Peace Support Operations Research Articles

Responsibility in Peace Support Operations: Revisiting the Proper Test for Attribution Conduct and the Meaning of the ‘Effective Control’ Standard

This article examines attribution of conduct and responsibility in peace support operations, which is, and will continue to be, a troubling subject of international law. It particularly examines two specific questions: what is the proper test for attribution of conduct, and whether and, if so, how dual attribution of conduct and responsibility can be established in international joint operations? As regards the former question, a brief critique of the major case law and documents recently dealing with attribution of conduct and responsibility in peace support operations shows that Behrami and Saramati poses a serious obstacle to determining the most suitable test without any confusion, thus there is a strong need to radically depart from this decision of the European Court of Human Rights. With respect to the latter, the meaning of the ‘effective control’ criterion, which is to be the basis for dual attribution in joint military missions, ought to be clarified. In this respect, the Mustafic and Nuhanovic judgments delivered by The Hague Appeal Court and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, to which the article pays special attention, are exemplary — to the extent that the latter did not conflate the notion of dual attribution of conduct with that of (dual or) multiple attribution of responsibility — and these judgments can be seen as a source of inspiration for the future application of the ‘effective control’ standard in practice.

Pre-deployment preparation of military nurses of the South African National Defence Force for participation in peace support operations.

South Africa has dedicated itself to participate in peace support operations (PSOs). The concept of 'jointness', involving different arms of services, was adopted within the South African National Defence Force, thus involving nurses in PSOs. Combat-readiness being a prerequisite for those involved in PSOs raised questions as to the readiness of forces to participate in these missions. There is a need for specific nursing care during PSOs, but the role and functions of nurses during such operations were not clearly defined; thus their preparation for these missions had very little scientific grounding. These were to explore the pre-deployment preparation needs of military professional nurses during PSOs, and to describe the experience of these nurses whilst being deployed. A quantitative exploratory, descriptive and contextual approach was used. Questionnaires were distributed to 99 professional nurses who had deployment experience, and 72 participated (73% response rate). Relevant peace mission concepts are the environment, jointness, behaviour and mission readiness, which served as the conceptual bases for the study. Findings indicated that the nurses were not fully informed of their responsibilities during deployment or the circumstances under which they would have to work and live. Their preparation is not fully integrated with that of the other armed forces, and deficiencies in their training and development were identified which negatively impact on their mission readiness. Recommendations were made in terms of human resource requirements, psychological training, better integration of jointness training, and content of training and development to ensure mission readiness of nurses.

Montenegrin civilian capacities for peace operations: Will without means?

The question that this paper sets outs to answer is whether Montenegro is prepared for participation in peace support operations with civilian capacities. Montenegro currently participates in four peace support missions under UN, NATO and EU auspices, almost exclusively with armed troops. The police is starting to deploy its officers to missions, while the civil protection units have not yet been formed and the representatives of other institutions have so far not participated in any missions. The key finding of this paper is that Montenegro is at the very start of developing its policy in the area of civilian participation in the peace support missions. Political will to engage in developing CIVCAP exists. However, it does not seem to stem from an inherent need of the country or to be a choice made on the basis of evaluation of hitherto policy in this area. Montenegro has started to conduct activities aimed at establishing CIVCAP exclusively as one of the specifically outlined steps in the NATO integration process. The incentive to pursue this goal is not yet strong and the process of developing CIVCAP has not yet been institutionalized. The legal framework, though regulating the military participation in relatively elaborate detail, does not deal with civilian capacities at all. The concept of CIVCAP suitable for Montenegro is still being debated in the administration with no clear idea on what direction to take and very little knowledge about the comparative experiences in this regard. The process is quite challenging for a small state with limited capacities and strong donor support for initial steps is crucial for its success.

<em>Opportunities and Challenges to Financing African Union Peace Operations</em>

Financing peace operations authorized by inter- national and regional organizations is a major challenge. The prob lem is more acute when it comes to funding of peace op- erations led by the Af ri can Union (AU) and its subregional or- ganizations. In spite of the criti cal importance of the subject, it has received little scholarly attention. This article evaluates current funding practices, ideas, and mechanisms of AU- led peace operations with a view to stirring debate on the future of financing of peace missions in Africa. The article argues that co - ordination between global and regional actors and duplication of structures and waste of resources must be addressed in order for the AU and its subregional organizations to mobilize the necessary resources to support their peace support operations. It is equally important for the AU to raise its own funds through taxes on travel and commerce.

