Peacekeeping In South Lebanon

Although the concept of credibility has been identified by the United Nations as a significant factor in successful peacekeeping operations, its role has largely been ignored in the literature on peacekeeping at the local level. In this book, Newby provides the first detailed examination of credibility’s essential place in peacekeeping. With empirically rich analysis, Newby explores the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and its navigation of political tensions in one of the world’s geopolitical flashpoints, a place where the mission’s work is constrained by weak local legitimacy born of a complex political situation. Identifying four types of credibility—technical, material, security, and responsiveness—Newby traces the ways in which building credibility served UNIFIL and has enabled the mission to exercise its mandate despite significant challenges on the ground. Peacekeeping in South Lebanon unpacks the day-to-day business of running a peace mission and argues that credibility should be regarded as an independent construct when considering how a peacekeeping operation functions and survives.

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: A = 1, International University in Germany Bruchsal (Department of Sciences and Liberal Arts), language: English, abstract: This paper discusses the role of UN peacekeeping missions at the case of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) by looking into its first ten years of operation. The author comes to the conclusion that UNIFIL failed to achieve what it was established for, but at the same time points out that inefficient or even ineffective UN peacekeeping missions do nothing to undermine the general idea and justifiability of peacekeeping as a measure for inter-state or infra-state conflict resolution. Since its formation in 1945, the United Nations Organization has engaged in numerous peacekeeping missions around the world, the first of which was installed in 1956 to resolve the Suez-crisis. Some of those missions have been concluded in rather short periods of time. Others, as will become apparent throughout this text, have not been concluded successfully even after decades. This text will critically discuss on the role and effectiveness of UN peacekeeping missions by taking a closer look at the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which was formed and consequently put into action in 1978 – but has proved to be unable to fulfill its mandate until today. By analyzing the case of UNIFIL the author will illustrate some of the major problems which impair such peacekeeping missions from being concluded successfully, and eventually cause them to last for decades. For this purpose, the first part of this text will be dedicated to what constitutes an UN peacekeeping mission. In the second part of this text the author will briefly provide background information on UNIFIL and major events that took place between 1978 and 1988 – a period by itself considered long enough by the author to make a qualified judgment about UNIFIL’s effectiveness since it was actually supposed to serve as “ ‘an interim measure until the Government of Lebanon assumes its full responsibilities in southern Lebanon’ ” (Thakur, 1987, p. 40). [...]

Examining the efficacy of U.N. peace efforts, Dr. Ramesh Thakur compares limited peacekeeping through U.N. authority with more coercive means such as the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon. He finds that the role of the U.S.-led MNF coalition cannot be justified in terms of great-power responsibility for ensuring a stable international order, since the coalition has attempted to substitute military power for authoritative peacekeeping. When MNF legitimacy was questioned and authority was challenged, the MNF's use of force in response to those challenges switched the coalition's role from third-party peacekeeper to factional participant. As a result, every successive attempt to strengthen the MNF mandate has further subordinated the concept of neutral international peacekeeping to calculated support of national interests. If reasoned attempts to keep the peace are not to collapse into exercises in national self-interest, then peacekeeping responsibilities must remain with the U.N., supported by the great powers: Only the U.N. can provide an authoritative exposition of values within the context of international society and bestow international legitimacy upon peacekeeping activities; only the great powers can back the U.N. with requisite force.

Since 1948, the United Nations has sponsored virtually every third party peacekeeping mission on Arab· Israeli fronts. Three recent events, however, have been responsible for significantly altering the pattern of peacekeeping in the region: the Camp David accords, which, because they were opposed in the U.N. by the Soviet Union and most Arab nations, prevented U.N. sponsorship of a Sinai peacekeeping force; the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, during which the U.N. Interim Force was made to look ineffectual; and the Sabra-Shatila massacres in South Beirut three months later, which prompted the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force. Dr.Pelcovits analyzes these events to answer the questions they raise about peacekeeping in the Middle East: What advantages are afforded by U.N. peacekeepers compared with non-U.N. missions? What net benefits are derived from American participation in a non-U.N. multinational operation? And how do they compare to the classic U.N. peacekeeping rationale of insulating disputed areas from super power confrontation? Finally, what determines the success of such operations-geopolitical circumstance or institutional affiliation?

Peacekeepers tells the gripping inside story of the extraordinary life of a platoon of Irish soldiers abroad. Set against the controversial background of the withdrawal of the Israeli army following their shocking invasion of Lebanon, in the rollercoster intensity and drama of the dangerous and unpredictable role of the Irish solider as peacekeeper is told here for the first time South Lebanon 1985: a tension-filled time and terrain full of high incident. Ruthless Israeli-backed militia gangs were attempting to extend their control over crucial areas and force the UN peacekeeping force out. Violence, intimidation and threats at gun point kept terrified Shia villagers in fear. Peacekeepers tells the gripping inside story of the extraordinary life of a platoon of Irish soldiers abroad. Set against the controversial background of the withdrawal of the Israeli army following their shocking invasion of Lebanon, in the rollercoster intensity and drama of the dangerous and unpredictable role of the Irish soldier as peacekeeper is revealed for the first time.Written by a soldier who served three tours at this explosive time, the book is a no-holds-barred account of a desperate struggle Ireland has been involved in for the last 23 years.