Executive Summary
The United Nations is an international organization formed after the events of World War II to promote international collaboration and harbor international peace and security. This paper discusses how far the UN has succeeded in achieving those goals. The paper includes the methods the UN employs to promote peace and security. It also includes a table that lists the peacekeeping missions the UN has been involved in in the past and the present conflicts the UN peacekeepers are involved in. Finally, a critical analysis has been provided that evaluates the extent to which the peacekeeping mission has succeeded in.
The most important purpose of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security.
The United Nations is the world’s largest, foremost, and most prominent international organization. The stated aims of the United Nations include promoting and facilitating cooperation in international law, , economic development, social progress, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedoms, democracy,international security and the achievement of lasting world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. For the purposes of this paper we shall concentrate on the international security and the achievement of lasting world peace.
The League of Nations (19191 – 1939) formed immediately after the First World War, following the harsh lesson of 20 million war dead. Leaders probably regretted that the 1907 Hague Conference’s grand ambition of building a world organization went unfulfilled before the First World War. Such a world organization might have blocked the drift toward war. Led by President Woodrow Wilson, now known as the “father of the league of Nations,” the founders attempted to build a world system based on just peace shared by democratic states[1]. President Wilson wanted the league to replace the traditional practice of dividing the spoils of war among the victors before forming a new balance of power.
Unfortunately, the League of Nations faltered in the 1930s as several revisionist states pursued their radical goals by acts of aggression[2]. The league, however did make a full faith effort to halt Italy’s 1934 invasion of Ethiopia through use of economic sanctions in 1935 – 1936. The league almost bankrupted Italy, but this attempt at collective security finally failed, one central reason being that the United States, which was not a member felt free to supply Italy with war material. Further aggressions of the 1930s damaged the League’s reputation, leading to serious questions about the feasibility of collective security. At least the League did establish the principle that states were not free to use force as they pleased. Following the creation of the League, the society of states had a duty, responded to or not, to halt aggression and to protect the weak from the strong.
Although it closed its doors in 1939, the League of Nations left a legacy that guided the founders of the United Nations. This new world body largely followed the pattern of the League, but the founders of the United Nations sought to improve and strengthen the new organization based on League experiences. In fact, some scholars have called the United Nations a resurrected League.
Why did the League of Nations struggle mostly in vain and finally collapse in 1939 while the United Nations seems to have a perennial life? At least three standard reasons are given to account for League failure. They are[3]:
i. The league suffered from being part of a victor’s peace. The treaty of Versailles of 1919 not only ended the First World War but also authorized the creation of the league. In effect, this treaty held Germany responsible for the First World War and required Germany to pay large war reparations to France. Understandably, Germany never truly committed itself to the league any more than it sincerely accepted the Weimar republic, a government formed following Germany’s defeat.
ii. The league did not the United States as a member. Had the United States joined the league and participated in the 1936 embargo against Italy, Italian aggression against Ethiopia might have come to a halt.
iii. The league covenant did not allow the council to require military sanctions to carry out collective security.
The immediate problem for Allied Leaders was to create a postwar public opinion mood supportive of a “new League”. Sometimes it is a useful marketing technique to give an old business or product a new name, to dress it up a bot for consumer consumption. The founders gave the new world body the title “United Nations,” a popular name appearing early in the Second World War to designate the allies.
Most goals of the United Nations support peace. The United Nations calls on states to settle disputes peacefully according to international law. Economic development reduces tension between the “haves” and “have not” of the world.Respect for human rights encourages ethnic groups to interact with less conflict. Further, arms limitations may reduce prospects for war. Finally, certain Charter provisions and innovations aim specifically to preserve or restore peace. Designed for this purpose are the peaceful settlement of disputes, peacekeeping operations, and collective security, the subjects of this section.