Mapping western Balkans civilian capacities for peace operations

Over the past several years the United Nations has increasingly emphasized the role that civilian capacities can play in post-conflict peacebuilding and called for member states to provide expertise. This special issue of the Journal of Regional Security will explore the civilian capacities of the Western Balkans countries and whether there is political will to respond to the call to deploy civilian capacities to UN peace operations and other international organizations. Looking at how Western Balkan countries train, roster and deploy civilian capacities, it will also explore whether increased cooperation in this area could be considered as a security community practice, nurturing bilateral relations and building cooperation in the Western Balkan region. The article finds that there is still a great gap between the expressed policy intent of providing civilian capacities to peace support operations, and putting it into practice. There is also lack of a strategic consideration of how the training and deployment of civilian capacities to peace operations could build legitimacy in international organizations and enhance regional cooperation among the states in the Western Balkans. The article recommends the initiation of a regional dialogue on training and rostering of civilian capacities, realizing synergies and furthering regional cooperation.

Civil capacities for peace support operations: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has gone from being a receiver to providing assistance to post-conflict countries. Through its experience with rebuilding the country after conflict, BiH can make relevant and useful contributions to further peacebuilding and sustainable development in other countries. This article details current contributions BiH is making to international peace operations, maps the civilian capacities BiH could contribute in the future, and provides recommendations on how this could be implemented with regards to training, rostering and deployment of civilian capacities. Successful training, rostering and deployment of civilian capacities from BiH could be replicated at the Western Balkans level and bear witness to the development of security communities in BiH and the region.

The Role of Peacekeeping in Mongolia’s Military Strategy: A New Paradigm for Security

This article examines the military component of Mongolia's security strategy and argues that the Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF) have redefined their objectives and identity by creating a modern military centered on peacekeeping and global peace-support operations.

The Group of 8 and Global Peacekeeping, 2004–2010

PEACEKEEPING HAS BEEN A RELATIVELY NEW AGENDA ITEM FOR THE GROUP OF 8 (G8). (1) The group's attention to peacekeeping can be traced back to three movements from the late 1990s that were in and around the G8. The G8's active role in conflict prevention and management, especially in the Kosovo crisis, highlighted the potential role that it could play in this field. In the same period, several G8 countries also started global initiatives to organize peacekeeping capacity-building programs. And from the early 2000s, the G8's outreach to African leaders and their discussion of problems of peace and security in the continent led the group to lay out an action plan for assistance to African peacekeeping. All of these movements prepared the ground for a landmark action plan adopted at the 2004 Sea Island summit--G8 Action Plan: Expanding Global Capability for Peace Support Operations (hereafter, PSO Action Plan). Furthermore, the years between 2004 and 2010 saw G8 members actively discuss diverse aspects of peacekeeping on a regular basis. In this article, I examine the G8's contribution to global peacekeeping. There is, however, something counterintuitive about the relationship between peacekeeping and the G8. This arises from the fact that the G8 is not the sort of international institution that has been and perhaps ever will be equipped with necessary powers and resources to organize, deploy, and maintain actual peacekeeping missions. Major peacekeeping organizers such as the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), and African Union (AU) as well as troops contributors (states) all draw such powers from their formal decision-making processes (e.g., the UN Security Council) and institutional machineries (Departments of Peacekeeping and Field Support). In contrast, the G8 does not have a standing secretariat, nor is it founded on a charter or some equivalent document that could make its decisions binding on its members. The G8 is an official (Track 1), and yet essentially informal, international institution that lacks necessary rules and supporting structures for authorizing, organizing, and deploying peacekeeping missions. The question here, then, is how can the G8 be said to make an impact in the field of peacekeeping even though it lacks the very institutional foundation that enables peacekeeping activities? This question has not been addressed in the academic literature. Indeed, though mentioned in G8 research (2) and studies that look at major peacekeeping capacity-building programs, (3) the whole issue of the G8 and peacekeeping has received little scholarly attention on its own. (4) The dearth of academic analysis, in turn, suggests a broader assumption: only formal operational institutions matter in peacekeeping. This is evidenced by recent debates on peacekeeping partnerships that focus almost exclusively on such institutions. (5) However, the fact that the G8 is not an operational peacekeeping actor does not diminish its role altogether. Instead of assuming that the lack of operational capability disqualifies the G8 as a peacekeeping actor, I argue that seeing the G8 as an informal international institution enables analysis of its role in global peacekeeping. Political processes, whether domestic or international, are not confined to formal institutions like state organs and intergovernmental organizations: they do play important, even central roles, but a diverse range of informal institutions and networks are also increasingly relevant. (6) Given that formal institutions continue to be central in global peacekeeping, one way of measuring the G8's contribution and potential role is to examine its relations with the formal institutions that organize and deploy peacekeeping missions. Drawing insights from comparative politics literature on informal institutions, I discuss what sort of relationship the G8 has formed with formal peacekeeping institutions. I argue specifically that the G8 plays a potentially useful role complementary to formal operational actors by facilitating peacekeeping capacity-building efforts on the global scale, but that the record of its activities shows this potential has been only partially realized. …

