International Peacekeeping

Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. officials have been more willing to remind allies that the United States will not play the role of international policeman. Given U.S. reluctance, the job of peacekeeping will fall increasingly to international organizations and regional alliances. In International Peacekeeping Paul Diehl examines the recent record of United Nations peacekeeping forces and develops criteria for assessing their operations. His analysis provides useful guidance for the management of new hostilities in areas such as Central and Eastern Europe, where the dissolution of the Soviet Union has spawned bitter civil wars and dangerous border disputes. Diehl identifies three sets of factors that affect traditional international peacekeeping operations. He begins by discussing the practical concerns of peacekeeping efforts, such as force composition, organization, and deployment. He then examines issues related to the political and military context in which the forces are deployed, including the nature of the conflict and the involvement of third parties. Finally, he considers the authorization by the relevant international body - usually the United Nations - as it relates to the mission's mandate, policies, and financing. He concludes by analyzing the viability of new roles for U.N. peacekeeping troops, such as humanitarian assistance, and by exploring structural alternatives to U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Peacekeeping has been the technique most frequently used by, and associated with, the United Nations to end conflicts and to preserve peace. In addition, international and regional organizations have also performed peacekeeping functions. Since the establishment of the first UN peacekeeping mission, UNEF I, in 1956, international lawyers have raised questions about the legal aspects of these operations. Traditionally, they analyzed the constitutional basis for peacekeeping and tried to allocate the authority under the UN Charter for peacekeeping among the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary General. They discussed the use of force by peacekeepers, the applicability of international humanitarian law, as well as the responsibilities and liabilities of peacekeepers. Since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping operations have become more complex. In the first forty years, peacekeepers functioned mainly as buffer zones between warring parties and monitored cease-fires. Nowadays, they are increasingly engaged in internal rather than international conflicts and perform a multitude of tasks. Among others, they act as civilian administrators, oversee elections and monitor human rights. These changes have raised new legal problems. Which human rights obligations exist for peacekeepers? Do peacekeepers have to intervene if they witness war crimes and acts of genocide? How are they protected under international law? What is the legal framework of UN administrations like in Kosovo and East Timor? In order to enhance a better understanding of these legal issues arising from peacekeeping operations, a collection of articles written by the leading experts in the field have been compiled in the volume, International Peacekeeping.

This volume deals with women's participation in international peacekeeping operations and what those operations might consider to be the role and circumstances of women, including those of the host society. Essays include: a theoretical perspective on women and war, highlighting the difference between post-modernist and universalist approaches to women's roles in peacemaking and conflict resolution, the role of women in military operations, the implications of the high levels of sexual violence in peacekeeping operations and the UN's gender policy for peacekeeping operations.

International Peacekeeping is devoted to reporting upon and analyzing international peacekeeping with an emphasis upon legal and policy issues, but is not limited to these issues. It is recognized that in today's world there is a wealth of information available from the internet and through other sources. It is therefore the goal of this Yearbook to make this information available in one publication which both organizes and records events over the course of a year through analytical articles, a chronicle, primary documents, and a bibliography. Topics include inter alia peacekeeping, peace, war, conflict resolution, diplomacy, international law, international security, humanitarian relief, humanitarian law, and terrorism. The Yearbook is of scholarly quality but is not narrowly theoretical. It provides the interested public -- diplomats, civil servants, politicians, the military, academics, journalists, NGO employees, and serious citizens -- with a document of record, comment, and a starting point for further research on peacekeeping and related topics. This is achieved not only by the provision of 'basic documents' (on CD ROM), such as Security Council Resolutions and Reports of the UN Secretary- General, but also by expert commentaries on world events. Peacekeeping is treated in a pragmatic light, seen as a form of international military cooperation for the preservation or restoration of international peace and security. Attention is focused not only on UN peacekeeping operations, but other missions as well. This Yearbook is the continuation of the journal International Peacekeeping.

