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This article evaluates the military operation of the European Union in Chad and the Central African Republic in 2008-09. Despite a promising conceptual approach and close cooperation with the United Nations (UN), the operation created significant political problems between member states. It led to a split - France arguing that it carried too much of the burden and Germany and the United Kingdom sensing that they were sponsoring a pet project. When the UN failed to achieve its ambitious promises to establish a parallel presence and follow-on force, tensions arose with the UN as well. This type of operation is therefore unlikely to be repeated in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at investigating how do mechanisms of bureaucratic politics contribute to the decision of deploying troops and in so doing to mold the national motivations underscoring the deployment. The text takes Brazil as a case and researches the decision-making process in the country, using past cases of deployments that actually happened. The bulk of the analysis, however, is dedicated to the negative case where Brazil decided not to contribute to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). The analysis provides a breakdown of the 2017–2018 domestic political and bureaucratic decision-making process in Brazil as regards the possibility of deploying troops to MINUSCA and traces the mechanisms in action that resulted in the negative decision by the government. Based on the case of Brazil, considerations are made on the importance of investigating negative scenarios to better understanding how developing countries, such as the BRICS, value the motivations and ultimately decide to contribute to a UN mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks narrowly at whether a 'human security' approach can be seen in a UN peace operation that pursues stabilization, namely the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). The UN's interpretation of stabilization has not been expressly set out, but stabilization missions typically work alongside the host state to extend state authority and use robust force to counter spoilers. Human security is a concept which is rights-based, promotes the 'vital core', has a concern for vulnerability, utilizes preventative protection methods, and empowers local persons to have agency in the peace process. Attempts have been made to institutionalize and mainstream human security practices within the UN. An analytical framework of human security is outlined in this article and used to assess to what extent the mandate of MINUSCA pursues human security-based goals. An extensive review of UN documentation looks at the mandate and practice of MINUSCA and it is argued that the mission does seek to empower local people, engage in a bottom-up manner and entrench the rule of law. The analytical framework also casts light on aspects of the stabilization mandate which are problematic such as militarization and cooperation with the host state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-actor peace operations have become the dominant mode of peace operations since the end of the cold war. This article uses the literature on institutional linkages and inter-organizational relations, thus far developed independently from the literature on such operations, to shed light on the relations between the organizations involved in them. The analysis of one specific case – the interactions between the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States and the European Union in the Central African Republic – shows the usefulness of merging this body of theory with the primarily empirically driven research on peace operations and UN–regional collaboration. The findings of this study are meant to facilitate further research on multi-actor peace operations and serve as a building block for a theory explaining the emergence and configuration of such operations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of child soldiers in conflicts has received increasing academic attention in recent years. This article examines post-conflict periods to see whether the use of child soldiers mobilizes United Nations peacekeeping operations (UN PKO) in the aftermath of a conflict. Taking into consideration how child soldiers affect conflict and how important their reintegration is to sustainable peace and post-conflict development, we analyse whether the presence of child soldiers in a civil war increases the likelihood of the presence of a PKO. We argue that the UN deems a conflict with child soldiers as a difficult case for conflict resolution, necessitating a response from the international community. This is in line with our empirical results confirming that the use of child soldiers significantly increases the likelihood of peacekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses the ways in which rapidly emerging narratives of EU-UN cooperation in military crisis management are rewriting and re-authorizing European practices of military intervention in Africa. By problematizing the underlying assumptions, this article points to the increasing significance of uncertainties about the location of contemporary political life, the location of 'crisis management', and thus to the diverse effects of a crisis management approach to African conflicts. Hence, this article problematizes and challenges a range of powerful normative claims about 'EU crisis management'. The emerging narratives are practices of knowledge and space that shape EU-Africa relations and that create new spaces of intervention, thus establishing and enabling relations of authority and control. Last, the article discusses briefly how such practices worked in the case of EUFOR Tchad/RCA (European Forces in Chad and the Central African Republic). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements is a peacekeeping operation independent of the United Nations. Its constitution, which was made possible by France, followed the request of the President of the Central African Republic to African Heads of State after the signature of the Bangui Agreements on 25 January 1997. However the intensification of the crisis and the inadequacy of the legal framework of MISAB s intervention required the is sue to be placed by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in order to address the events which threatened regional peace and security in Central Africa. It was made, at the request of the Central African authorities and the leaders of MISAB, consistent with Chapter VIII of the Charter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]