Conditions that Contribute to Successful Peacekeeping Operations - Article Example

Conditions That Contribute To Successful Peacekeeping Operations Due to increase in armed and violent conflicts among different people and s of the world, the need for peace keeping operations have increased. According to Bellamy et al. (2009) peacekeeping operations are processes that involve the expeditionary use of police or military to assist in prevention of armed conflicts, implementation, or enforcing ceasefire or peace agreements or the will of the UN Security Council in order to build a stable peace. Their main objectives are to enhance peace, separate adversaries and to end hostilities. Peacekeeping operations can also facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief by various UN agencies and enable refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes. Furthermore, these operations can demobilize fighters and thus creating conducive conditions for political reconciliation. They can also encourage holding of a free and fair election (Hull 1995). These operations can be regarded as either successful or unsuccessful depending on whether they achieved their objectives or not. A successful peace operation is one that achieves its objectives with minimal negative effects to the civilians. This kind of peace keeping operations are characterized by good planning and coordinated execution as well as impartiality and minimum use of force (Callaghan et al. 2004). There are various undertakings that can make us to have a successful peacekeeping operation. One of these undertakings is ensuring that the military involved are trained on humanitarian issues and restraining from using excessive force in undertaking the operation. Moreover, these military should be accompanied by humanitarian agencies like the world food program, United Nation High Commission for Refugees and so on who could be providing humanitarian assistance during the operation (Cassese 1978). The benefits of a successful peacekeeping operation are many. These operations in most cases help in creating democracies and ending civil wars. Moreover, they enable resettlement of refugees and displaced person and gives room for free and fair elections to be conducted. Peacekeeping operations also have consequences. First, these operations require many resources to be invested in them. This can have a negative effect to the nations undertaking the mission. In addition to this, it sometimes involves war that can result to death of the participating soldiers. One of the most common conditions that result to successful peacekeeping is the availability of the political will. When nations have the will to undertake a peacekeeping operation they manage to get the drive to do so. With this drive, the nations begin the process of mobilizing resources necessary for the operation and makes sure that these resources are accountably used. Moreover, they put objectives to achieve and set the standards to observe. By doing this they can easily achieve a successful peacekeeping operation. Another condition that contributes to successful peacekeeping operations is the coordination and cooperation between nations. In most cases, a peacekeeping operation does not only involve the affected nation but also its neighboring nations that allow refugees to settle in them. Without this cooperation and coordination, we can have even the civilians being affected by the operation and therefore the operations will not be successful. This cooperation also enables human aid to pass through the neighboring countries to the affected areas. Another very crucial condition that results to a successful peacekeeping operation is the role played by present international and regional organizations. These organizations include UN, NATO, AU, EU, ECOWAS and so no. These organizations act as initiators of peace operations and they set rules for peacekeepers. (Bellemy et al. 2009). They can also assist in the transition from a non-democratic state to a democratic state through developing and maintaining that democracy and can also provide greater accountability. According to Taveres (2010) presently about 38 organizations have a regional peace and security mandate distributed in all the continents. At the helm of these regional organizations is the United Nations that is mandated to maintain international peace and security. The international and regional organization plays a very important factor in mobilizing resources and expertise necessary for the peacekeeping operations. Due to this mobilization of resources, it is possible to get all the resources required for the operations and thus making the operations successful. Moreover, some of this organizations like the UN, AU, NATO and so on offer a framework for states to coordinate their actions in the form of peacekeeping operations by providing soldier and equipment (Mays 2002). Having these organizations has made peacekeeping operations become very successful as they ensure that the objectives are achieved. Another condition that has resulted to successful peacekeeping operations is the presence of agencies within the United Nation, which is the main body that is mandated to coordinate peacekeeping operations within the globe. These agencies are like the World Food Program (WHO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). There are also other organizations like United Nations Environmental program (UNEP) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which are also involved in peacekeeping processes (Katayanagi 2002). Each organization plays a major role in ensuring that peacekeeping operations are successful by providing the humanitarian needs. Another major condition that has contributed to successful peacekeeping operations is the presence of a legal framework in the organizations, which are mandated to keep peace. This legal framework clearly states the objectives, which should be achieved in any peacekeeping operation. For example, the article 1(1) of the UN Charter states that one of this organization’s central purposes is to maintain international peace. Moreover, article 1(3) of this Charter states that another purpose of the UN is to encourage respect for human rights (Bellemy et al. 2009). The legal framework also lays boundaries on the extent of the operation that should be undertaken so as not to infringe the sovereignty of a country. The legal framework has also played a big role in harmonizing peacekeeping operations, which has made these operations to be supported by almost all the countries of the world. This has made various nations to be willing to contribute in one way or the other towards the achievement of successful peacekeeping operations. The contributions always make this operation to have adequate resources and fund and thus making them to be successful. In the past, the bureaucratic procedures that required to be followed before initiating a peacekeeping operation especially in the UN played a major role in delaying the operations. With the restructuring that has been taking place within the UN, bureaucracy has reduced greatly. Two departments were formed within the UN that was mandated with planning and conducting peacekeeping operations. According to Bellemy et al. (2009), these departments are Department of Peace Keeping Operation (DFKO) and the Department of Field Support (DFS). This increases the United Nation’s efficiency in conducting peacekeeping operations and thus resulting to more success in the operations. Another major condition that has resulted to success of peacekeeping organization is the way they are assembled. Although it is very difficult to understand how they are practically assemble (Bellemy et al. 2009), we know that they involve also the humanitarian agencies like W.H.O, W.F.P, U.N.H.C.R, U.N.I.C.E.F