Effective Peacekeeping Research Articles

From ‘dirty word’ to ‘critical enabler’: the evolution of peacekeeping-intelligence

ABSTRACT The article provides a historical analysis of the evolution of ‘Peacekeeping-Intelligence’ (PKI) as a UN intelligence system and tool of conflict management. It examines the processes leading to the development of the PKI Policy by analyzing the analytical entities that cumulatively contextualized these developments. It also examines the institutional mechanisms at the UNHQ, the underlying logic, and the challenges surrounding these processes. The article first traces the various iterations of information and analysis structures within the UN since the early 1960s. It then focuses on intelligence developments in the 1990s and the new millennium, where the lack of intelligence capabilities, particularly at the mission level, was identified as an underlining factor for the operational problems faced by the UN. It concludes with an examination of the PKI policy as an evolutionary step in UN peacekeeping. The paper argues that PKI offers a new pathway to effective peacekeeping and provides a foundation for enhanced decision-making through situational awareness, the safety and security of peacekeepers, and the protection of civilians.

“There Can Be No Agreement to Take up Arms against the Turks Unless We First Restore the Empire”: The Fall of Constantinople and the Rise of a New Political Dynamic in the Holy Roman Empire, 1453–1467

Abstract While the Europe-wide cultural impact of the fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehmed II is well known, its political reverberations in the Holy Roman Empire have received comparatively little attention. This article argues that the events of 1453 inaugurated a new dynamic in the empire that facilitated the polity's consolidation and the creation of new collective institutions within it long before Maximilian I (1486–1519), whose reign is often presented as a constitutional turning point. Some prince-electors had been calling for more effective peace-keeping and judicial institutions for decades before 1453 but lacked the leverage to compel kings and emperors of the Romans to accept political change on their terms. The fall of Constantinople provided a focal point for these negotiations: in return for promising to support an anti-Ottoman crusade, the reformists were able to force a compromise on new peace-keeping legislation at the diets of the 1450s and 1460s. This compromise was catalyzed by public pressure. There was a widely held expectation that leading imperial protagonists should fulfill this mission to defend Christendom, manifested in orations, diplomatic missives, poetry and songs, plays, and early printed pamphlets produced within and for a range of German-speaking public spheres.

Fostering Inclusivity in Peacekeeping

The United Nations Peacekeeping operations involve a diverse array of stakeholders on the decision-making and enforcement side, ranging from senior officials to troops and civilian personnel, whose backgrounds and perspectives significantly impact mission effectiveness. Gender considerations within recruitment does form an important part of UN’s engagement especially within its foundational mandate of Women, Peace, and Security as outlined in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. Intersectionality along with cultural contexts within host countries further complicate the recruitment process. Furthermore, while the deliberate inclusion of women is advocated, it often leads to reinforcing stereotypical roles and ‘side streaming; of gender rather than genuine ‘mainstreaming; practices. This paper examines the interconnected challenges of gender stereotypes, cultural understanding, and diversity and inclusivity in peacekeeping recruitment. It argues for a strategic, asset-based, inclusive approach to recruitment and deployment of female peacekeepers, coupled with enhanced cultural sensitivity. Drawing on existing literature and examples, the paper proposes policy recommendations aimed at fostering effective peacekeeping without reinforcing gender stereotypes.

How Stress, Trauma, and Emotion May Shape Post-Conflict Environments – with Implications for International Peacekeeping

ABSTRACT Recent research on post-conflict environments prioritizes more creative understandings of peace operations, leading researchers to dig deeper into the micro-foundations of peacebuilding and peacekeeping. Though some of this research highlights the role of emotions, there are several complexifying factors that interact with emotion – including chronic stress arousal, trauma, increased stress loads, stress and emotion contagion, and decreased self-regulatory capacity – that remain dramatically undertheorized in this new wave of research. Given that peacekeeping operations are an environment in which these factors are likely to be at their most salient, it is essential that we understand where and how they interact with those operations. This article seeks to address this oversight. It begins by integrating recent psychological and neuroscientific arguments about individuals’ neurobiological windows of tolerance, exploring how the conflict cycle can lead to post-conflict effects on individuals’ thoughts, emotions, decision-making, and behaviour. It then explores the implications of those lessons for two dimensions of peacekeeping environments, offering insight into peacekeepers’ dysregulation as well as structurally and socially embedded dysregulation within the host population. Most importantly, it offers recommendations for how to resolve the effects of stress and trauma in peacekeeping environments, and thus provide the healing needed for effective peacekeeping.

The Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence in Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a pivotal tool in modern conflict resolution and peacekeeping efforts. This essay examines the multifaceted impact of AI technologies within this context. It explores the ways AI-powered analytics have enhanced the early warning systems, improved data-driven decision-making processes, and provides deeper insights through advanced conflict analysis. Additionally, AI-driven simulations and predictive modeling offer the potential to forecast conflict dynamics and guide more effective peacekeeping interventions.By leveraging AI, policymakers and practitioners can develop proactive strategies for conflict prevention and resolution, leading to sustainable peace and stability worldwide. This paper underscores the transformative potential of AI in reshaping traditional approaches to conflict management, offering new avenues for promoting global peace and security.

Phases of International Dispute Settlement and the Need for Adaptive Approach

The paper revisits different perspectives on how international disputes are resolved without escalating into war. For example, there are articles on how these conflicts develop and what peace looks like, as well as the media's role in encouraging or discouraging violent conflict. By evaluating the involvements of state actors and non-state actors in conflict resolution, the study submits that efforts to make an effective peacekeeping doctrine by the United Nations (UN) have been faced with challenges by powerful states which hold the highest stakes in global politics. The world has a crucial stake in resolving conflicts among states without resorting to war because of the many deaths, economic loss, humanitarian crises, and other consequences of war across the globe. The UN has established a global agenda to help states that are or could be involved in violent conflicts. Drawing from the findings, the paper concludes that the usage of force during the process of peace and as a panacea to dispute resolution should be re-examined in view of the irrelevance of force in the current international order. Apart from making international institutions functional, disputants should be made prominent throughout the peace process and be adaptive to the consequences of the dispute and its effects on the community and the belligerents themselves.

Simulating Peace Operations: New Digital Possibilities for Training and Public Education

Background and Motivation. A plethora of warfighting games exist commercially, but there is a lack of digital games that deal with peace processes. Furthermore, none simulate actual peacekeeping. The United Nations currently deploys about 100,000 peacekeepers to some of the world’s most dangerous zones, where peacekeepers save lives, alleviate suffering, and help create conditions for peace. The United Nations and national militaries lack peacekeeping simulations to help train their soldiers. Additionally, the public needs to learn more about the way peacekeeping works. Thus, peacekeeping simulation and gaming are worth exploring, especially in the rapidly evolving digital space, which offers new avenues and benefits. Methods. We review the meager literature on the subject and observe that there are few digital games to directly draw from. We build on previous work that argued the need for such development, but we now assess important design principles and parameters. We draw upon peacekeeping tabletop exercises that are already well developed. Results. We conclude that excellent scenarios and simulation technologies exist that could be combined quite easily for effective peacekeeping training and public education. We find key materials and scenarios in exercises of the United Nations and of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Highlighted areas for future digital design are the inclusion of non-military avatars, emphasis on soft skills development (especially empathy), and realistically complex links between actions and consequences. Conclusion. While describing some UN exploration at a proof-of-concept stage, we suggest that both the United Nations and the gaming industry should explore the idea further to achieve synergies between institutional and entertainment applications. The growing capacity of digital technology allows significant innovation, yielding results that could be useful, ethical, enjoyable, and potentially profitable.

Leadership Selection in United Nations Peacekeeping

AbstractStates covet leadership and staff positions in international organizations. The posts of civilian leaders and force commanders of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are attractive to member states. In selecting peacekeeping leaders, the UN Secretariat balances three considerations: satisfying powerful member states by appointing their nationals; recognizing member states’ contribution to the work of the organization; and ensuring that leaders have the necessary skill set. We investigate appointments of more than 200 civilian and military leaders in 24 UN missions, 1990–2017. We find that contributing troops to a specific mission increases the chances of securing a peacekeeping leadership position. Geographic proximity between the leaders’ country and the conflict country is also a favorable factor whose importance has increased over time. Civilian leaders of UN peacekeeping operations tend to hail from institutionally powerful countries, while military commanders come from major, long-standing troop contributing countries. Despite some role that skills play in the appointment process, the UN's dependence on troop contributors, together with its reliance on institutionally powerful states, can be a source of dysfunction if it prevents the organization from selecting effective peacekeeping leaders. This dynamic affects other international organizations that have significant power disparities among members or rely on voluntary contributions.

