L12 - UN and Peacekeeping Flashcards
(41 cards)
exam update + intro talk
30 mcq BUT not 3 essay questions -> only 2, 3 to choose from
in stead of 500 words, only has to be 200-350 words
talk
now talk about Ukraine peace
UNEF
UN Emergency Force
In 1956, to facilitate the disengagement of British, French, and Israeli troops from Egypt following the Suez Crisis, a multilateral armed force dispatched to help keep the peace until a political settlement could be reached
- Lestor Pearson proposed idea multilateral armed force dispatched in the region to act as buffer to keep both sides apart from one another
- was controversial: may 1967 Egypt (possibly as move to attack Israel) called for withdrawal -> Israel attacked (6 day war)
Egypt requests UNEF withdrawal in May 1967
UN + UNSC
- Created in June 1945
- Original membership 51 states (now 193) = most of them were allied with the west, but more countries became independent and joined -> UNGA pro-western orientation disappeared by the 70s
- Primary mandate, as espoused in UN Charter, is maintaining international peace and security
- Security Council pre-eminent organ responsible for maintaining international order
Security Council
- 5 permanent members (P5) w/ veto rights
- Until 1965 six rotating members
- After 1965 ten rotating members
- For a resolution to pass, at least nine votes for and no P5 votes against
UN Charter Art 2(4)
= prohibition against the use of force
“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”
problems: Prohibition against the use of force does not cover all situations
- Sovereign states can use force within their territory
- Some theorists believe a state may be able to use force outside its territory, e.g. force used for humanitarian purposes or to protect citizens of the intervening state who are living abroad
- However, the UN Charter does not acknowledge these situations as exceptions to the prohibition against the use of force
- right to protect not in the UN charter
UN Art 51
“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”
= use of force for self-defence is fine
BUT:
- self-defense must be necessary and proportionate to the aggression
- when a state faces an imminent attack, it may have a right to act in anticipatory self-defense (attack them first)
- art 51 and other provisions of the UN don’t address this situation
- but customary int’l law recognizes the right of anticipatory self-defense when an armed attack is IMMANENT and INEVITABLE
- you can never really tell they will attack
UNSC powers
Chapter VI (Pacific Settlement of Disputes)
- Security Council authorized to call disputing parties to resolve their conflict through peaceful means such as fact-finding, good offices, negotiation, arbitration and judicial settlement
- mediate disputes, arbitrate, arrive judicial settlements, fact finding missions etc.
!!!!!! Chapter VII (Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression)
- Grants Council coercive authority – it can compel compliance with decisions binding on member states
- It may impose diplomatic and economic sanctions and authorize military force
- art. 42 is part of this
- take actions by air, sea or land forces
Chapter VIII (Regional Arrangements)
- dupe ch7 but give it to someone else to deal with
- Encourages regional organizations to engage in peaceful dispute settlement and requires Council’s authorization before taking coercive action
- Grants Council power to delegate enforcement to regional bodies
- sometimes occurs e.g. in Africa with the African Union
Peacekeeping originally called “Chapter VI and a half” operations
- !! Not explicitly mentioned in UN Charter
- art 42 (chapter 7): use of force =
- The Security Council … “may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations”
what are peace operations?
Range from small observation and monitoring missions to peacebuilding in conflict-afflicted societies
!!!!!!!!!!!!! Original role of peacekeepers was to serve as buffer forces and observers !!!!!!!!!!!
- nothing to do with trying to change conflict inflicted societies or carrying out electoral observation missions etc.
- keeping 2 sides apart with their consent
Usually small-scale under Chapter VI
Some exceptions occur under Chapter VII: e.g. use of force authorized in Korean War, 20k strong peacekeeping force in Congo/Katanga
- Congo early 1960s
UNTSO
= going back to the start = effectively the first UN peacekeeping mission
1948 to monitor the ceasefires after the first Arab-Israeli war
unarmed military observers
!are still there today: still monitor ceasefire agreements in Lebanon, Golan Heights, Sinai
UNC
United Nations Command
was established on July 24, 1950
Signifies the world’s first attempt at collective security under the United Nations system.
