UN Operations Research Articles

Gulf War I: The Legality of Prosecuting Existing Iraqi Ba’ath Party in Response to Kuwait’s Deceased Captives

This paper analyzes and describes the role of international law in prosecuting international crimes committed during and after wartime, in general, and in the territories of Kuwait and Iraq during the invasion by the latter (Gulf War I), in particular. Through these approaches, I will identify the importance of international criminal and humanitarian laws’ mandates in trying existing Ba’ath commanders who had ordered, aided, abetted, and/or neglected their duties over their forces in which this conduct resulted in the death of Kuwait’s captives. In light of this analysis, I propose the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal to try and punish these perpetrators as a corollary initiative laid out on the United Nations’ obligations, and as a consequence to the Security Council resolution to liberate Kuwait. This paper will consist of four parts. The first part will illustrate the background of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the liberation initiative led by the US and the UN (Operation Desert Storm) to free Kuwait from that invasion. The second and third parts’ approaches will analyze and criticize the legality of both: the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, on the one hand, and the US-UN intervention to liberate Kuwait, on the other hand. Consequently, all of these proponents will lead to the development of a test to create an ad hoc criminal tribunal to try and punish the existing Ba’ath regimes who have violated international law by not keeping Prisoners of War (POWs) safe and unharmed. In conclusion, this paper is an attempt to achieve informative and analytic frameworks to argue why the UN should create an ad hoc tribunal and how this mechanism can be accomplished.

Kwame Nkrumah’s Intervention in the 1960s Congo Crisis: a Pan-African Geopolitics and Personality Trait

Abstract Utilizing archival materials and existing literature, the article examines the contending rationales motivating Nkrumah’s decision to support the UN mission in the Congo during the 1960s political crisis. Existing scholarship, to date, appreciates Nkrumah’s involvement from the perspectives of African camaraderie, anti-imperial mawkishness, and regional leadership. However, beyond these elucidations, the optimal focus should be driven by Pan-Africanism geopolitics, the leadership traits and African political unification agenda of Nkrumah. The paper reveals how the UN mission was perceived by Nkrumah as an avenue to forbid the powers of the bipolar system to interfere with the right of “sovereign self-determination” within the domestic affairs of the Congo. The article’s findings and conclusion posit that the UN operation provided a boulevard of latitude for Nkrumah’s grander pan-African geopolitical ambition coupled with his own leadership traits. The failure of his mission was relative, given the normative value of his pan-African dream.

Tough Lessons for UN Peacekeeping Operations

With the future of UN peacekeeping once again up for debate, it’s worth reflecting on the lessons of the past 30 years. UN operations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and elsewhere have had to contend with complex local and regional systems of power and governance that have major influences on missions’ prospects for success. In The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations, Mats Berdal and Jake Sherman pull together an excellent set of essays that identify the signal lessons of UN peacekeeping in dealing with these systems, and offer a credible set of policy prescriptions. The book makes a compelling case for a better understanding of the political economy of conflict, and less expansive mission mandates that are attuned to the local context.

Japan’s Contribution to International Peace: Restrictions and Advantages

Japan is said to be a peace-loving country. In fact, the State’s history indicates that Japan and its politicians have surely sought positive ways to dispatch Japan’s SDF personnel to UN or international operations for the pursuit of UN-centred policy, despite the State’s constitutional constraints. For example, Japan created or amended several laws including the PKO Law in 1992 as well as the JDR Law in 1987 and the Anti-Terrorism Law in 2001. Therefore, one can identify the evolving process of Japan’s contribution to international peace. However, at the time of writing, Japan’s contribution to UN peacekeeping is token. This article points out several restrictions and advantages for Japan to dispatch forces to overseas operations. The restrictions include legal, diplomatic, and situational ones. The advantages include ones due to the State’s record in the UN, due to the state’s diverse and comprehensive approaches to international peace, and those due to the current situation of international peace and security. Japan should take advantage of its middle-power status for its contribution to international peace. Keywords: Japan; International peace; The UN; Middle power

PEACEKEEPING DIPLOMACY: PAKISTAN – INDONESIA

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS Agenda) adopted in 2000 is a global milestone that centers women's issues in peace and security efforts. It recognizes the terrible impacts of conflict on women. The WPS Agenda has prompted a call for all UN member states to enhance the participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution as an effort to realize sustainable peace, including by increasing the number of female peacekeepers in the UN Peacekeeping Operations (UN PKO). This research uses a qualitative method by employing a library research approach. It examines relevant foreign policy documents of both countries pertaining to the WPS Agenda and engaging with existing scholarships on the WPS Agenda. Informed by constructivist international relations theory focusing on state norms and identities, this research argues that the Pakistani government's commitment to incorporate a gender perspective in UN peace and security efforts is shaped by the political will of the military government. It has resulted in the recognition of Pakistan in international forums. The increased female peacekeepers in UN operations become an effective tool for peacekeeping diplomacy of both countries so that they could influence the UN global decision-making process.