Peaceful settlement:
The Charter offers the means to resolve disputes other than by the use of force. The specific options under peaceful settlement appear in Article 33 of the charter. These means are the political procedures of negotiation, which include good offices, inquiry, mediation, and conciliation. Good offices involve a third state offering neutral communication between the disputing parties. An inquiry is a search by a neutral third party for the facts in a dispute. In mediation, a third party offers suggestions about the terms of settlement in a dispute. When the third party is a commission, involving several states or a body from an international organization, the mediating effort is an act of conciliation. The terms, as a proposal for settlement, are more explicit and formal than with mediation. As political techniques, these procedures are often helpful, but the parties in a dispute do not have to accept any proposed terms.
Peaceful settlement also includes judicial procedures, which, unlike political procedures, are binding. The disputing parties must accept the terms of a decision. Judicial decisions can come from arbitration or the decisions of a court, subjects discussed in the previous chapter on international law. States have strongly preferred political settlement over judicial decisions because states have more control over the outcome. Neither the political nor the judicial techniques provided in the charter represent entirely new innovations, since these techniques are traceable, in some form, to antiquity.
States often refer disputes to the Security Council. The Security Council can suggest any of the peaceful settlement procedures available or refer a dispute to a regional organization such as the OAS or OAU. Finally, the secretary-general sometimes personally handles a dispute or appoints a mediator.
In more than a half century, the United Nations has effectively handled over 200 disputes, with most of these disputes reaching a settlement. Some disputes, however appear interminable; for example, the feud over Israel occupying Arab territories has festered for decades. An arguable point is that the involvement of the United Nations only perpetuates a conflict when the traditional clash of arms might offer a final resolution, though the outcome may be unjust to one side. Most scholars, while recognizing that he role of the United Nations does not always resolve disputes, believe the United Nations dampens conflicts and saves thousands of lives.
Peacekeeping:
When negotiations between disputants fail and war breaks out, the UN charter calls for the Security Council to marshal a military force to punish the aggressor. However, in many disputes an aggressor is not readily identifiable, nor is a large, punitive force easy to put together. When collective security has been unusable, the United Nations has turned to the bold innovation of peacekeeping. In over 40 disputes, the United Nations has placed either lightly armed troops or unarmed observers between opposing forces after the shooting has ceased. The peacekeeping troops have come mostly from medium size to small countries and behave neutrally toward the combatants. One exception today is Russia, which contributes one of the largest contingents of troops to UN peacekeeping. As a small body of troops, with easily recognizable blue headgear and white vehicles, the peacekeepers operate as a moral presence, restraining combatants from renewing fighting until a peaceful settlement procedure can take hold[4].
Closely associated with peacekeeping are the concepts of cease-fire and preventive diplomacy. Based on a precedent set in League days, the United Nations “orders” a ceasefire between warring parties before entering the dispute with lightly armed peacekeepers. Cease-fires are not always secure, as in the recent cases of Bosnia and Somalia, when renewed fighting caught peacekeepers between heavily armed combatants[5]. Preventive diplomacy calls for the United Nations to enter a dispute early and, through diplomacy, prevent the outbreak of fighting or stop the fighting from escalating. Preventive diplomacy was notably useful in the Cold War, when two superpowers, bristling with nuclear weapons, were prone to take opposing sides in small, “brush fire” conflict. After preventive diplomacy restrained the superpowers, the United Nations would take over the conflict by inserting peacekeepers and engaging the peaceful settlement process. Applying preventive diplomacy restrained the superpowers, the United Nations would take over the conflict by inserting peacekeepers and engaging the peaceful settlement process. Applying preventive diplomacy to internal conflicts has proven more difficult. Gaining sufficient early warning to deal effectively with explosive outbreaks of ethnic violence in internal conflicts, before they result in massive casualties and flows of refugees, is an elusive goal for preventive diplomacy.
Peacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace. UN peacekeepers—soldiers and military officers, civilian police officers and civilian personnel from many countries—monitor and observe peace processes that emerge in post-conflict situations and assist ex-combatants in implementing the peace agreements they have signed. Such assistance comes in many forms, including confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law, and economic and social development. All operations must include the resolution of conflicts through the use of force to be considered valid under the charter of the United Nations.