Game for Peace: progressive education in peace operations

We present a modeling and simulation approach that clearly increases the efficacy of training and education efforts for peace support operations. Our discussion involves how a computer simulation, the Peace Support Operations Model, is integrated into a training and education venue in Kyrgyzstan for a “ Game for Peace.” On September 12–23, 2011 members of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Training and Education Centers collaborated to instruct a United Nations’ Peacekeeping Operations course at the Kyrgyz Separate Rifle Battalion in Bujum, Kyrgyzstan. Phase II of the course was also conducted on October 17–21, 2011 for members of the Peacekeeping Brigade of the Kazakhstan Army (KAZBRIG) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Although such courses are a mainstay in NATO support in preparing member nations for peace support operations, the application of a computer simulation is unique. We relate the decision to use a computer simulation to support the training event and provide an overview of the methodology for planning and executing the game. Insights from the game about training and educating future peacekeepers and lessons for using computer simulations are instructive for future efforts and mark the way to leverage the advantages of computer simulations.

The African Union and its Conflict Resolution Apparatus

This paper reflects on the role of the African Union in implementation of its conflict resolution apparatus. The emerging picture is that African leaders are taking responsibilities for making, building and keeping peace in Africa. They recognize that the days of non – interference and expecting the world to resolve conflict situations created by them are over. The AU would achieve results if member states are more committed to removing challenges faced by the organization. The most relevant include the poor commitment of some African leaders to positive peace, the regional organization is still underfunded as the former OAU and problem of weak national armies in some states comprises efficiency of peace support operations.

Against Stabilization

<p class="p1">This is a polemic against the concept and practice of stabilization as practiced by leading states from the global north in peace support interventions. It is not an argument against stability. Instead, it depicts stabilization as an essentially conservative doctrine that runs counter to its stated aims of enhancing local participation and legitimacy. It is an agenda of control that privileges notions of assimilation with international (western) standards and mainstreams the military into peace-support operations. As a result, the value of peace is undercut.

Securing distant places? Practices of protection in contemporary peace-support operations

This article explores the dynamics and implications of practices of protection enacted within the framework of the UN-sponsored International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. It examines the ways in which those practices challenge established categories in the field of security, and discusses the problems and dilemmas they generate. The article demonstrates that the role played by North Atlantic Treaty Organization – as the lead actor in ISAF – reflects the Alliance's reconceptualisation of the relevant space of security. An analysis of security practices employed by ISAF in Afghanistan reveals that, in spite of statements that stress the unique situation of stabilisation and reconstruction in Afghanistan, ISAF's dual emphasis on inclusion/exclusion (i.e. defeating radical Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters while also winning the hearts and minds of the other Afghans) echoes in interesting ways of colonial practices of counter-insurgency. Conceptually, one of the most interesting features of ISAF's security practices has been a blurring of multiple boundaries that have long been at the heart of thinking about international politics: domestic/international, military/policing and public/private actors. By shedding light on that process of blurring boundaries, this article provides further evidence in support of the claim made in this special issue: that we are now living in a world in which many of the distinctions that once appeared to be clearly defined and fairly rigid are fast breaking down.