A New Era: Power in Partnership Peacekeeping

AbstractUN blue helmets increasingly deploy in partnership with regional organizations and coalitions of states. While this development is hailed as a way out of geopolitical fragmentation and capacity overstretch, little is known about the effectiveness of these peacekeeping partnerships. We argue that UN and non-UN operations exercise different forms of power, which reinforce each other to reduce battle violence in active wars. If non-UN military operations actively engage in combat, the UN can focus on what it does best—employing its broad toolbox to coerce, induce, and persuade. Our quantitative analysis of the interaction between UN and non-UN peacekeeping supports these expectations: partnership peacekeeping works. With a non-UN partner, UN troops can reduce battlefield violence more effectively, that is, with fewer blue helmets. Importantly, non-UN missions need UN operations to successfully curb violence. The UN’s multidimensional engagement offsets the potential negative effects of an all-too militarized approach to violence reduction. Regional and coalition peacekeeping can only support the UN, not replace it.

The composition of UN peacekeeping operations and aid worker security

Do United Nations peacekeeping operations improve the security of humanitarian aid workers during conflict? Answering this question is important given the critical assistance that humanitarian personnel provide in conflict zones, the increased integration of humanitarian activities in UN operations in recent decades and the growing incidence of attacks against aid workers worldwide. Researchers have found that the presence of peacekeepers does not positively affect aid worker security and may even make humanitarian personnel more vulnerable to violent attacks. However, previous studies have not examined whether the effect of peacekeeping operations on aid worker security is influenced by the personnel composition of UN missions. I hypothesize that operations with more troops are likely to reduce attacks against aid workers, while similar security gains are unlikely to be realized with larger numbers of police or observers. This is due to troops’ specific capabilities, which increase their ability to mitigate high-intensity conflict environments and protect humanitarian personnel traveling on roads. Statistical analyses of monthly data between 2000 and 2015 indicate that greater numbers of UN troops, but not police and observers, are correlated with fewer attacks against aid workers. The implications of these findings are discussed, with an eye toward addressing challenges facing the UN’s force-generation process.

Modernisation of crisis response at global and regional levels

The author examines the peacekeeping practice in terms of new instruments of crisis response (special political and stabilization missions and operations) used by the UN, the EU and OAU. The study focuses on the problems connected with the extended use of the UN and EU's stabilization operations aimed at combating terrorism, assuring security in the crisis regions, as well as with the provision of assistance to the host countries. It is revealed that political and stabilization missions could become prospective instruments of crisis response due to their maximum adaptation to modern challenges of global and regional security and stability. High level of coordination among UN, EU and other regional organizations in planning and implementation of these operations is a necessary precondition for effectiveness of these missions and operations. Creation of a global platform for joint operative response to extraordinary and complex crisis situations comprising the UN, EU, OSCE G20 and other regional organizations could be a major step in this respect. The platform could be also used for the development of confidence-building measures providing a high degree of transparency in military activities of different states and regional organizations; for prevention of conflicts and reaching a diplomatic solution. Establishing regional platforms for regulation of local conflicts in the regions with a high probability of crisis situations like the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Africa, Afghanistan and the Central Asia, the Far East could also contribute to global security and stability.

Ethnic Conflict and UN Peacekeeping Operations in Cote d’Ivoire

The article critically examines the effectiveness of the UN (peacekeeping) Operation mission in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI). In doing so, it elucidates the challenges associated with employing Chapter VI and Chapter VII (i.e., non-military coercion [Article 41] and forcible military action [Article 42] to resolve the ethnic conflict amongst the disputed parties. In particular, it considers the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as ‘forcible military action’ and argues that the implication of the framework has resulted in effective peace enforcement (i.e., UNOCI completed its mandate in June 2017). The article also illuminates several underlying factors that led to violent conflict eruption in Côte d'Ivoire. The analysis has been presented through the Hourglass model and conflict triangle to realize the engagement of R2P encompassing relevant stakeholders for sustained peace in a conflict-ridden country.