PAX-NIGERIANA AND NIGERIA’S CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Nigeria’s advocacy for the ‘African solutions to African problems’ has been a critical component of its African diplomacy since its independence in 1960. This advocacy finds its loudest expression in the leadership roles it played in peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in the continent in tandem with what has been dubbed Pax-Nigeriana. However, less than a decade since returning to democratic governance in 1999, Nigeria’s commitment to the peacekeeping efforts has been waning. In spite of its globally acknowledged regional security provider, Nigeria’s interventions in a number of regional countries leave much to be desired. This study, therefore, argues that the plethora of domestic security challenges in Nigeria has had dire implications for conflict management in Africa. The study, which relies on personal observation and secondary sources, contends that Nigeria’s declining commitment to its self-assigned ‘responsibility to protect’ in Africa as vividly demonstrated in Mali’s operation and other contexts portend bleak future for the effective peacekeeping operations in the continent. The paper concludes by recommending that domestic issues such as terrorism and inequality in the polity among others must be addressed if Nigeria wants to continue playing its traditional leadership role in West Africa especially in the security sector.
 Keywords: African security, African solutions to African problems, conflict management, Pax-Nigeriana, responsibility to protect

The UN Peacekeeping Law – Deficits and Reform Options

“Syria: 7 years, 11 vetoes, 500,000 dead.“ Seventeen months have passed since the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect drew this sad balance. Since then, the number of vetoes against peacekeeping in Syria – and the number of deaths – have continued to rise. The ongoing conflict in Syria and the inability of the United Nations (UN) to put an end to it are a shattering illustration of the discrepancy between the claim of the UN Security Council as the main actor in peacekeeping and the reality, in which numerous measures to end the conflict were prevented by members of the Security Council themselves. To ensure effective peacekeeping, reform is needed in various areas of the UN peacekeeping system. This article discusses approaches for such a reform. The article outlines the fundamental structure of the UN peacekeeping system and its major shortcomings. Moreover, it evaluates formal and informal reform options in light of effective peacekeeping and their probability of realisation.

New Technology for Peace & Protection: Expanding the r2p Toolbox

New technological advances in areas such as digital information, algorithmic forensic data analysis, autonomous surveillance vehicles, advanced robotics, and multispectral sensors (sometimes all working together) can help avert war, introduce more effective peacekeeping and peacemaking initiatives, lessen the impact of conflict on innocent people, and help rebuild war-torn states. When international humanitarian action becomes urgent, by way of knowledge gained through such technologies, then those same peace applications can be used to reduce harmful forms of intervention and to ensure that enforcers are abiding by international law and UN guidance. An ethical failure occurs when such technologies exist to save lives, reduce risks, and secure peace, but are not employed.

Effective crowd policing: empirical insights on avoiding protest violence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to connect sociology, criminology, and social psychology to identify specific factors that keep protests peaceful, discusses empirical examples of effective peacekeeping, and develops practical peacekeeping guidelines. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis systematically compared 30 peaceful and violent protests in the USA and Germany to identify peaceful interaction routines and how they are disrupted. It employed a triangulation of visual and document data on each demonstration, analyzing over 1,000 documents in total. The paper relies on qualitative analysis based on the principles of process tracing. Findings – Results show that specific interaction sequences and emotional dynamics can break peaceful interaction routines and trigger violence. Single interactions do not break these routines, but certain combinations do. Police forces and protesters need to avoid these interaction dynamics to keep protests peaceful. Communication between both sides and good police management are especially important. Research limitations/implications – The paper highlights the need to examine the role of situational interactions and emotional dynamics for the emergence and avoidance of protest violence more closely. Practical implications – Findings have implications for police practice and training and for officers’ and protesters’ safety. Originality/value – Employing recent data and an interdisciplinary approach, the study systematically analyzes peacekeeping in protests, developing guidelines for protest organizers and police.

