Given the increasing size and functions of United Nations (UN) peace operations (POs) and the fact that they often operate in contexts where natural resources are degraded, POs have repercussions on ...the environment. Yet, there is not much literature on their obligations regarding the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts. This article provides insights into the obligations of POs in relation to armed conflict. First, it highlights POs’ customary international environmental law obligations. Second, it delves into their environmental obligations under the UN's internal rules and the host State's laws. Third, it explores obligations that arise from their mandates. In each of these sections, the article highlights the relevance and application of these obligations in armed conflicts. The last section examines the obligations of POs to protect the natural environment under international humanitarian law.
This special forum discusses the future trajectory of UN peace operations at a time many stakeholders and analysts consider to be one of crisis, contestation, or at the very least transition. The UN ...is facing difficulties in responding effectively to many of the world's worst recent conflicts, even where it has (or until recently had) operations. Even before COVID-19, the blue helmets were facing a period of serious retrenchment and budgetary constraints. Mission mandates have experienced a transformation, from the recent "robust turn" to the incorporation of stabilization mandates grounded in counterinsurgency/counterterrorism doctrine. The crossroads of economic downturn, geopolitical realignment and continuous adaptation of peacekeeping practice provides the backdrop of the contributions to the special forum that follows. The analyses presented here not only accompany the ongoing evolution of the nexus of issues that constitute peacekeeping studies but also reflect the breadth and depth of the extensive attendant academic literature.
Abstract
The trend towards a more robust use of force in UN peacekeeping operations has received considerable attention from scholars pointing to the risk of unintended consequences. Since the report ...of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, the primacy of politics is expected from all UN peace operations. The unintended consequences stemming from this primacy of politics has received considerably less attention, especially in the context of the UN's political missions. Through an analysis of the UN's engagement with the crisis in Burundi in 2015-2016, the article shows how the UN's political role was implemented in a specific case. The case demonstrates that unintended consequences from the primacy of politics have overlaps with those related to robust peacekeeping, but also differ on important aspects.
This book considers who should undertake humanitarian intervention in response to an ongoing or impending humanitarian crisis, such as found in Rwanda in early 1994, Kosovo in 1999, and Darfur more ...recently. The doctrine of the responsibility to protect asserts that when a state is failing to uphold its citizens' human rights, the international community has a responsibility to protect these citizens, including by undertaking humanitarian intervention. It is unclear, however, which particular agent should be tasked with this responsibility. Should we prefer intervention by the UN, NATO, a regional or subregional organization (such as the African Union), a state, a group of states, or someone else? This book answers this question by, first, determining which qualities of interveners are morally significant and, second, assessing the relative importance of these qualities. For instance, is it important that an intervener have a humanitarian motive? Should an intervener be welcomed by those it is trying to save? How important is it that an intervener will be effective and what does this mean in practice? The book then considers the more empirical question of whether (and to what extent) the current interveners actually possess these qualities, and therefore should intervene. For instance, how effective can we expect UN action to be in the future? Is NATO likely to use humanitarian means? Overall, it develops a particular normative conception of legitimacy for humanitarian intervention. It uses this conception of legitimacy to assess not only current interveners, but also the desirability of potential reforms to the mechanisms and agents of humanitarian intervention.
Este artículo analiza el papel de la Misión Multidimensional Integrada de Estabilización de las Naciones Unidas en Malí (MINUSMA) en la lucha contra el terrorismo y la insurgencia. Esta misión de paz ...es víctima directa de los ataques terroristas e insurgentes, lo que lleva a preguntarnos si los combate activamente, y a revisar si estas tareas emanan del mandato y su implementación, o si tales amenazas llevan a la MINUSMA a combatirlas como consecuencia. El artículo utiliza los elementos teóricos del contraterrorismo y la contrainsurgencia per se, así como aquellos relacionados con las operaciones de paz. Luego, mediante una metodología de investigación cualitativa, utiliza la MINUSMA como estudio de caso para exponer la evolución de las operaciones de paz y la posible expansión actual y futura de sus tareas. Esto, a través del análisis de las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad, la literatura académica y otros documentos de las Naciones Unidas. El estudio concluye que, efectivamente, la MINUSMA ha llevado a cabo tales tareas, directamente y en cooperación con la operación militar francesa. Estas tareas surgen implícitamente del mandato, con una estructura organizativa y operacional al servicio de estas, y se ven reforzadas por factores sobrevenidos sobre el terreno. Este cambio, eventualmente, acaba con su imparcialidad, con lo que aumentan los riesgos de los cascos azules, disminuyen su eficacia y perturban la doctrina de operaciones de paz de las Naciones Unidas. En conclusión, encontramos que el mandato tácito y su vaguedad no solo dificultan el análisis académico, sino también las tareas sobre el terreno y el futuro de la seguridad del personal internacional y la población de Malí y el Sahel.