United Nations Security Council Resolutions 83 and 84 provided the international legal authority for member states to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula
Designated the United States as the leader of the unified command we know as UN Command.
Resolution 1973 (2011)
other UN authorized mission, this is an example
against Qadaffi’s Libya
acting under chapter 7: authorizes states take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack
- amounts to regime change mission, but was not what was the intent = Russia says the mission overstepped the boundaries
5 peacekeeping principles
- UN-mandated mission
- consent of parties
- impartiality
- voluntary troop contributions
- UN can’t compel states to contribute, it has to be voluntary
- most come from the global south: they get a lot of money for it - minimum use of force
- only use it in self-defense
cold war peacekeeping
various missions
Includes:
- UN Emergency Force (Sinai)
- UN Observation Group in Lebanon
- UN Operation in the Congo
- UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
- UN India-Pakistan Observation Mission (in Kashmir)
- UN Interim Force in Lebanon
(just mentioned them)
(fairly small scale apart from the Congo)
post-cold war
- UN invokes Chapter VII authorizing military force (US-led coalition) to remove Iraqi troops from Kuwait
- !!! UNPROFOR in Bosnia is UN’s largest peacekeeping mission
- New missions in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Angola, Namibia, El Salvador and Nicaragua – then to Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, etc.
*Soviet collapse + redrawal -> more UN activity (mostly observers, e.g. soviet withdrawal)
!!!! Shift from peacekeeping to peace enforcement !!! (by the end of the cold war)
- Second generation peacekeeping includes electoral assistance, human rights monitoring
- trying to response to sexual abuse etc.
peacekeeping evolution
UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1992 called for the establishment of “peace-enforcement units” to deal with challenges that exceed peacekeeping, but such units have never been created
- key year
- need for UN to play more direct role to enforce peace in cases without necessarily consent of both parties
- idea that UN would have much more militarized to take on these missions, but never actually happened (resistance from member states that didn’t want to commit forces to the UN)
National and multinational forces, such as those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), have sometimes been called upon instead to assist UN peacekeeping operations with enforcement
By 2010, with nearly 100,000 uniformed personnel in the field (up from 14,000 in 1988), the United Nations was second only to the United States in the number of deployed armed forces under its command
The number of peacekeeping operations undertaken by regional organizations doubled between 1995 and 2005. The African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union (EU), NATO, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) all launched major peacekeeping operations of their own in that period
- other actors also taking bigger active role in peacekeeping
peacemaking
all fit under rubric of peace operations
Measures to address conflicts in progress and usually involves diplomatic action to bring hostile parties to a negotiated settlement
Involves negotiation, mediation, and democratic decision-making processes
Unlike peacekeeping, peacemaking uses mutual dialogue to achieve fair agreement about how to solve the immediate problem, thereby removing the parties’ incentives to use violence
!!!no military force
peacekeeping
Refers to the deployment of national or, more commonly, multinational forces for the purpose of helping to control and resolve an actual or potential armed conflict between or within states
Most peacekeeping operations are undertaken with the authorization of, and are often led by, the United Nations (UN) but regional organizations may also conduct peacekeeping operations, and in some cases single states have undertaken such operations as well
Peacekeeping forces are normally deployed with the consent of the parties to a conflict and in support of a ceasefire
- not always, but normally
Peacekeeping forces are usually unarmed or only lightly armed and use the minimum of force necessary
- during cold war often unarmed, since end of the cold war have been armed, but low level
Involves efforts to stop or limit the harmful symptoms of escalated conflict—direct violence (such as abuse or attack) or potential violence—and to establish sufficient safety to enable efforts toward preventing further violence
!!! Does not right wrongs or address the conflicts causing the violence
peace enforcement
(going from peace keeping to peace enforcement)
Refers to the use of military assets to enforce a peace AGAINST THE WILL of the parties to a conflict when, for instance, a ceasefire has failed
Peace enforcement often exceeds the capacity of peacekeeping forces and is thus better executed by more heavily armed forces
- e.g. 1990s Bosnia: not sufficiently well-armed to deal with the army in that area -> NATO was called to conduct airstrikes = peace enforcement
