{"id":16859,"date":"2022-05-27T10:32:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T08:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.kivuavenir.com\/?p=16859"},"modified":"2022-05-30T10:34:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T08:34:16","slug":"un-peace-keepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/un-peace-keepers\/","title":{"rendered":"UN peacekeeping in Africa is working better than you might think"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have studied peacekeeping since the early 1990s, when I worked at the United Nations in New York during the\u00a0devastating failures in Somalia and Rwanda<\/a>. I have\u00a0since<\/a>\u00a0applied a\u00a0scholarly lens<\/a>\u00a0to peacekeeping \u2013 examining all cases, not only failures \u2013 and found that more missions were succeeding than failing. I have also\u00a0witnessed peacekeepers in action<\/a>\u00a0in a variety of conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.<\/p>\n

The narrative that peacekeeping is failing has contributed to\u00a0decreasing budgets<\/a>\u00a0and stalemates in the UN Security Council. The council has not authorised a new, major peacekeeping mission in eight years.<\/p>\n

Although UN peacekeeping has many challenges, it remains an important instrument of peace.<\/p>\n

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Peacekeeping in Africa<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During the 2000s, South Asian countries \u2013 Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan \u2013 supplied the most peacekeeping troops. By the 2010s, however, both\u00a0top troop contributions<\/a>\u00a0and the locations of the most complex missions had shifted to Africa.<\/p>\n

Most UN troops now\u00a0come from the continent<\/a>\u00a0and it is home to six of the 12 current missions, including the largest four. These missions are in the\u00a0Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a>, the\u00a0Central African Republic<\/a>,\u00a0Mali<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0South Sudan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This shift in numbers reflects two trends.<\/p>\n

First, it embodies the institutionalisation of the idea of \u201cAfrican solutions to African problems\u201d. This idea was coined by the late Ghanaian economist George Ayittey in the wake of the\u00a0United States\u2019 disastrous operation in Somalia<\/a>, and has been\u00a0widely debated<\/a>\u00a0ever since. It represents a response to the legacies of slavery, colonialism and, more recently, exploitative and abusive practices.<\/p>\n

Second, it reflects a shift in some basic principles.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0on the transition from the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union traces a move from the principle of \u201cnon-interference\u201d to \u201cnon-indifference\u201d. Regional and other organisations were expected to help prevent conflict within states and save lives.<\/p>\n

Similar shifts occurred in the UN system more broadly. These were reflected in the 2005 adoption of the\u00a0Responsibility to Protect<\/a>\u00a0doctrine.<\/p>\n

In the 2010s, UN peacekeeping missions\u00a0expanded<\/a>\u00a0in both number and size. By 2015, about 125,000 UN peacekeepers were deployed across\u00a016 missions<\/a>, nine of them in Africa.<\/p>\n

The overall mission and troop numbers have\u00a0diminished<\/a>\u00a0since then \u2013 to 12 missions and about 90,000 personnel \u2013 for a variety of reasons. Most notable is the\u00a0absence of financial support<\/a>\u00a0during US president Donald Trump\u2019s administration between 2017 and 2021.<\/p>\n

About half of the current UN peacekeeping operations are simple cease-fire monitoring missions, and the others are more complex state-building efforts in civil wars.<\/p>\n

The three most complex missions \u2013 in Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic \u2013 are termed \u201cstabilisation\u201d missions. These missions face a wide array of challenges, including undemocratic political transitions, illicit networks and terrorists. But all else being equal, they are saving lives and preventing the spread of violence.<\/p>\n

The trouble with peacekeeping<\/h2>\n

Peacekeeping missions grab the headlines when they are associated with\u00a0tragedy<\/a>,\u00a0death<\/a>, and\u00a0sexual exploitation and abuse<\/a>. There is no escaping these realities.<\/p>\n

There are also other problems. Mercenaries\u00a0have been deployed<\/a>\u00a0in Central Africa and Mali, and even well-intentioned external forces can bring negative, unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