This paper analyses the counterterrorist and counterinsurgent role of United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). This peace mission is a direct victim of terrorist and insurgent attacks, what leads us to wonder if it actively counters them, and to see if these tasks emanate from the mandate and its operationalisation, or if the aforementioned threats lead MINUSMA to counter them as a consequence. The paper draws on the theoretical tenets of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency per se and in relation to peace operations, to then, conducting a qualitative research methodology, use MINUSMA as a case study to expose the evolution of peace operations and the current and future possible expansion of their tasks, analysing Security Council resolutions, academic literature and other UN documents. The study finds that it has indeed conducted such tasks, directly and in cooperation with the French military operation. These tasks are implicitly arisen from the mandate, with an organizational and operational structure serving them, and enhanced by supervened factors of ground implementation. This shift eventually erases its impartiality, enhancing blue helmets’ risks, decreasing its effectiveness and disrupting UN peace operations doctrine. In conclusion, we find that the tacit mandate and its vagueness not only complicate the academic analysis, but the tasks on the ground and the future of the security of the international personnel and the population of Mali and the Sahel.
This article analyses the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in conjunction with the Protection of Civilians (POC) in peace operations. It examines where and how the two concepts have challenged, ...altered, led to reinterpretations and had feedback effects on each other. Drawing on methods from discourse analysis, the article examines their: gradual institutionalization at the United Nations (UN); deployment in the practices of the Security Council; and, influence over the actions of operations in the field. The analysis shows that the R2P has co-evolved with POC and particularly the implementation of POC through UN peace operations. The article illustrates that the emergence of the R2P and the trends in POC in peace operations have cross-fertilised in discourse and practice at the UN regarding the prevention and response to egregious of human rights abuses. It argues that this has influenced their respective trajectories with ramifications for understanding the normative trajectory and status of the R2P as it enters its third decade in popular lexicon. In particular, it posits that understanding the current and future status of the R2P will be enhanced by insights into how the R2P has shaped, but also been shaped by, other contiguous normative agendas, thematic areas and practices.
Background and Motivation.
A plethora of warfighting games exist commercially, but there is a lack of digital games that deal with peace processes. Furthermore, none simulate actual peacekeeping. The ...United Nations currently deploys about 100,000 peacekeepers to some of the world’s most dangerous zones, where peacekeepers save lives, alleviate suffering, and help create conditions for peace. The United Nations and national militaries lack peacekeeping simulations to help train their soldiers. Additionally, the public needs to learn more about the way peacekeeping works. Thus, peacekeeping simulation and gaming are worth exploring, especially in the rapidly evolving digital space, which offers new avenues and benefits.
Methods.
We review the meager literature on the subject and observe that there are few digital games to directly draw from. We build on previous work that argued the need for such development, but we now assess important design principles and parameters. We draw upon peacekeeping tabletop exercises that are already well developed.
Results.
We conclude that excellent scenarios and simulation technologies exist that could be combined quite easily for effective peacekeeping training and public education. We find key materials and scenarios in exercises of the United Nations and of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Highlighted areas for future digital design are the inclusion of non-military avatars, emphasis on soft skills development (especially empathy), and realistically complex links between actions and consequences.
Conclusion.
While describing some UN exploration at a proof-of-concept stage, we suggest that both the United Nations and the gaming industry should explore the idea further to achieve synergies between institutional and entertainment applications. The growing capacity of digital technology allows significant innovation, yielding results that could be useful, ethical, enjoyable, and potentially profitable.
The interplay between peace and justice plays an important role in almost any contemporary conflict. Peace and conflict studies have generally devoted more attention to conflict than to peace. Peace ...is often described in adjectives, such as negative/positive peace, liberal peace or democratic peace. But what elements make a peace just? Just war theory, peacebuilding, or transitional justice provide different perspectives on the dialectic relation between peace and justice and the methods of establishing peace after conflict. Experiences such as the Colombian peace process show that peace is increasingly judicialized. This volume analyses some of the situational, normative, and relational elements of peace in processes of transition. It explores six core themes: conceptual approaches towards just peace, macro-principles, the nexus to security and stability, protection of persons and public goods, rule of law and economic reform and accountability. It engages with understudied issues, such as the pros and cons of robust UN mandates, the link between environment protection and indigenous peoples, the treatment of illegal settlements, the feasibility of vetting practices or the protection labour rights in post-conflict economies. It argues that just peace requires only not negotiation, agreement and compromise (e.g., moderation), but contextual understandings of law, multiple dimensions of justice and strategies of prevention. It complements the two earlier volumes on the legal contours of jus post bellum, namely Just Post Bellum: Mapping the Normative Foundations (2014) and Environmental Protection and Transitions from Conflict to Peace: Clarifying Norms, Principles and Practices (2017).
Peacekeeping works Dorn, A. Walter; Collins, Robin
International journal (Toronto),
03/2020, Letnik:
75, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Despite some harsh criticisms of United Nations (UN) peace operations, research demonstrates that many UN missions are successful, though evaluations depend on how success is defined. Even UN ...missions that fail in one or more aspects provide a net benefit to peace processes and help to save lives and alleviate human suffering. While an understanding of the flaws and limitations of peace operations can help improve the operations, some unfair criticism must be directly challenged. For instance, contrary to critiques in a recent paper by Severine Autesserre, the UN has helped end civil wars, and it does not have a fixation on elections nor does it ignore the bottom-up approach. Most UN multidimensional missions pursue multiple levels of engagement, from local to national leaders. Elections are a key way to engage locals. With decades of experience, the UN has many positive lessons to offer in making, keeping, and building peace.
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