The table below lists the UN peacekeeping missions taken in the past and the present.[6]
Africa
| Dates of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict |
| 1960–1964 | United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) | Congo |
| 1988–1991 | United Nations Angola Verification Mission I (UNAVEM I) | Angola |
| 1989–1990 | United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) | Namibia |
| 1991–1995 | United Nations Angola Verification Mission II (UNAVEM II) | Angola |
| 1992–1994 | United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) | Mozambique |
| 1992–1993 | United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I) | Somalia |
| 1993–1997 | United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) | Liberia |
| 1993–1994 | United Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda (UNOMUR) | Rwanda |
| Uganda | ||
| 1993–1996 | United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) | Rwanda |
| 1993–1995 | United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) | Somalia |
| 1994 | United Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Group (UNASOG) | Chad |
| Libya | ||
| 1995–1997 | United Nations Angola Verification Mission III (UNAVEM III) | Angola |
| 1997–1999 | United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) | Angola |
| 1998–1999 | United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) | Sierra Leone |
| 1998–2000 | United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA) | Central African Republic |
| 1999–2005 | United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) | Sierra Leone |
| 2000–2008 | United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) | Eritrea |
| Ethiopia | ||
| 2004–2007 | United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) | Burundi |
| 1999–2010 | United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) | Congo |
| 2007–2010 | United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) | Chad, Central African Republic |
| 2005–2011 | United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) | Sudan |
Americas
| Dates of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict | |
| 1965–1966 | Mission of the Representative of the Secretary-General in the Dominican Republic (DOMREP) | Dominican Republic | |
| 1989–1992 | United Nations Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA) | Central America | |
| 1991–1995 | United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) | El Salvador | |
| 1993–1996 | United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) | Haiti | |
| 1996–1997 | United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) | Haiti | |
| 1997 | United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) | Guatemala | |
| 1997 | United Nations Transition Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH) | Haiti | |
| 1997–2000 | United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH) | Haiti | |
| 2000–2001 | United Nations General Assembly International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti (MICAH) | Haiti |
Asia
| Dates of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict | |
| 1962–1963 | United Nations Security Force in West New Guinea (UNSF) | Netherlands New Guinea | |
| Indonesia | |||
| 1965–1966 | United Nations India-Pakistan Observation Mission (UNIPOM) | India | |
| Pakistan | |||
| 1988–1990 | United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP) | Afghanistan | |
| Pakistan | |||
| 1991–1992 | United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) | Cambodia | |
| 1992–1993 | United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) | Cambodia | |
| 1994–2000 | United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) | Tajikistan | |
| 1999 | United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) | East Timor | |
| 1999–2002 | The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) | East Timor | |
| 2002–2005 | United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) | East Timor | |
| 2006–2012 | United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) | East Timor |
Europe
| Dates of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict | |
| 1992–1995 | United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) | Former Yugoslavia | |
| 1993–2009 | United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) | Georgia | |
| 1994–1996 | United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation (UNCRO) | Croatia | |
| 1995–2002 | United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) | Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| 1995–1999 | United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) | Republic of Macedonia | |
| 1996–1998 | United Nations Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) | Croatia | |
| 1996–2002 | United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) | Prevlaka Peninsula | |
| 1998 | United Nations Civilian Police Support Group (UNPSG) | Croatia |
MiddleEast
| Dates of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict |
| 1956–1967 | First United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I) | Syria |
| Israel | ||
| 1958 | United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL) | Lebanon |
| 1963–1964 | United Nations Yemen Observation Mission (UNYOM) | Yemen |
| 1973–1979 | Second United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) | Egypt |
| Israel | ||
| 1988–1991 | United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG) | Iran |
| Iraq | ||
| 1991–2003 | United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) | Iraq |
| Kuwait | ||
| 2012 | United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) | Syria |
Current deployment (16)
Africa
| Start of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict |
| 1991 | United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) | Western Sahara |
| 2003 | United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) | Liberia |
| 2004 | United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) | Côte d’Ivoire |
| 2007 | United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) | Sudan |
| 2010 | United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) | Congo |
| 2011 | United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) | Sudan |
| 2011 | United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) | South Sudan |
| 2011 | United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) | Libya |
America
| Start of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict |
| 2004 | United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) | Haiti |
Asia
| Start of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict |
| 1949 | United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) | Kashmir |
| 2003 | United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) | Afghanistan |
Middle East
| Start of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict | |
| 1948 | United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) | Middle East | |
| 1974 | United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) | Golan Heights | |
| 1978 | United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) | Lebanon |
Europe
| Start of operation | Name of Operation | Conflict | |
| 1964 | United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) | Cyprus | |
| 1999 | United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) | Kosovo | |
Critical Analysis:[7]
A 2005 RAND Corporation study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as opposed to four out of eight US cases at peace. Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism — mostly spearheaded by the UN — has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War.
