A Critique of Robust Peacekeeping in Contemporary Peace Operations

Tardy, Thierry

doi:10.1080/13533312.2011.546089

Cited by 41 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…There is also a rich, analytic literature on UN peace enforcement. See Findlay 2002;Novosseloff 2003;Ruggie 1993;and Tardy 2011. efforts among its diverse members. In elite-pact governments, a set of select actors "seeks to neutralize threats to stability by institutionalizing nonmajoritarian mechanisms for conflict resolution."…”

Section: Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping

Howard¹,

Dayal²

2017

Int Org

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UN peacekeeping was not designed to wield force, and the UN's permanent five (P-5), veto-wielding Security Council members do not want the UN to develop a military capacity. However, since 1999, the UN Security Council has authorized all UN multidimensional peacekeeping operations under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to use force. The mandates do not serve to achieve the council's stated goal of maintaining international peace, nevertheless, the council repeats these mandates in every multidimensional peacekeeping resolution. Neither constructivist accounts of normative change, nor the rational pursuit of stated goals, nor organizational processes can explain the repetition of force mandates. Instead, we draw on insights from small-group psychology to advance a novel theoretical proposition: the repetition of force mandates is the result of “group-preserving” dynamics. The P-5 members strive to maintain their individual and collective status and legitimacy by issuing decisions on the use of force. Once members achieve a decision, the agreement is applied in future rounds of negotiations, even when the solution does not fit the new context and may appear suboptimal, illogical, or even pathological. Privileging the achievement and reproduction of agreement over its content is the essence of group preserving. We present an original data set of all peacekeeping mandates, alongside evidence from dozens of interviews with peacekeeping officials, including representatives of all of the Security Council's permanent members. We assess this original data using expected causal process observations derived from rationalist, constructivist, organizational, and psychological logics.

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Section: Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping

Howard¹,

Dayal²

2017

Int Org

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“…Adam Roberts (1994, p. 41) explains that during this period doctrine and practice faced an inherent dilemma where intervening forces had to choose between either losing credibility for not acting (as in Rwanda and in the "safe areas" in Bosnia) or losing impartiality for potentially overreacting (as in Somalia in 1993). This debate unfolded in the academic community where some commentators argued for a return to traditional forms of peace operations, or as a minimum a strict adherence to robust peacekeeping without recourse to the use of force (Tardy, 2011;Thakur, 1994). Others claimed that present methods were acceptable but required further integration and coordination (Berdal, 2000;Goulding, 1993, p. 461).…”

Section: Transitions In Doctrine and Practice Of Peace Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

El aprendizaje institucional ruso y las operaciones regionales de paz: los casos de Georgia y Moldavia

Davies

2015

internationalrelation

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Este artículo examina el comportamiento de Rusia con respecto a los conflictos intraestatales en sus espacios regionales próximos a partir de 1990. La documentación existente atribuye la posición de Rusia principalmente a una extensión de su lógica de seguridad principal basada en el fomento de los intereses regionales hegemónicos. Aunque estos intereses no pueden ser ignorados, este artículo propone que la falta de aprendizaje institucional de Rusia de la doctrina y práctica de las operaciones de paz ha sido también un factor determinante, aunque descuidado, al dar forma a su respuesta ante los conflictos. Se argumenta que esto está integrado en un subconjunto persuasivo de lógicas de seguridad secundarias, basadas en la preocupación legítima por la seguridad y estabilidad regionales. Este análisis se basa en el cuestionamiento de los conflictos regionales en Georgia y Moldavia, puesto que ambos son los casos más reveladores de la experiencia de Rusia en operaciones de paz. El artículo concluye con unos breves comentarios sobre la crisis actual en Ucrania y cómo se relaciona esta con la reacción de Rusia al conflicto regional intraestatal.

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“…For example, Alex J. Bellamy and Charles T. Hunt (2015) identify five potential challenges associated with the UN's new approach to peacekeeping: decreased legal protections for peacekeepers; decreased safety of peacekeepers; increased strain on UN resources; increased international and domestic expectations; and increased vulnerability of humanitarian actors due to perceptions of co-option. These challenges echo those identified by several other scholars (Tardy 2011;Karlsurd 2015;Hunt 2017;Rudolf 2017), all of whom emphasize that eroding the UN's core principles will have serious strategic, political, legal and ethical consequences. Although not all scholars agree that these challenges will be insurmountable (Nadin et al 2014;Berdal and Ucko 2015), it is difficult to deny that these new stabilization operations come with a degree of risk.…”

Section: The Debatementioning

confidence: 55%

“…6 They acknowledge that this process may require additional changes to the UN's operational doctrine, but they nonetheless believe that "under the right circumstances and with a properly equipped and commanded force…it is possible to undertake coercive operations with decisive effects" (Berdal and Ucko 2015, 15). By contrast, the second group of scholars are pessimistic about the UN's ability to excel in this new context (Tardy 2011;Karlsrud 2015). They argue that the material, financial and structural requirements of these more ambitious operations are simply beyond the UN's potential capabilities (Claude 1984;Lipson 2007;de Coning and Friis 2011;Junk 2012;Karlsrud 2013), regardless of whether it implements additional reforms.…”

Section: The Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there is a long-standing debate within the peacekeeping community regarding whether it is appropriate to pursue the UN's civilian protection agenda through the use of force (Tardy 2011). Some countries believe that the use of force, even in support of operational objectives, is a direct challenge to the fundamental nature of peacekeeping, while others believe that robust steps should be taken if civilian lives are at risk.…”

Section: What Is Quality?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does quality matter? An evaluation of the relationship between United Nations peacekeepers and civil war violence

Winchester¹

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Why are some groups of peacekeepers more effective at managing civil war violence than others? Existing studies of operational effectiveness have focused on the quantity, profession, and geographic location of deployed personnel and have suggested that each of these is independently important. However, the relationship, if any, between the quality of UN peacekeepers and their ability to manage on-going violence remains critically understudied. To address this gap, this study begins by developing a novel definition of "peacekeeper quality" that consists of two key factors: professional capabilities and a willingness to act. It then evaluates the extent to which variation in peacekeeper quality contributes to operational effectiveness, at both the state-level and the local-level. I argue that higher quality peacekeepers are more effective than lower quality peacekeepers because they have an easier time coercing local conflict actors. To test this argument, I use an explanatory sequential methodology -a form of mixed-method research that uses qualitative data to help interpret the results of a primarily quantitative study. It starts with a cross-national analysis of all intrastate conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa from 1991-2017 to determine if variation in average operational quality affects the severity of violence at the state-level. It then proceeds to a geographically disaggregated analysis of three peacekeeping operations located in sub-Saharan Africa from 2010-2017 to determine if variation in the average quality of individual groups of peacekeepers affects the severity of violence at the local-level. Finally, it presents a process-tracing case study of MINUSCA's intervention in CAR from 2014-2018 that examines both overall trends and discrete conflict episodes. In short, this dissertation shows how and why peacekeeper quality matters. Specifically, it shows that the UN's highest quality peacekeepers are its iii most effective, that the quantity of peacekeepers continues to affect violence when controlling for quality and that peacekeepers are better at protecting civilians from harm than they are at managing battlefield violence. As a result, future attempts to evaluate the relationship between peacekeepers and violence, or to improve the UN's operational effectiveness, should also account for the role played by peacekeeper quality.iv

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A Critique of Robust Peacekeeping in Contemporary Peace Operations

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping

The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping

El aprendizaje institucional ruso y las operaciones regionales de paz: los casos de Georgia y Moldavia

Does quality matter? An evaluation of the relationship between United Nations peacekeepers and civil war violence

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