The South African military and peacekeeping: Reflections on conditions, capacity-building and prospects

Since the advent of a new dispensation in South Africa, expectations in Africa and elsewhere have steadily grown regarding South Africa's potential role as a peacekeeper in African conflicts. Infact, South Africa has been identified by many observers as the one state able to ensure effective peacekeeping on the African continent. On paper, South Africa's military capabilities appear impressive in terms of African standards. However, in reality there are current impediments to a major role for the South African military in Africa, of which the delicacy of the ongoing transformation process of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and financial constraints are significant. Moreover, it would seem that South Africa has thus far preferred the role of diplomatic peacemaker to that of forceful peacekeeper.

United Nations Peacekeeping and Sexual Abuse: Beyond Zero -tolerance Policy to Pro -active Measures

This paper has periscoped the administration of peacekeeping operations by the United Nations (UN) as a mechanism in conflict management of international and internal crises. With 16 missions and about 120,000 personnel under its command by May 2012, the UN has expanded the tasks of peacekeepers to include peacebuilding and humanitarian aid services to the vulnerable and displaced local population. Here lies the sore moral challenge: the peacekeepers, taking advantage of the unequal power dynamics in the conflict zones, have unleashed fresh violence of sexual exploitation and abuse on the traumatised women and children, diminishing the integrity of the UN operations and moral authority for peacebuilding. This paper which has critically examined primary data from the UN, has put in perspective this under-reported deficit to effective peacekeeping operations, and offered critical pro-active administrative and operational initiatives to check the shameful sexual misconduct of peacekeepers and in order to sustain the credibility of the UN in its efforts to promote global peace and security.

MIGRATION FROM THE OAU TO THE AU: EXPLORING THE QUEST FOR A MORE EFFECTIVE AFRICAN PEACEKEEPING CAPABILITY

This thesis explores the quest for a more effective African peacekeeping capability.It seeks to answer the question what is different now that can enable the AfricanUnion (AU) to establish an effective peacekeeping capability after the Organisationof African Unity (OAU) failed to do so in the past. The study is a descriptiveanalysis of efforts by the AU to enhance its peacekeeping capabilities in resolvingconflicts in Africa. The thesis traces the challenges that limited security cooperationand conditions that enhanced such cooperation in recent years, culminating in theapproval of a continental standby force. It establishes that Africa was stagnated bysecurity problems and at the same time it was reluctant to directly commit itself toresolve such problems, but instead sought assistance from the internationalcommunity or relied on its own ad hoc arrangements. The study identifies thereason for this approach to have been the value of sovereignty entrenched in theOAU Charter, which forced leaders to pledge non-interference in each other’sinternal affairs.The study further reveals that the establishment of the AU in 2000 was meant to giveAfrica the capability to resolve its own problems by consolidating intra-Africansecurity cooperation. The establishment of the Peace and Security Council (PSC)and its implementation tools such as the African Standby Force (ASF) opened a newwindow of hope in peace and security matters. However, the PSC is facingoperational challenges, principally because of financial and logistical constraints,above its own lack of institutionalised mechanisms to ensure effective partnershipsand burden sharing with its partners. This is against the revelation that the AU hasinsufficient capacity to embark on multidimensional peacekeeping operations on itsown. This was highlighted by the AU peacekeeping operations in Burundi andDarfur (Sudan).The study concludes that although there is more political will, an improvedcontinental security architecture and better United Nations-African cooperation, it isunlikely that the AU will be able to achieve an effective peacekeeping capability inthe short to medium-term. This is against the backdrop that at the moment, the AUhas severe limitations in both material and human resources. The AU is also unableto raise sufficient funds to pursue its peace and security agenda, and therefore theAU is still heavily dependent on external donors in its peacekeeping endeavours.However, the intended operationalisation of the ASF represents a promisingachievement towards a long-standing Pan-African ideal that calls for “Africansolutions to African problems”.

Peacekeeping, Peace Culture and Conflict Resolution

This article presents an overview of the relationships between peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict resolution with an emphasis on the way in which culture and cultural analysis might be used to develop more effective and sustainable peacekeeping interventions. The article comments on the conceptualization of the role of culture in conflict resolution theory and how this has been used in attempts to address cultural barriers to effective peacekeeping in so-called first-, second- and third-generation missions. While culture has generally been defined as important in theory and practice in terms of understanding differences between actors in conflict environments, the main new argument advanced in the article is that culture, redefined specifically as peace culture, can have a more proactive role in terms of mobilizing energies for sustainable peacebuilding at different stages of the conflict spectrum. More speculatively, the article explores the idea of culture as a contributory factor in the emergence of new forms of cosmopolitan peacekeeping.

Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Waging Peace and Fighting War

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has been derided as one of the world's least effective peacekeeping forces. This article assesses its performance by using two indicators: mandate implementation and the reduction of human suffering. The analysis shows that effective peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been hampered by two major problems. First, MONUC has had a struggle with, and inconsistent approach to, the vague concept of ‘robust peacekeeping’. During key moments of the peace process, it tried to wage peace when it should have used force. Second it failed to adapt to a dynamic conflict environment. Both problems were underpinned by flawed assumptions about the peace process, the behaviour of local actors and the presumed benefits of ‘post-conflict’ elections.

Organising for Nation Building

As countries and international institutions become increasingly involved in nation-building efforts, committing personnel and resources for prolonged periods of time, they often face major capabili...

Beyond rwanda and kosovo: The interactive dynamics of international peacekeeping and Ethnic Mobilisation

Within the past few decades there has been a significant increase in multilateral interventions in ethnic conflicts in the name of peacekeeping. Most hope that these operations will assist in conflict resolution and reduce violence. However, recent examples indicate that this may not always be the case. This paper explores why international efforts to contain, curtail and resolve ethnic conflicts may not prove successful and even backfire. This enquiry is addressed by employing a cross-national comparative analysis of the involvement of peacekeeping operations in two recent ethnic conflict situations. A sociological model of mobilisation is systematically applied to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) in Rwanda (1994) and NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Kosovo (1999) to determine whether international actors addressed the primary components that led to mobilisation of the contentious parties. This work argues that the key to successful peacekeeping is to address the primary components of violence. The paper synthesises conflict studies with work on social mobilisation theory and research on peacekeeping, offering both theoretical and policy-relevant contributions to understanding the nexus between effective peacekeeping and factors leading to violent mobilisation.

Africa in World Politics: A Pan-African Perspective

Guy Martin. Africa in World Politics: A Pan-African Perspective. Trenton, N.J./ Asmara, Eritrea: Africa World Press, Inc., 2002. xxvi + 311 pp. Bibliography. Index. $29.95. Paper. Guy Martin has written the most thorough evaluation of official panAfrican cooperation to date. he provides a serious critique based upon the positions and expectations of independence-era leaders that had led to these plans and he offers a sensible proposal for future progress. Throughout, Martin calls for adherence to a federative principle of creating larger units out of existing smaller ones. This looks very much like the European Union's to the catastrophic problems of conflict and internal governance that plagued its members during the first half of the twentieth century. While Martin characterizes his proposal as a drastic solution (258), it deserves to be taken seriously. How many Europeans in 1939 would have imagined that they would see in their lifetime the creation of a continent-wide single political unit, a common currency, and a broad commitment to democratic governance? The proposals of African political and intellectual leaders such as Cheikh Anta Diop, Kwame Nkumah, and Julius Nyerere for various forms of an African Union are commonly dismissed out of hand. But doesn't adversity breed innovation? Why then has pan-Africanism failed to deliver on its promises of the 1950s and 1960s? Martin rejects the Afropessimist view that failures of governance are rooted in particularities of cultures or the distinctive organization of political authority on the continent. He discounts explanations that privilege networks of criminality, the allure of natural resources in the hands of easily corruptible elites, and other analyses that find causes of failure in structures internal to African societies. While not denying that these problems exist, he focuses on the persistent marginality of Africa to the world's political economy. He locates the other primary cause for this crisis in the nature of African state systems whose small unviable units are tied much more to patronage from powerful states outside Africa than to each other. Martin devotes much of his book to the deficiencies of regional organizations patterned on and justified to varying degrees by the postindependence promise of pan-Africanism. These range from organizations that fall apart as members fail to pay basic dues or maintain a headquarters, to others, more common, that limp along, generating much paper but little concrete action. Exceptions do appear; not surprisingly, these successes emerge in security cooperation intended to address immediate threats to regional stability. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), for example, managed to field peacekeeping operations in Lesotho. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has maintained peacekeeping operations in West Africa for almost a decade and a half. One can fairly say that ECOWAS rivals the United Nations in effective peacekeeping under difficult circumstances, making it a world leader in that field. …