The book focuses on peacekeeping as a device for maintaining international stability, and for remedying situations in which states are in conflict with each other. Alan James examines around fifty cases, explaining the background to each one, and analysing its political significance. There is also a detailed examination of the concept of peacemaking, and a look into its increasing importance in international affairs, emphasised by the fact that the United Nations won the Nobel Peace Prize for its peacekeeping activities.

International Peacekeeping is devoted to reporting upon and analyzing international peacekeeping with an emphasis upon legal and policy issues, but is not limited to these issues. It is recognized that in today's world there is a wealth of information available from the internet and through other sources. It is therefore the goal of this Yearbook to make this information available in one publication which both organizes and records events over the course of a year through analytical articles, a chronicle, primary documents, and a bibliography. Topics include inter alia peacekeeping, peace, war, conflict resolution, diplomacy, international law, international security, humanitarian relief, humanitarian law, and terrorism. The Yearbook is of scholarly quality but is not narrowly theoretical. It provides the interested public -- diplomats, civil servants, politicians, the military, academics, journalists, NGO employees, and serious citizens -- with a document of record, comment, and a starting point for further research on peacekeeping and related topics. This is achieved not only by the provision of 'basic documents' (on CD ROM), such as Security Council Resolutions and Reports of the UN Secretary- General, but also by expert commentaries on world events. Peacekeeping is treated in a pragmatic light, seen as a form of international military cooperation for the preservation or restoration of international peace and security. Attention is focused not only on UN peacekeeping operations, but other missions as well. This Yearbook is the continuation of the journal International Peacekeeping.

No small number of books laud and record the heroic actions of those at war. But the peacekeepers? Who tells their stories? At the beginning of the 1990s, the world exited the cold war and entered an era of great promise for peace and security. Guided by an invigorated United Nations, the international community set out to end conflicts that had flared into vicious civil wars and to unconditionally champion human rights and hold abusers responsible. The stage seemed set for greatness. Today that optimism is shattered. The failure of international engagement in conflict areas ranging from Afghanistan to Congo and Lebanon to Kosovo has turned believers into skeptics. The Fog of Peace is a firsthand reckoning by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the man who led UN peacekeeping efforts for eight years and has been at the center of all the major crises since the beginning of the 21st century. Guéhenno grapples with the distance between the international community's promise to protect and the reality that our noble aspirations may be beyond our grasp. The author illustrates with personal, concrete examples—from the crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, Darfur, Kosovo, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Lebanon, Haiti, and Syria—the need to accept imperfect outcomes and compromises. He argues that nothing is more damaging than excessive ambition followed by precipitous retrenchment. We can indeed save many thousands of lives, but we need to calibrate our ambitions and stay the course.

International Peacekeeping is devoted to reporting upon and analyzing international peacekeeping with an emphasis upon legal and policy issues, but is not limited to these issues. It is recognized that in today's world there is a wealth of information available from the internet and through other sources. It is therefore the goal of this Yearbook to make this information available in one publication which both organizes and records events over the course of a year through analytical articles, a chronicle, primary documents, and a bibliography. Topics include inter alia peacekeeping, peace, war, conflict resolution, diplomacy, international law, international security, humanitarian relief, humanitarian law, and terrorism. The Yearbook is of scholarly quality but is not narrowly theoretical. It provides the interested public -- diplomats, civil servants, politicians, the military, academics, journalists, NGO employees, and serious citizens -- with a document of record, comment, and a starting point for further research on peacekeeping and related topics. This is achieved not only by the provision of 'basic documents' (on CD ROM), such as Security Council Resolutions and Reports of the UN Secretary- General, but also by expert commentaries on world events. Peacekeeping is treated in a pragmatic light, seen as a form of international military cooperation for the preservation or restoration of international peace and security. Attention is focused not only on UN peacekeeping operations, but other missions as well. This Yearbook is the continuation of the journal International Peacekeeping.