and U.N.D.P (Katayanagi 2002). These humanitarian agencies each of them have its own personnel, have a separate task, and have different standard operational procedures. Involving this agencies result to distribution of responsibilities among the agencies, this can result to an increase in their efficiency. It also results to some kind of specialization among the agencies that makes them more efficient in providing humanitarian needs. All these contribute greatly towards achieving a successful peacekeeping operation. Another thing that has greatly contributed to successful peacekeeping operations is the mode the United Nations uses to fund its operation. Unlike in the past where peacekeeping operations were unilaterally financed by great economies of the west, of late these operations are financed through contributions of all the member states. This has made this operation transparent with very little one-nation dominance. Lately, it is evident that for a peacekeeping operation to be undertaken a decision has to be made not by one member country but by several members. This makes these operations to be void of any malicious deals or selfish interest and therefore making the operations to be successful. The financing of peacekeeping operation in the UN, which is the major peacekeeping organ in the world, is through contributions from all its member states on basis of special scale assessment devised by its general assembly (Bellemy et al. 2009). This method of financing ensuring that the resources required for the operation are sufficient and ensures that there is none of the states that would bear the burden alone. This makes the peacekeeping operations efficient and hence achieves their objectives. Moreover, other countries willingly contribute additional resource towards peacekeeping operations like provision of equipment and personnel depending on their ability and strength that make these operations to be very successful. Another condition, which has contributed to the success of these operations, is the presence of international laws. According to Aust (2010), international laws are laws designed by a group of states to govern how these states should relate to one another. These laws define the limits of sovereignty and define the boundaries of the authority of the rulers of different states. Violation of any of these laws can result to punishment by the international community. One of the most common types of punishment is imposition of sanctions to a nation or even attack by the United Nations military troops. These laws have played a major role in making peacekeeping operations to be successful. One of the roles they have played is defining what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in a peacekeeping mission. Another role they have played is defining how various nations should get involved in the peacekeeping operations. With the emergence of cosmopolitanism and globalization, peacekeeping operations have become very successful. Cosmopolitanism has made countries to be able to collaborate when it comes to issues that require a united force. Also because of cosmopolitism, greater accountability is enhanced and thus ensuring success in peacekeeping operations. Cosmopolitanism has also resulted to national and global democracy, which enables countries to participate in peacekeeping operations at their will. This also promotes the success of these peacekeeping operations. Moreover, cosmopolitanism encourages social justice in global politics that plays an important role in ensuring that peacekeeping operations are successful Another way that cosmopolitanism influences the success of peacekeeping operations is by endorsing legal limitations on political leaders of a country. In addition to these, it also defines how these political leaders should conduct themselves (Breckenridge 2002). By doing this, it acts as a supplement to the international laws, globalization in drawing boundaries on what should be done, and what should not be done in a peacekeeping operation. Moreover, it has made people to understand the role of the international bodies in monitoring what is going on in their countries. That has made them to accept and support peacekeeping operations undertaken in their country thus making them to be more successful. Another condition, which has resulted to successful peacekeeping operation, is advancement in technology. Various means of communication have been developed resulting to a better communication line between nations. This communication equipment also enhances communication between the military and humanitarian agencies in their peacekeeping mission and various other stakeholders who provide support. Moreover, the advancement in technology has lead to development of war equipment, which can heat the target of the military without affect the civilians up to a certain radius. This reduces the humanitarian impact of a peacekeeping process and thus making the process to be more successful. Lastly, another major condition that has resulted to success in peacekeeping operations is globalization. These have made the world to be like one big state with countries being allowed to monitor and oversee the operations of governments of each other. The concept of globalization is made up of international relationships in terms of different areas of operation of a country. These international relationships in order to be maintained, a country should uphold certain standards in its governance. In this era of globalization, the humanitarian issues as well as the political and democratic issues are dealt with in a global level. These has encouraged unity among nations and hence resulting to formation and strengthening of form international or regional organizations. This actually has facilitated the undertaking of peacekeeping operations and thus making these operations to be successful. Most of the peacekeeping operations in the recent past have been very successful with almost 90% of them achieving their objective. However, it is very difficult to avoid completely the humanitarian effect of war whether the aim of war is to enhance peace or otherwise. Due to this, it is better to avoid war as much as possible. When a conflict occur that undermines the human rights, it is always better to try other peace building options like negotiations and sanction before deciding to use military actions. In addition, countries should only undertake peacekeeping operations through the United Nations or their respective regional organization to avoid cases of maliciousness and selfish interests. References Aust, A 2010, Handbook of international law, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, New York. Bellamy, AJ. et al 2009, Understanding Peacekeeping,2nd edn, Polity Press, Cambridge. Breckenridge, CA 2002, Cosmopolitanism, Duke University Press, Durham. Callaghan, J. et al. 2004, Worriers in Peacekeeping: Points of Tension in Complex Culture …. Transaction Publishers, Piscataway, NJ. Cassese, A 1978, United Nations Peace-Keeping: Legal Essays, Alphen aan den Rijn: Sijthoff& Noordhoff. Held, D 2010, Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities, Polity Press, Cambridge. Hull, EJ 1995, Peacekeeping and Regional Stability. UN Peacekeeping operations: Worthwhile Investment in Peace, Diane Publishing, Washington. Katayanagi, M 2002, Human Rights Function of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Kluwer Law International, Hague. Mays, T M 2002, Africa’s First Peacekeeping Operation: The Oau in Chad 1981-1982. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport. Pevehouse, JC 2005, Democracy From Above: Regional Organization and Democratization. Cambridge University Press, New York. Taveres, R 2010, Regional Security: The Capacity of International Organizations, Routledge, New York. Read More