Review: Fighting for Afghanistan

FIGHTING FOR AFGHANISTAN A Rogue Historian at War Sean M. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011. 326 pp, US$42.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-59114-509-7Fighting for Afghanistan is the final installment of Sean Malone/s trilogy, A Rogue Historian at War. The series provides one embedded military historian's view of three distinct phases of the international intervention in Afghanistan. An associate professor at Canada's Royal Military College and a former officer in the Canadian Army Reserve, has produced a unique body of work that is a blend of embedded journalism and informed operational and historical analysis. It is a well informed first draft of history.Fighting for Afghanistan covers the deployment and battles of the first Canadian-led brigade headquarters and the first Canadian battle group in Kandahar Province between January and August 2006. Maloney s personal credibility and experience, combined with the support of the Commander of the Canadian Army, gave him a level of access to the inner workings of both headquarters that no journalist could hope to attain. As a result, he was able to take an excellent snapshot of Canada's soldiers in action in one of the most difficult phases of a difficult war in the most difficult region of Afghanistan.In the interest of transparency, I should note that I was in Kabul during the period in question, and I know both and the principal Canadian commanders and staff officers who appear in this book. is at his best when describing the operational planning process at the regional command and battle group levels, including the thought process of Brigadier-General Dave Fraser and Lieutenant- Colonel Ian Hope, the respective commanders. He offers remarkable insight into the pressures that were imposed on two fine officers by a convoluted chain of command and risk-averse political staffs in Ottawa.Much of the book concerns itself with the subsidiary operations of a larger American-led called Thrust, commanded by Dave Fraser's superior headquarters of the US 10th mountain division based at Bagram. Mountain Thrust aimed to clear specific areas of southern Afghanistan of Taliban forces; however, it suffered from a number of serious flaws. It failed to recognize the situation on the ground in Kandahar province. It gave insufficient support to the Dutch and British in neighbouring areas. It overestimated the presence of the Afghan national army in Kandahar. And it ignored the fact that the Canadian combat unit in the province was simply too small to hold any ground that it took because it had to keep moving to deal with threats elsewhere.As a result, the Canadian battle group spent its time just cutting the grass. Its infantry combat teams were constantly moving from one threatened area to another. They had no opportunity to reinforce their numerous successes, which made it exceedingly difficult to either extend the reach of Afghan government control or start essential development projects. This situation persisted until the Obama surge of 2010.British politicians touted the deployment as a peace support operation that would focus on development. In practice, things in Helmand turned out quite differently, with tragic results. offers excellent descriptions of Canadian operations to rescue a besieged company of British paratroopers in the town of Sangin and to recapture the district centres of Garmsir and Nawa from the Taliban. …

A Faustian Bargain: US Clients in the ‘New Europe’ and Regime Change Wars

This article investigates the performance of Poland and the Czech Republic in the US-led regime change wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The article indicates a significant gap between the Czech and Polish discourses and practices related to the two countries' contributions. In the two crises, discourses revolved around the notion of universal values and support for legal and legitimate peace support operations mandated by the UN. But the practices did not match those discourses and were actually driven by the beliefs that form the Atlanticist ideology. The article analyses the successful internalization of US discourses and threat perception in Poland and the Czech Republic through the use of ‘cascade argumentation’. The practical results of this internalization are then examined.

Asymmetrical Military Socialization

This article presents a small state’s perspectives on military socialization by examining military interactions at political and strategic, operational, and tactical as well as educational tiers. Transnational military socialization creates learning and socializing environments for militaries. However, the transnational military socialization process in Asia has received little scholarly attention, although its nature changed dramatically after the Cold War and 9/11. A small state often enters into asymmetric socialization with major powers. Mongolia presents an interesting case to capture these changes and impacts of transnational military interactions. The Mongolian military internalized Soviet military norms, ideas, and values during its seventy-year military socialization process. Since then, it has been attempting to disconnect from its communist past by internalizing the Western military norms, ideas, and culture even though it is isolated from the Western world. Interactions between Sino-Mongolian militaries over the past two decades have not resulted in any in-depth exchanges of ideas due to political, historical, and cultural factors. In the absence of explicit pressures from these three major powers, today the Mongolia military has consolidated a new identity, similar to a Western military. It has increased its contribution to peace support operations while attempting to disconnect its Soviet past and avoiding absorption from the growing Chinese military initiatives toward Central Asia. At the same time, Mongolia’s military socialization with Russian or American militaries often triggers uncertainty for Chinese security.

Apportioning Responsibility between the UN and Member States in UN Peace-Support Operations: An Inquiry into the Application of the ‘Effective Control’ Standard after Behrami

There is a tendency among the judiciary to apply the standard of ‘effective control’ as the applicable yardstick for apportioning responsibility for wrongful acts between the United Nations and the member states contributing troops to UN peace-support operations. This is evidenced by recent decisions in the cases of Srebrenica (Dutch Court of Appeal, 2011), Al Jedda (European Court of Human Rights, 2011) and Mukeshimana (Belgian First Instance Court, 2010), which appear to repudiate the ‘ultimate authority and control’ standard espoused by the European Court of Human Rights in Behrami (2007). This process may have been set in motion by (the current) Article 7 of the ILC's Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations, which may in due course reflect customary international law. From a policy perspective, the application of an ‘effective control’ standard is highly desirable, as it locates responsibility with the actor who is in a position to prevent the violation.