The Reform of Certain Aspects of the UN Peacekeeping Activities as a Factor of Increasing the Effectiveness of Local Peace-Building and Regional Development (Case of the UN Operation in the Central African Republic)

In this article the author analyses in detail the UN peacemaking activities illustrated by the example of the MINUSCA peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR). Today the mission has achieved the following results: presidential and legislative elections have been held, cooperation with neighboring states has been established, UN cooperation with local security agencies is advancing, conditions for the protection of natural resources have been assured, conflict mitigation activities for the local population are being organized. However, there is no progress in a number of areas, which is consequently connected with such intrastructural problems of the UN as duplication of functions and responsibilities in various UN departments, lack of representation of African countries in UN administrative structures, the issue of compliance with the UN mandate while implementing this mandate in a civil war. Not only will the solution of these problems increase the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping mission in the CAR, it will also increase the level of security in Africa as a whole.

Beyond Dues: The Role of U.S. Military Aid in UN Peacekeeping Operations

ABSTRACT Shortfalls in personnel are common across UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs). An ongoing concern is that many PKOs lack sufficient resources to effectively fulfil their mandates. This may in turn be a major contributing factor to shortages of peacekeepers. How do provisions of non-personnel resources to UN PKOs shape other states’ voluntary commitments of peacekeeping personnel? This study focuses on the role of the U.S.’s voluntary peacekeeping assistance as a mechanism for reducing personnel shortfall. By providing additional assistance for specific peacekeeping operations, the U.S. enhances the ability of states that are willing but lack the resources to deploy peacekeepers and increases the willingness of states that are otherwise reluctant to make personnel commitments to these operations. In turn, these provisions of support lead to greater personnel commitments to the missions where the U.S. allocates this aid. Results from an analysis of U.S. peacekeeping assistance and personnel commitments within UN operations from 2000 to 2015 indicate that these aid provisions lead to reductions in shortfalls of peacekeepers. These findings suggest that the U.S. not only increases collective personnel commitments by providing this additional assistance but, in doing so, may also enhance the effectiveness of the missions it supports.

Between Visible and Invisible Deaths of the Korean War: Re-envisioning Operation Glory (1954) at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea

Abstract The year 2021 marked the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Cemetery’s (currently the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea, unmck) establishment in 1951. The unmck is the only UN-designated cemetery for the fallen UN soldiers who underwent an arduous process of interment, exhumation, and re-interment during and after the Korean War (1950–1953). Despite abundant studies on the Korean War, little attention has been paid to the diverging historiography of the deceased military personnel and non-combatants concerning the UN graveyard and Operation Glory, a repatriation mission that changed the cemetery’s geopolitical landscape. Through multi-archival research, this study re-examines the unmck’s topology by shedding light on the incompatible sites of visible and invisible deaths in the context of Operation Glory. Thus, it contributes to the limited literature on military history and historiography by showing how bodily engagements were inextricably interwoven with the Korean War’s heterotopic heritage.

USSR and the UN Military Operation in the Congo 1960—1964

Drawing on UN documents, materials from Russian and British archives, the author examined the evolution of the Soviet line towards the UN military operation in the Congo in 1960—1964, exposed the intentions of the Soviet leadership to employ the UN military contingent in achieving its goals in the Congo, showed how the actions of the Western powers, their Congolese allies and the UN leadership frustrated the Soviet plans. The Soviet posture regarding the UN operation in the Congo varied depending on the escalation of the Congo crisis and its main actors’ behavior. At the initial stage (July — early August 1960), Khrushchev considered the conception of Africanization of resolving the crisis, submitted by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, suitable for turning UN forces into an instrument to protect the Lumumba government and increase Soviet influence in the Congo. The Soviet representative to the UN Security Council suggested that the Congolese operation be conducted by African states, and the USSR bypassed the UN by providing its civilian planes to transport the Ghanaian contingent of UN troops from Accra to Leopoldville. Since the Blue Helmets were used in the Congo, in the opinion of the Soviet government, “inappropriately”, i.e., not against Belgian forces and the Katanga separatists, it demanded that the UN command be replaced on August 6, 1960. Lumumba tried to regain control of Katanga by his own forces, but was ousted in two coups d’état in September 1960, directly supported by UN troops. Nikita Khrushchev did not intervene militarily in the Congo and privately called Nkrumah to allocate a Ghanaian contingent of UN troops at the disposal of Lumumba’s government. This was impossible without Soviet military support, but Khrushchev did not promise it. After Lumumba’s assassination, which became known on February 13, 1961, the USSR demanded the termination of the UN operation in the Congo within a month and the removal of the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld as an “accomplice” to the Lumumba massacre. The overwhelming majority of UN members favored keeping UN troops in the Congo and Hammarskjöld as Secretary General. After the withdrawal of contingents of leftist African countries from the Congo in the winter and spring of 1961, the Soviet Union lost any ability to influence the UN operation in the Congo. It supported the military operations launched by the Blue Helmets against the Katanga separatists (December 1961 — January 1963) as being aimed at “the liquidation of the hotbed of interference of the colonial powers and their agents in Katanga”. After restoring territorial integrity of the Congo, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign for the withdrawal of UN troops and refused to participate in financing their upkeep. The Blue Helmets remained in the Congo until June 1964. The USSR failed to prevent the U.S. from turning the UN troops into a tool to combat “communist infiltration” in the Congo, and this contributed substantially to the Western victory in the battle for the “heart of Africa”.

