Keeping the Peace Is a Difficult Concept - Essay Example

?Running Head: PEACE Keeping the Keeping the Peace Keeping the Peace Introduction Keeping peace is a difficult concept to define. The term peace operations are used to umbrella the number of ways in which world peace is established. Peace is determined by actions taken in inter and intra conflicts in relationship to states, is a part of all of the aspects of resolving disputes, dependent upon cooperation between citizens as well as authorities, and relevant as nations reform and transition after periods of oppression or when change within the nation becomes necessary (Murphy, 2007). The purpose of peace keeping organizations is not only to attend to the conflict that they are facing, but to try to prevent it from spilling into other states where the conflict will perpetuate into a more global crisis. In essence, much of what peacekeepers are trying to do is prevent another global crisis such as was seen during World War II. The United Nations The purpose of the United Nations is to act as a global governing body through which peace is negotiated and attained. The U.N. has the capacity to help states find peaceful resolutions between nations when there is a dispute or the emergence of a conflict. The ways in which the disputes can be handled through the U.N. include diplomatic settlements, legal decisions, or through third party resolutions in which the dispute is mediated. The concept of non-peaceful means of dispute resolutions is not acceptable under the provisions of belonging to the U.N. According to U.N. Charter 2, section 4, member states are required to settle their disputes through peaceful means in order to continue international peace, security and justice (Ryan, 2000). During the Cold War there was a general disdain for the U.N. by the United States. During the 1980s, this belief in the power of the U.N. for acting on behalf of the world further diminished as the organization could not hold control over the actions within the Middle East. When Israel invaded southern Lebanon, the United Nations had only a symbolic involvement, the actual withdrawal from Beirut attempted to be negotiated by the Multinational Force which was comprised of the United States, France, and Italy. This failed as the United States began to bomb opposing forces of the Lebanese government. The lesson that should have been learned was one of impartial roles of those who are intended to seek peace between two forces that are in dispute (Ryan, 2000). During the Malvinas/Falklands conflict, the same sort of impartiality was ignored as the British and United States refused to accept peace that did not include the withdrawal of Argentinian forces. Other regions of the world in which the U.N. had little effect upon the establishment of peace were during the Iran/Iraq war, the conflict in Cypress and in the Western Sahara, as well as in Central America. Trying to keep peace in Afghanistan has been historically difficult for the U. N (Ryan, 2000). In 1994, Luard and Heater (1994) were asking the question as to whether or not the experiment that is the U.N. had failed. Part of the answer that they provide is that the U.N. holds its principles even though it has not always been able to convince various nations to follow their advice in keeping conflicts to a peaceful negotiation rather than deteriorating into war. However, they did conclude that the U.N. had contributed little in any way that was meaningful to creating peace within the world in the previous years which would include the 1980s (Luard & Heater, 1994). The question then becomes based upon the real purpose that the U.N. can hold in the world if it has no real powers either through persuasion or through law to support the overall peaceful existence between states in the world. Where the U.N. fails, however, other operations that are more closely tied to the states in question have had greater success as they work out the disputes for which they represent. World Peace Organizations Some of the world peace organizations that have had success in negotiating peace are the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), The Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union (EU). The European Union determined in 1999 that the Union should have the capacity to “take decisions on the full range of conflict prevention and crisis task management” (Zwanenburg, 2005, p. 4). The use of credible military forces were put at the disposal of the EU in order to provide a military form of support for the decisions that the EU would make on behalf of peace for the region of the European nations under the agreement of the EU. Troops became in involved in Bosnia in January of 2003 and in the former Yugoslavia, and in taking over the peace initiatives in Bosnia from the NATO attempts at negotiating peace. Even though the peace keeping efforts of the U.N. are often ineffective, they have established branches of their powers in order to be more regionally specific. In establishing the United Nations Operations in the Congo (ONUC), the United Nations in 1960 in order to provide military assistance as it was necessary in the Republic of the Congo. This was to ensure that the Belgium occupation was withdrawing and that the government could maintain law and order during the transition. One of the problems that occurred during this peace keeping effort, however, was that the situation became hostile and U.N. forces killed some of the Belgium nationals who had not yet transitioned out of the nation that had won its independence from Belgium colonization. A similar force was sent into Somolia in 1992 under the name of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (Zwanenburg, 2005). The United States Peace keeping has often been a topic of concern within the United States. The difficulties that occur when freedom comes to a nation is that it often means that it falls into conflict. Teh (2012) writes that “Democracy and human rights are still too often seen as a luxury which can only be considered once the welfare and security of the territorial integrity and political independence of the state and nation-building have been achieved” (p. 48). The building of a state is both human and politically rendered, thus it is complicated. One of the more common ways that the United States has become involved in keeping peace is through creating a military presence in a nation that is fighting for its autonomy and its freedoms. Ethnic clashes often follow the release of oppression requiring a force through which to engage peace. This was the case for both Haiti in 1994 and Bosnia in 1995 when President Bill Clinton sent in forces to maintain order through the internal conflict that came after oppressive political forces had been conquered in those regions (Simone, 2000). The position of the United States as a peace keeping entity is philosophically difficult. Although as a super-power the U.S. has had the power to provide for troops to maintain peace during conflicts that arise as a country is trying to create internal balance and freedom, the current military forces cannot police the whole world as the emerging struggles have become many and increasingly complicated. Accusations of bias and arrogance have placed the U.S. in a difficult position in relationship to peace keeping efforts. As an example, despite the conflict in Iraq that caused internal strife to become more prevalent, keeping the U.S. occupied in that issue, the issues in Darfur during the first decade of the millennia caused a public relations backlash as the United States could do little to attend the issue. Conclusion Peace keeping is a difficult type of global activity as it involves becoming a part of the conflicts within or between states that are defined by the nature of their human cultures as they are reflected in the actions of political entities. The United Nations has a track record of not being highly effective in its efforts to maintain peace. Through smaller, focused entities, peace is better attained, but that often results in bias that causes problems when hostilities emerge. Although the United States has tried to police the world, the world has more problems than one country can possibly fix, and this has been a problem as the struggle to create freedom from oppression becomes complicated and difficult to navigate. Peace keeping is a difficult task even when the organization has military support as seen in the conflict in the Congo. Efforts towards peacekeeping are important in a globalized world, but as shown through history are not a simple nor clean task as forces intend to help put back together nations or stop oppressions that are destroying cultures. Resources Luard, E., & Heater, D. B. (1994). The United Nations: How it works and what it does. New York: St. Martin's Press. Murphy, R. (2007). UN peacekeeping in Lebanon, Somalia and Kosovo: Operational and legal issues in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ryan, S. (2000). The United Nations and international politics. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. Simone, E. (2000). Foreign policy of the United States. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers. Teh, B. C. G. (2012). Human security: Securing East Asia's future. Dordrecht: Springer. Zwanenburg, M. (2005). Accountability of peace support operations. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Read More