peace building
trying to address key issues underputting the violence
- the hardest and least succesful part of peace operations
Measures targeted to reduce the risk of relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities for conflict management and to lay foundation for sustainable peace and development
Transformation of social relations - repairing the systemic factors that were causing and exacerbating harmful conflict
economic sanctions and international criminal prosecution
e.g. Iraq after end first Gulf War
peace operations not necessarily militarily
- In addition to military force, Security Council also uses non-military coercion
- Sanctions on Iraq, al-Aqaeda and Islamic State
- Criminal tribunals – esp. former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
peacekeeping origins
!!did not begin with the UN, but with the LoN in a random region (Leticia)
internationalizing bunch of local troops
so first peace keeping troops: Colombian
League of Nations brought in to resolve territorial dispute between Colombia and Peru, 1933-34
The League appointed three member nations (Guatemala, Ireland and Spain) as a ‘Commission for the Administration of the Territory of Leticia’
Each side’s military forces were withdrawn and an internationalized force of Colombian troops under the Commission’s supervision policed the disputed area
LoN peacekeeping forces
Territories of the Saar basin, formerly part of Germany, placed under the administration of the League of Nations for a period of 15 years
At the end of 15 years, a plebiscite was to be held to determine the final status of the Saar
An international police force, composed of soldiers from Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden, was deployed to maintain order on the day of the plebiscite
!!nothing really serious, just to say it did not start with the UN!!
covenant LoN art 10 + art 16
talks about aggression
The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League.
!!! In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.
(can only understand the UN by looking at the failure of the LoN)
- covenant had version of no use of force clause
ART 16 MORE IMPORTANT
- UN not the first to use sanctions to protect use
- also potential use of force, but did not commit to useing military force to counter an aggressor, could only recommend that miltiary action be taken and facilitate it (it was not guaranteed they would do it, could only recommend)
Should any Member of the League resort to war in disregard of its covenants under Articles 12, 13 or 15, it shall ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other Members of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial, commercial or personal intercourse between the nationals of the covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State, whether a Member of the League or not.
It shall be the duty of the Council in such case to recommend to the several Governments concerned what effective military, naval or air force the Members of the League shall severally contribute to the armed forces to be used to protect the covenants of the League.
!!!important point: there was the possibility of miltiary action, but also economic and.. actions
weaknesses LoN
Intended to prevent states from going to war, the final sanction was the threat of force
- intention not to use force
- how to make legitimate threat to use force if whole organization is to not go to war?
Ultimate authority rested on the mobilization of world opinion
- trying to make the war/aggression unpopular
Belief that the threat of economic sanctions, alone, would be sufficient to deter states from aggression
- Article 16 reflected the experience of WWI when the blockade weapon had been used to good effect
- belief that eco sanctions kind of worked during the first world war (which is dubious) -> use more
LoN
2 cases specifically led to its demise:
Manchuria 1931 + Ethiopia 1935 (not in the slides)
The League acted as an arbitrator in disputes and established commissions to investigate problems
Where aggression was found, sanctions could follow
Following Japanese 1931 seizure of Manchuria sanctions were not used
A Special Assembly voted that Japan should withdraw from Manchuria.
When the Japanese refused and left the League of Nations, the League responded by reprimanding Japan
The floodgates open: if they can get away with seizing territory, what does it mean for everyone else?
- Japan left (not really caring about commitments), nothing really happened
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) = no real serious action taken against Italy’s aggression
- Following 1935 Italian invasion, limited sanctions were imposed
- Not applied by all member nations and did not include some key products such as oil
- The League made no attempt to limit Italy’s ability to wage war, such as closing the Suez Canal to Italian shipping
- Sanctions were dropped following the Italian conquest of Abyssinia in 1936
- Leads to widespread belief that League of Nations unwilling or unable to use collective force to prevent conflicts