A price for peace: troop contributing countries’ responses to peacekeeper fatalities

ABSTRACT How do states respond to fatalities of their troops in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs)? Recent research highlights that participation in peacekeeping is costly for most states. Personnel fatalities should create further costs for contributors and often result in a reduction of their commitments. Studies that evaluate this expectation yield mixed findings. One finds no evidence that OECD countries provide fewer personnel to UN PKOs following fatalities. In contrast, another finds that fatalities generally correspond with reductions in states’ personnel commitments to UN operations in Africa but also reveals that wealthier contributors tend to withdraw at larger magnitudes than their poorer counterparts. This study builds on this work by further hypothesizing that the incentives that motivate states to participate in PKOs condition their willingness to maintain their contributions after experiencing fatalities. An analysis of states’ troop fatalities and commitments to 41 UN operations from 1990 to 2015 supports this expectation. States that are contiguous to an operation, which face greater concerns about the externalities of nearby conflicts, and states that receive side payments for their troop commitments, via foreign aid, are more willing to maintain their commitments in response to fatalities of their troops than other contributors. Additional findings suggest that non-contiguous contributors that do not receive side payments are also inclined to withdraw troops in response to upticks in organized violence surrounding a mission as well as fatalities of other contributors’ troops. These results illustrate that the motives that states face to participate in PKOs also affect their willingness to maintain their troop commitments as their costs for participation increase.

When Immunity Becomes Impunity

Abstract After a United Nations peacekeeping mission introduced cholera to Haiti in 2010, victims have struggled for over a decade to obtain remedies from the UN. Their experiences have exposed the extraordinary barriers to justice faced by civilians who suffer injuries caused by UN operations. While the UN has enjoyed absolute immunity from suit in courts where personal injury claims are typically heard, the UN is required to provide civilians harmed by its operations with alternative avenues to seek redress. In practice, however, the UN’s process for resolving such third-party claims is opaque and difficult to access, and allows the UN to be the final arbiter of its own responsibility. Particularly troubling are recent mass tort cases where financial and political interests have improperly influenced the claims process to deny remedies. This article draws on personal insights gained from advocating for victims of cholera for the past ten years, as well as the parallel experiences of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian victims who brought claims against the UN for lead poisoning in Kosovo. The article identifies systemic weaknesses in the UN’s third-party claims process and proposes four key reforms to bring the organization’s practice in line with its legal and moral obligations.

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Intervention Forces in Central African Republic

Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) continues to undermine UN operations thereby affecting the efficacy of these interventions. This study investigating the extent of “allegations of SEA by intervention force with reference to UN intervention in contemporary African conflicts: A Case of Central Africa Republic (CAR).” This was a library-based research that relied on secondary data. Data was obtained from books, e-books, journals, UN publications and websites. The collected data was analysed thematically so as to establish the extent of allegations of sea by intervention force in CAR. The findings show that UN interventions force in CAR is faced with a myriad of challenges that affect its mandate execution. Much as there has been some positive output in MINUSCA operations, these successes have been shadowed by some of these challenges. SEA has been widespread in Central African Republic, though some of the allegations date before the UN intervention, the wide perception of the populace is that the UN forces are to blame. From the study it can also be concluded that the UN has its hands tied and has not been able to effectively enforce investigations by the TCCs since this a responsibility of the T/PCCs. Given the fact that the UN always faces a challenge of raising troops for PKOs it does not want to lose this ability further by blacklisting TCCs who fail to complete such investigations and punish the offenders. The system wide measures put in place in support of the ‘Zero tolerance” policy has not been effective. Since the study has established that SEA is a real challenge facing PKOs, there should also be effort to make sure that each country takes direct responsibility for the crimes perpetuated by their contingents and failure to complete investigations and conclude such cases should be enforced by strict penalties including banning from participation in PKOs.