The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In some cases, the Security Council has failed to pass resolutions or the member states have been reluctant to fully enforce them in the face of deteriorating conditions. Disagreements in the Security Council are seen as having failed to prevent the 1994Rwandan Genocide. UN and international inaction has also been cited for failing to intervene and provide sufficient humanitarian aid during the Second Congo War, the failure of UN peacekeepers to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, failure to provide effective humanitarian aid in Somalia, failing to implement provisions of Security Council resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and continuing failure to prevent genocide or provide assistance in Darfur.
One suggestion to address the problem of delays such as the one in Rwanda, is a rapid reaction force: a standing group, administered by the UN and deployed by the Security Council that receives its troops and support from current Security Council members and is ready for quick deployment in the event of future genocides.
UN peacekeepers have also been accused of sexual abuse including child rape, gang rape, and soliciting prostitutes during peacekeeping missions in the Congo,Haiti, Liberia, Sudan, Burundi, and Côte d’Ivoire.
In response to criticism, including reports of sexual abuse by peacekeepers, the UN has taken steps toward reforming its operations. The Brahimi Reportwas the first of many steps to recap former peacekeeping missions, isolate flaws, and take steps to patch these mistakes to ensure the efficiency of future peacekeeping missions. The UN has vowed to continue to put these practices into effect when performing peacekeeping operations in the future. The technocratic aspects of the reform process have been continued and revitalized by the DPKO in its ‘Peace Operations 2010’ reform agenda. The 2008 capstone doctrine entitled “United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines” incorporates and builds on the Brahimi analysis.
Glossary:
Conciliation: a third party technique of peaceful settlement, more formal than mediation, which functions through a commission.
Good Offices: A third party technique of peaceful settlement that involves passing information as a go between for disputants.
Inquiry: A third party technique of peaceful settlement that calls for investigation a dispute to provide information for the disputants.
Mediation: A third party technique of peaceful settlement that calls for the third party to recommend settlement terms for the disputants.
Peaceful Settlement: Political negotiation or adjudication methods advocated by the UN Charter for resolving disputes.
Peacekeeping: A major innovation of the UN to handle conflicts by disengaging disputing parties and placing a UN force between them; substitutes when collective security is inappropriate.
References:
· Paul F. Diehl, International Peacekeeping (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
· Conway W. Henderson. International Relations: Conflict and cooperation at the turn of the 21st century. McGraw-Hill. 1998
· www.wikipedia.org
[1] Conway W. Henderson. International Relations: Conflict and cooperation at the turn of the 21st century. McGraw-Hill. 1998
[2]ibid
[3] Conway W. Henderson. International Relations: Conflict and cooperation at the turn of the 21st century. McGraw-Hill. 1998
[4] Paul F. Diehl, International Peacekeeping (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
[5] Conway W. Henderson. International Relations: Conflict and cooperation at the turn of the 21st century. McGraw-Hill. 1998
[6] Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all_UN_peacekeeping_missions. Accessed on April 2, 2013
[7] Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_Nations_peacekeeping#Assessment, accessed on April 2, 2013