Peace support operations
The United Nations was established 1945 as a global organisation, consisting of nation, to work for and secure world peace. The idea at the time was that the organisation where to be a collective security organisation. If one of the members did not follow the UN charter the rest of the members where to react and punish the violator. Because of the cold war's bipolar politics the Security Council was not able to agree with anything. The result was that the UN only conducted Chapter 6 operations, except in Korea, during this period. These types of operations are called peacekeeping operations. After the end of the cold war the secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali wrote a document in 1994 suggesting five new operation types to prevent war. Today these operations are found described in the Capstone doctrine under the joint name peace support operations. I will now try to give a brief account of the five types of peace support operations used today.
In this essay I will first go through the five different types of peace support operations and then comment on the concept in general.
The first operation type is called conflict prevention. Conflict prevention is used to prevent inter state or intra state tension to escalade into violent conflict. To make this operation work it is important for the UN to do active information gathering and analysis to locate possible conflict areas and find the factors driving the conflict. It is this presses Conflict prevention operations can start. This can include the use of diplomats, preventive deployment or confidence building measures. Conflict prevention operations are only used in a dispute that have not yet escaladed in to violence.
Peacemaking is the second operation type. Peacemaking is used in ongoing conflicts and involves diplomatic actions to bring hostile parties to negotiated agreements. Diplomats try to get the parties interested in negotiations instead of fighting. What characterise this type of operation is that the parties are not forced to do anything. Instead it is the wish of the parties of a peaceful solution that is the centre of the operation and the UN only facilitate the resolution of the conflict. It is the Secretary-General that initiates this operation upon the request of the Security Council or the General Assembly or at his own initiative. For this operation to work it is important that the parties in the conflict are willing and interested in a peaceful end of the conflict.
Peacekeeping is the first type of peace support operations used by the UN, and have for a long time been the only type of operation the UN conducted. "Peacekeeping is a technique designed to preserve peace, however fragile, where fighting has been halted, and to assist in implementing agreements achieved by the peacemakers." (Capstone 18) This operation is used where a cease fire has been signed and all parties want the UN to assist implementing the agreements. After long and violent wars parties often have problems trusting each other. Therefore they often want the UN to physically stand between their forces and make sure other parts of the agreement are followed. Peacekeeping is based on three basic principles, consensus, impartiality and minimum use of force. A good example of a peacekeeping operation is UNEF 1 in 1956 where UN went inn, on the request of Egypt, between Egypt and Israel.
Pace enforcement is the most robust type of operation. In a conflict where the hostile parties don't want to stop fighting, the Security Council can authorize the use of a range of coercive measures. This action is authorized through chapter 7 of the UN charter and is therefore often called a chapter 7 operation. When people hear about a chapter 7 resolutions they often associate with the use of military actions. This is not necessarily true. Security Council can use for example sanctions to try to force parties to stop fighting and start negotiating. It is only after the Security Council has tried all possible measures that military force is authorized. The military use the minimum force necessary to break the fighting will to the parties and secure a cease fire. After this is achieved the peace enforcement goes over to a less forceful operation to try to build a lasting peace. Peace enforcement is used when the Security Council "has determined the existence of a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression." (Capstone 18) A classical example of a peace enforcement operation is the Korea war. In this case the Security Council recognises North Korea as an aggressor and allows the United States of America to an intervention and push the aggressor back with force. The most characterising element of peace enforcement is the use of force. In a peace enforcement operation it is not the parties in the conflict that has given consensus to the involvement of the UN, but the Security Council.
The last operation type the UN uses in peace support operation is peace building. Peace building starts right before and continues after a cease fire has bin signed. The operational goal in peace building is to help build a stable situation and reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict. This is done by "strengthening the national capacities at all levels for conflict development, and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development." (Capstone 18) The UN has several methods to achieve this. Among other I can mention election assistance, strengthen and build up the police and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants. In general the operation tries to help the conflict area build a society not dependent on war. This is usually a long term process of creating the necessary conditions of sustainable peace. After a conflict, even if UN has not intervened, a peace building operation is likely to be conducted. Peace building is characterized by the work to build up a society after a crippling conflict.
In the end I want to comment the peace support operations as a whole. The idea of the concept is to have more than one type of operation to choose from to enhance peace. The idea is also to have an escalation scale. The UN can now conduct operation in conflicts before, during and after to annihilate any threat to the world peace. It is also important to remember that peace support operations are ad hoc. This means that operations never follow a specific template but is adapted to each conflict. You can for example never say that an operation is a pure peace keeping operation. Instead it will probably be a hybrid between different peace support operations, but mostly recognisable with one.
Sources
United Nations (2008). United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Principles and Guidelines (Capstone Doctrine). Obtained 23.11.2010 form URL:http://pbpu.unlb.org/pbps/Library /Capstone Doctrine ENG.pdf