Peacekeepers can be\u00a0arrogant and indifferent<\/a>. They can create \u201cpeacekeeping economies<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0illicit networks<\/a>. They often increase rates of\u00a0human trafficking<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0transactional sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that is not the end of the story.<\/p>\n

The good news<\/h2>\n

More than a dozen\u00a0quantitative studies<\/a>\u00a0published in top peer-reviewed journals have shown \u2013 using different datasets, metrics, time periods and controls \u2013 that peacekeepers are protecting civilians. It is one of the most robust findings in the field of international relations, and most of these studies narrow the case selection to peacekeeping in Africa.<\/p>\n

There is a\u00a0connection<\/a>\u00a0between diversity in peacekeeping and fewer civilian deaths. Whereas military fighting requires unity of command and training, peacekeeping doesn\u2019t work the same way. In peacekeeping, diversity of skills and experience are connected to better outcomes.<\/p>\n

It has proven effective at\u00a0containing conflict<\/a>,\u00a0resolving civil wars<\/a>,\u00a0rebuilding state institutions<\/a>\u00a0and reducing violence in the\u00a0midst of war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has also\u00a0prevented violence from recurring<\/a>,\u00a0reduced the duration of wars<\/a>\u00a0and helped foster the growth of\u00a0robust civil societies<\/a>. Peacekeeping is additionally associated with\u00a0less sexual and gender-based violence<\/a>\u00a0during violent conflict.<\/p>\n

Since the end of the Cold War, the UN has completed complex peacekeeping missions in 16 conflicts. Of these, 11 successfully implemented mandates and departed the countries. None of those countries has returned to civil war. That is a\u00a0two-thirds success rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The most notable failed missions are the ones people remember vividly \u2013 in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and more recently Haiti. As tragically as those missions ended, they are not the norm.<\/p>\n

More frequently \u2013 such as in Namibia, Sierra Leone, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Liberia, El Salvador, Cambodia, Eastern Slavonia\/Croatia and Timor Leste \u2013 the UN\u2019s state-building missions have succeeded at fulfilling complex mandates and departing.<\/p>\n

Years later, these countries are not all perfect democracies, but neither are they at war.<\/p>\n

The future of peacekeeping<\/h2>\n

Peacekeeping is not war fighting.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0doctrine of peacekeeping<\/a>\u00a0has three parts: consent of the parties, impartiality and the limited use of force.<\/p>\n

It is fundamentally unlike counterinsurgency or counter-terrorism missions, which deploy without consent, take the side of the government and often employ offensive force to achieve military gains.<\/p>\n

Although UN peacekeeping has been effective, it is not figuring in diplomatic efforts to end conflicts or assist in major transitions, such as those in Ethiopia, Sudan or Libya.<\/p>\n

Third-party peacekeepers are not at the table, despite that fact that academic research over the decades has demonstrated that the promise of peacekeeping\u00a0helps parties agree<\/a>\u00a0to peace.<\/p>\n

Recently, in\u00a0Mali<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Somalia<\/a>, in contexts with violent extremist actors, African troops have been asked to fight wars. Refocusing on what has worked in the past \u2013 peacekeeping \u2013 may be warranted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have studied peacekeeping since the early 1990s, when I worked at the United Nations in New York during the\u00a0devastating failures in Somalia and Rwanda. I have\u00a0since\u00a0applied a\u00a0scholarly lens\u00a0to peacekeeping \u2013 examining all cases, not only failures \u2013 and found that more missions were succeeding than failing. I have also\u00a0witnessed peacekeepers in action\u00a0in a variety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":16860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"0","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[{"good_text":""}],"bad":[{"bad_text":""}],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[{"rating_text":"","rating_number":"10"}],"price":[{"shop":"","price":"","link":"","icon":""}],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311,5308],"tags":[5525],"class_list":["post-16859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-economy","tag-un-peacekeeping-in-africa-is-working-better-than-you-might-think"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16861,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16859\/revisions\/16861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}