peace’ has three antagonistic propositions holding it together in a combustible way. The propositions are: first, peace contains the force of war; second, law contains the force of peace; and third, justice contains the force of law. With the antagonistic arrangement of these propositions in mind, we then show how the
un
has developed two contrasting approaches to promoting the rule of law through its peace operations, which we describe as its ‘aspirational’ and ‘operational’ visions of the rule of law. The aspirational vision combines the need for an effective and accountable security sector with a focus on the substantive requirements of justice, thus aspiring to bring all three propositions together in the rule of law. By contrast, the
un
’s operational vision prioritizes security, stability and order, thus losing sight of the importance of justice. We demonstrate this divergence between the
un
’s aspirational and operational visions through a study of the
un
’s peace operations in Liberia between 1993 and 2014, with a focus on the rule of law promotion activities of the
un
Mission in Liberia (
unmil
). We argue that the
un
’s efforts to promote the rule of law through its peace operations risk establishing the conditions for a state of tyranny if they lose sight of the antagonistic but co-dependent relationship between justice and force. The challenge is to prioritize the requirements of force and justice at the same time. While this will not resolve their antagonistic relationship, it has the virtue of acknowledging their co-dependency as an uncomfortable yet unavoidable condition of a state based on the rule of law.
The paper investigates to what extent the inadequacies of the Liberia police can be attributed to state resource constraint. It concludes that policing policies by the government and the UN Mission ...to Liberia (UNMIL) have exacerbated the difficulties. The policies ignore a multi-layered approach that would utilise the resources of commercial, community-based, and customary policing. Further, policing effectiveness has been undermined by duplication; inadequate vetting processes; an absence of robust disciplinary processes; and a culture that is reactive, secretive, and reluctant to take initiative. Resource constraint should be allowed for, not as an excuse for bad policing, but as a reality that shapes appropriate policing policies.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the shift in peacekeeping operations to include mandates for supporting international and regional efforts to combat transnational crime. The paper examines ...these trends in West Africa where the most advanced efforts at peacekeeper support in the battle against transnational crime are found. The deployment of UN peacekeeping operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire provided the global organization with personnel on the ground to support various national peace processes as well as tackle transnational crime that festers where there is a lack of political control. As this paper examines the trend to increase peacekeeper support in the battle against transnational crime in West Africa, it concentrates on two important illicit activities - transnational drug and human trafficking.
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The present paper has as its central objective to analyze peace operations as a form to reinsert States in a Global International Society that still carries a series of institutions, norms, values ...and rules earlier consolidated by the Europeans in previous centuries. I rely on English School’s historical perspective on International Society in order to demonstrate the transmission of certain institutions through multidimensional peace operations, briefly exposing the UNMIL case.
The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has been touted as one of the most successful UN Missions when it comes to providing peace, but also when it comes to gender equality. The mission was home to the ...first all-female–formed police unit and was one of the first to incorporate gender in its peacekeeping mandates. As such, it stands out as an example for other missions. Upon closer inspection, however, UNMIL still suffers from many challenges associated with implementing gender balancing and gender mainstreaming. This chapter explores the mission’s successes in increasing participation among female peacekeepers, as well as the protection roles that female peacekeepers occupied. It also highlights some of the existing challenges that UNMIL and other peacekeeping missions more broadly must overcome to better achieve the goals of the women, peace, and security agenda. While, UNMIL’s mandate noted the importance of WPS, female peacekeepers experienced restrictions to their mobility and interactions with locals that may have prevented them from reaching their full potential in providing protection and preventing violence.
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