The South African Military and Peace Support Operations: Responding to the Challenges and Preparing for Engagement

Suid-Afrika het in die afgelope tyd om meer as een rede toenemend by politiekdiplomatieke vredesinisiatiewe betrokke geraak. Op die militêre terrein is die Suid- Afrikaanse Nasionale Weermag (SANW) eweneens besig met voorbereidings om op multilaterale grondslag aan toekomstige vredesondersteunde operasies deel te neem. Met die oog op sodanige deelname is die SANW tans besig om in samewerking met buitelandse weermagte aandag te skenk aan 'n grondslag vir gesamentlike optrede. Selfs meer betekenisvol is Suid-Afrika se ontwikkelende politieke en diplomatieke status in Suider-Afrika en die koordinering van inisiatiewe om 'n gemeenskaplike veiligheidsbenadering op die sub-kontinent te bevorder. In die opsig speel die land 'n belangrike rol in pogings om 'n nuwe veiligheids- en verdedigingsprofiel in Suider-Afrika te laat vorm aanneem. In die lig van toenemende verwagtinge wat met betrekking tot vredesinisiatiewe aan Suid-Afrika gestel word, asook in die konteks van die uitdagings enrisikos wat vredesondersteunde operasies inhou, spreek dit vanself dat enige toekomstige deelname daaraan met omsigtigheid oorweeg moet word. Verskeie politieke en operasionele oorwegings moet in die verband in aanmerking geneem word. Wat dit betref, is die Departement van Verdediging skynbaar deeglik onder die indruk van die politieke en militêre dinamiek van vredesondersteunende operasies, asook die onervarendheid van die SANW in die opsig. Gevolglik is bepaalde parameters, riglyne en selfs voorwaardes vir deelname aan sodanige operasies uitgestippel. As sodanig is daar klaarblyklik 'n besef dat die land op 'n verantwoordelike wyse en langs die weg van 'n bepaalde proses daarby betrokke behoort te raak.

Maintaining International Peace and Security: Reflections on Peace-Support Operations in Africa

The shift from a bipolar to a multipolar and multi-faceted world has reduced the risk of conventional inter-state wars, but has been the cause of several intra-state armed conflicts with an even higher risk of regional instability. Such conflicts and the resurgence of a global activism have produced a dramatic growth in peacekeeping requirements since the end of the previous decade. The international response, mainly through the United Nations (UN), has been to promote preventive diplomacy and, in a number of cases, to conduct peace-support operations. In brief, this paper points out that each UN peace-support operation places an extremely high premium on UN administration, organisation, coordination and resources. To this end, a multiplicity of contributions from various role-players is needed. It also points out that peace-support operations require significant commitments on the part of participating states, specifically the willingness to accept financial costs and fatalities in the interest of promoting international and regional stability. This is especially true in the case of African peacekeeping. This paper, furthermore, underscores the fact that the undertaking of peace-support operations in Africa is by no means a simple and easy task. The nature of peacekeeping missions in certain African countries have, in fact, resulted in an increasing reluctance on the part of the major powers and some of the other traditional troop-contributing nations to deploy on African soil. It concludes that the real impact of the post-Cold War era is that the burden of resolving African conflicts rests more and more on Africans. African countries and organisations are accordingly compelled to take measures and develop strategies to address the peacekeeping requirements on the continent.

Japan's Return to the Chequebook? From Military Peace Support to Human Security Appropriation

This article examines the fortunes of Japanese governmental discourses and practices related to the country's international involvement in its two types of peace delivery: peace support operations and human security. The first part of the article analyses Japan's security push into (post-)conflict spaces. It is argued that in the Japanese case more than in any other, the profound separation of the military from the rest of the state apparatus has been responsible for the country's inability to bridge peacekeeping and peace-enforcement practices with human security. The second part deals with the consequences of Japan's parallel bureaucratic delivery of peace and specifically with the eventual phasing out of the Japanese military in these efforts. Thus, the analysis suggests that Japan has undergone a rebalancing of the thrust of its peace support activities in a direction similar to the previously popular chequebook diplomacy.

NEGOTIATIONS IN PEACE SUPPORT OPERATIONS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN – RESEARCH RESULTS

Negotiation has become one of the most socially effective methods of solving conflicts. The aim of this article is to present the results of research on negotiations in peace support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been five negotiating styles discussed as their role appears to be crucial in the negotiation process. Some conclusions on conducting negotiations have been elaborated as well.