Week 11 - Interventions Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the main types of external interventions and under which falls peacekeeping?
- Economic
▶ Economic sanctions
▶ Foreign aid - Military
▶ Peacekeeping <–
▶ Military intervention - Political
▶ Mediation
What is the definition of Peacekeeping?
The deployment of international personnel to help maintain peace and security.
Explain the different dimensions of UN Peace and Security Activities
Pre-Conflict: Conflict Prevention
Mid-Conflict: Peacemaking & Peace Enforcement
Cease-fire to stable Peace: Peacekeeping as a means of Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and prevention of relapse to Conflict
What are the Principles of Peacekeeping?
1 Consent of the parties
⇒ commitment by the parties to a political process
2 Impartiality
⇒ impartial but not neutral to the mandate
3 Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the
mandate
⇒ use of force as means of last resort
⇒ certain exceptions: ‘robust’ mandates authorized by SC
allow for tactical use of force
What were the characteristics of the 1st Generation of UN Peacekeeping?
- during the cold war
- Non-violent (unarmed/ lightly armed)
- Main tasks: monitoring borders, establishing buffer zones
between conflict parties - E.g., missions in Congo, Lebanon, Cyprus
What were the characteristics of the 2nd Generation of UN Peacekeeping?
- during the late 80s
- Included military/police
- Beyond safeguarding: temporary security presence
What were the characteristics of the 3rd Generation of UN Peacekeeping?
- during the 1990s
- Permission to use force to defend mandate
- Monitor/assist human rights/elections
- Training police forces
- DDR: demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of
combatants
→ Normative objectives (humanitarian interventions), consent less important - Examples: Somalia, Rwanda, Balkans
What were the characteristics of the 4th Generation of UN Peacekeeping?
- during the late 1990s & 2000s
- result of the ‘Brahimi Report’: Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations
–> Main Criticisms: - UN peacekeeping was under-resourced, slow, and had unclear mandates.
- Missions often deployed too late and lacked the ability to respond to violence
–> main recommendations - More strategic operations
- More resources, staff
- Rejection of too small, understaffed, dysfunctional
operations
Result: larger missions, more robust mandates (authorized to use force, including military force, beyond self-defense, to i.e. protect civilians, ensure freedom of movement, or defend the mandate itself.)
What was the main goal of the Ramos-Horta report in 2014/2015 and what were its main recommendations?
Goal: Evidence-based exploration of what works? and
why?
Four main recommendations:
- Primacy of Politics
–> Peace operations must support political solutions.
–> Military and technical efforts are not ends in themselves — they should serve a clear political strategy to resolve conflict. - Responsive Operations
–> flexible and tailored to the specific context
–> appropriate mandates
–> faster deployment and adaptive planning, especially in volatile environments - Strong Partnerships
–> collaboration with regional organizations (like the AU, EU), host governments, and civil society
–> shared responsibility and division of labor - Field-focused and People-Centered
–> Focuses on human security, not just state stability
–> needs and protection of local populations
According to Hellmueller et al., 2023, what are the interplays of geopolitics and UN peacekeeping?
- Security Council often ‘paralyzed’ by geopolitics
- P5 often oppose missions in states they are allied with
- Russia/ China known to limit human rights mandates in
PKO - Disagreements about Women, Peace and Security Agenda
- Whether/when states consent to PKO on their territory is impacted by geopolitics (see Mali)
What were the main points of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women and Peacekeeping?
Focuses on two major issues:
* impact of violent conflict on women and girls
* role women do and should play in conflict prevention,
resolution, peacemaking, peacebuilding
Four pillars:
* Participation, Protection, Prevention, Relief
and recover
–> Key for Peacekeeping: call for increased participation of
women at all levels of decision-making, including in peace
operations, as soldiers, police, civilians.
According to Karim & Beardsley, 2017, where are points of improvement in the realm of women and peacekeeping?
- Women’s participation in peacekeeping
–> around 15 % of women in police forces in PKO (initial goal was 20%)
–> around 3% in military forces (initial goal was 10%) - Protection against sexual violence
–> increased focus on sexual violence when it comes to deploying PKOs (see graphic) - Preventing sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers
According to Beber et al., 2017, what are the characteristics of transactional sex?
- International interventions foster a ‘peacekeeping
economy’ surrounding UN and NGO workers - Transactional sex: ‘exchange of sex for money, favors, or
gifts’ (p.2) - Survey in Monrovia, Liberia (2012) finds that UNMIL
peacekeepers associated with substantial and statistically
significant increase women’s entry into transactional sex
market - Employment of PKO increases risk of sex trafficking (Bell
et al., 2012)
What are the reasons why peace would fail? According to Fortna, 2008
- Agression
- Fear
- Accident
- Exclusion
⇒ By understanding why peace would fail, we can think about
the role of peacekeepers.
How can Peacekeeping work/when should it work? According to Fortna, 2008
1 Changing incentives (derived from Agression)
* Deterrence
* Increasing the benefits of peace
2 Reducing uncertainty (derived from Fear)
* Providing information, reducing mistrust
* Credibility
* Monitoring
3 Preventing/Controlling Accidents (derived from Accidents)
* Shifting power, weakening hardliners, reduce
defections/spoilers
* Neutral enforcement
* Reducing chances of crime sparking escalation
4 Preventing political abuse (derived from exclusion)
* Moving conflict from battlefield into institutions
* Monitoring, training, replacing biased security sector
* Countering disinformation campaigns
* Election Monitoring
According to Hultman et al. 2013 what is the effect of UN peacekeeping on civilian security in a civil war?
The number of civilian deaths in a civil war decreases strongly with the number of un military troops increasing.
According to Matanock & Lichtenheld, 2022, what are the aspects to be considered when it comes to whether peacekeeping requires force?
- Military coercion is costly, can be hard to signal resolve for
outside actors - Focusing only on ‘sticks’ neglects the effect of withholding
political, economic, legal benefits - Access to aid, loans, mil. alliances, regional organizations
conditional on compliance with peace process
According to Autoserre, 2014, what are the problems with the dominant peacebuilding culture?
- Dominant peacekeeping/peacebuilding culture shapes and influences interveners’ understanding
–> leads to assumptions about the reasons for violence
–> Translate into assumptions about the best solutions for
violence: ‘cookie-cutter approach’ towards conflict resolution and peacekeeping –> one-size fits all
According to Autoserre 2014 what are the issues with the clear roles of “interveners” and “locals”
- Disregard of local knowledge, expertise, and personnel
- Construction and maintenance of firm boundaries between
interveners and locals - Lack of cultural and language knowledge reduces
interveners’ usefulness
Why would peacekeeping not work?
- Peacekeepers do not have resources to apply enough
“sticks” and “carrots” - Peacekeeping is itself not credible (see Srebrenica)
- Peacekeepers cannot be trusted (see e.g. election
manipulation Ivory Coast) - What happens when peacekeepers leave?
What are the necessary things to understand when evaluating peacekeeping missions?
1 Where do peacekeepers go? (demand)
2 Who contributes (and how much)? (supply) → quality
3 Disaggregated, conditional effects of peacekeeping
(conditions under which)
Do PKOs pick the “easy” missions?
The UN selects the “hard” cases
* High casualties
* Ongoing or only partially resolved
- On average, UN faces lower odds of success to begin with!
→ If anything, we are likely to underestimate effectiveness