United Nations Peacekeeping Missions and the Intervention in the Yemeni Civil War (1963-1964)

"The tumultuous 1960s brought a multitude of inter- and intrastatal conflicts in international relations. Some of them derived from extinguished disputes as a subsequent effect of the decolonisation, while others were motivated by the aggressive intentions of states to conquer other states. An example was the Yemeni Civil War (1962–1970) which came in the spotlight of the international community because two neighbours countries, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Republic involved in the internal fight. The external involvement motivated and set the scene for the United Nations Organization to intervene and mobilise a peacekeeping operation which had to observe the withdrawal of the third parties and eventually facilitate the peace process. The study aims to analyze the UN peacekeeping mechanism, which is seen as a compromise created by the bipolarization of the international system that prevented the organization from fulfilling its task of keeping the international peace. Through the case study on the Yemeni peacekeeping operation which operated from 1963 to 1964, one could learn about how UN functioned during the Cold War years, what were the underlining processes supporting the authorization process of such an operation, about the contribution of the Secretary General to the functioning of the peacekeeping mechanism and lastly how the events in Yemen underlined the impact that the interests of involved actors had on the fulfillment of the given mandate of the UN operations."

U.S. Policy towards UN Peacekeeping Operations

The article assesses the role of the United States in the UN peacekeeping activities at the present stage. An attempt is made to show the key types of UN operations and the mechanisms of their influence on the establishment of peace. It is concluded that, although the logistical support of UN operations cannot compete with the military capabilities of the United States or NATO, the experience of conducting peacekeeping operations proves that the UN retains ample opportunities to maintain peace in various regions. The study emphasizes the importance of the United States financial support for UN peacekeeping activities, America has long been the largest sponsor of UN peacekeeping operations. The study showed that when the United States does not fulfill its obligations to provide financial resources in the specified amount, the UN experiences significant financial difficulties in solving peacekeeping tasks and implementing peacekeeping programs. If America truly wants to remain the world leader, then the Biden administration needs to start by paying off its UN debt. On the example of considering Chinese participation in peacekeeping activities, the author substantiates the assumption of a possible future transfer of the leading role in the UN from the United States to China.

Потенциал реагирования франко-германского тандема на вызовы безопасности

The article focuses on the French and German joint efforts towards strengthening the EU’s ability to address the security challenges and act in the European frontier regions. The authors look closely at the two instruments aimed at developing the EU defense capacity: civil missions and military operations, and the European Intervention Initiative (EI2). In the first part of the article, they argue that after 1992 there was a strong possibility for the UK becoming France’s major partner in the military field, rather than Germany. Nevertheless, eventually, Germany shifted to the position of the key French ally in this area, helping to build the basis for the EU autonomous military potential. The EU has undertaken a number of civil missions and military operations; however, their scale and main parameters are far from the characteristics of such interventions of the UN, NATO, or national military operations. The authors indicate that it is difficult to talk about any “special role” of the Franco-German tandem in this field. Both states can be described as “major donors” for the EU missions and operations rather than champions in the EU security. In several cases there is a lack of synchronization of the countries’ objectives thus their military cooperation sometimes causes serious misunderstandings blocking the fragile coordination on the EU level. In the second part of their research the authors analyze the role of the Franco-German tandem in the European Intervention Initiative (EI2) establishment. The article examines three reasons behind the France’s decision to launch the EI2 initiative in 2018 despite some German objections. The EI2 emerged as a flexible frame for nine countries seeking to carry out offensive operations and interventions outside of the EU and to develop a joint strategic culture. The unique character of the EI2 is evident due to its possibility to engage member countries of the EU, CSFP/PESCO and NATO. The new organization aims to coordinate the work of strategic groups on the broad range of issues. The authors conclude that despite some differences, the Franco-German tandem stimulates a range of projects aspiring to expand its European leadership and to enforce the EU strategic autonomy. Meanwhile, the military leadership of the tandem in the future is not guaranteed, and as the PESCO example shows, there are reasons to start talking about the “quadriga” of players (France, Germany, Italy and Spain), possibly in cooperation with the UK.

The Local Turn and the Framing of unoci’s Mandated Activities by the UN

Abstract This article engages specifically with the local turn in UN peace operations by looking at local engagement and empowerment in the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire. After the closure of a long-serving UN peace operation it is important to take stock of the activities pursued under the mandate and reflect on how the mission has contributed to peacekeeping practice. UN peace operations have increasingly undertaken peacebuilding activities at the local level with current literature emphasising the need to involve local actors in decision-making and reconciliation activities. In seeking to uncover how the UN understands the need to involve local actors, the mission activities of unoci are broken down into a number of themes looking at how the local are engaged, given agency and empowered, and also where the UN recognises specific vulnerabilities of persons. The article shows how the UN portrays its activities and where it has either expressly or impliedly sought to demonstrate a concern for the local in Côte d’Ivoire.