CHALLENGES TO UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

Since its inception in 1945, the United Nations UN has undertaken responsibility for maintaining world peace and security. Drafters of the UN Charter envisioned an organisation engaged in the entire spectrum of conflict management and resolution, from preventive measures, to ad hoc responses to crisis, to the long-term stabilisation of conflict areas. The UN's responses to conflict are often grouped into the three stages of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building. Peacemaking involves diplomatic efforts to manage or resolve the conflict1 and peace-building strives to stabilise post-conflict situations by creating or strengthening national institutions.2 Peacekeeping operations, however, have occupied a somewhat ambiguous place between the diplomats and the democracy.

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1 Article 33 describes the basic techniques of peacemaking as negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement and resorting to regional agencies and organisations.
2 Peace-building activities can include monitoring elections, promoting human rights, providing reintegration and rehabilitation programmes, and creating conditions for resumed development. 3 United Nations, The Blue Helmets, 1985, p. 3.
4 Anthony McDermott, 'The UN and the NGOs: Humanitarian Interventions in Future Conflicts', in Anthony McDermott (ed.), Humanitarian Force, PRIO Report, 4/97, p. 75.
5 McDermott, pp. 75-76.
6 Brian Urquhart, 'The UN and International Security after the Cold War', in Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury (eds.), United Nations, Divided World: the UN's Roles in International Relations, Oxford: Clarendon Press, revised edition, 1993, pp. 81-103.
7 McDermott, p. 77.
8 Karen A. Mingst and Margaret P. Karns (eds.), The United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1995, p. 80.
9 Beginning with the deployment of the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia between April 1989 and March 1990, there has been an enormous increase in the number of states involved in peacekeeping. In 1988, before UNTAG, only 26 countries were involved. By November 1994, there were 76.
10 United Nations, 'Report to the Secretary General on the Work of the Organisation', UN Doc.A/50/1, 22 August 1995, p. 81; and 'Supplement to an Agenda for Peace'.
11 Mats R. Berdal, 'Whither UN Peacekeeping', Adelphi Papers 281, London: October 1993, p. 3.
12 Michele Griffin, 'Retrenchment, Reform and Regionalisation: Trends in UN Peace Support Operations', International Peacekeeping 6, No. 1 (spring 1999), pp. 2-3.
13 Griffin, p. 3.
14 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 'Supplement to an Agenda for Peace, Position Paper of the Secretary General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations', UN Doc., A/50/60-S/1995/1, 3 January 1995, paras. 33, 80, 85-87.
16 Dimitriu, pp. 224-5.
17 Dimitriu, p. 225.
18 Berdal, 'Whither UN Peacekeeping', p. 6.
19 The US Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD 25) of 3 May 1994 outlined new, very restrictive guidelines for US support and participation in UN operations. This has contributed significantly to the diminished credibility of the UN, especially in Rwanda.
20 Usually, it takes six weeks from the idea for a peace operation to the actual Security Council vote. After the adoption of a Security Council decision on a peacekeeping operation, the United Nations has to request member states make the necessary troops available. Subsequently, national governments and, in many countries, parliaments, have to decide on these requests and to approve troop contributions.
21 Dimitriu, p. 228.
23 Griffin, p. 13.
24 Christopher Greenwood, 'Is There a Right of Humanitarian Intervention?', The World Today 49, No. 2 (February 1993), p. 40.
25 The consequence of this trend, are, as of yet, unclear. The concept is still vague. Some states fear the consequences of this growing concept being carried to extremes.
26 Griffin, p. 1.