Search

The article discusses the efficacy of international peacekeeping forces in unstable nations. One and a half years ago, Liberia was a failed state. Today, thanks to the world's largest UN peacekeeping force, Liberia is calm. Some 15,000 blue helmets are keeping the streets more or less safe. Scholars cannot agree how to define a failed state, but most concur that state failure is one of the world's gravest challenges. The World Bank frets about 30 "low-income countries under stress" (LICUS). Lisa Chauvet and Paul Collier of Oxford University have tried to measure the cost of a typical poor country becoming a LICUS, ie, as unstable as Nigeria or Indonesia, but nowhere near as bad as Liberia. Of the eight UN-led missions it examined, seven brought sustained peace (Namibia, El Salvador, Cambodia, Mozambique, Eastern Slavonia, Sierra Leone and East Timor), while one (in Congo) did not. An earlier RAND study had looked at eight American-led missions and found that only four of the nations involved (Germany, Japan, Bosnia and Kosovo), were now at peace, while the other four (Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq) were not, or at any rate, not yet. There will be no rest any time soon for the peacekeepers.

The article focuses on the issues facing outsiders regarding whether or not they should become involved in trying to bring peace to Bosnia. On May 25 and 26, 1995 North Atlantic Treaty Organization aircraft, at the United Nations' behest, bombed some of the offending Serbs' ammunition dumps. The Serbs then promptly called the United Nations' bluff by taking more than 300 United Nations troops hostage against further bombing. In any case, the bolder countries have become impatient with the UN and are increasingly willing to act on their own.

States that no longer thought of as a world cop, the United Nations (UN) still provides an ambulance service: and it is too bad that it takes so long to answer a call. Questions over whether UN peacekeeping is as emasculated as its critics allege.

The article discusses the spread of the Islamic State terrorist group across the Middle East, focusing on the claim that jihadist chaos is forcing the Libyan government and neighboring countries such as Egypt to take military action to combat extremism in the region. Insecurity in Libya in the wake of the ouster of Libyan Colonel Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 is mentioned. A conflict between rival governments in the Libyan cities of Tobruk and Tripoli is examined, as well as United Nations soldiers.

This article analyzes the future prospects for United Nations peacekeepers. Despite heavy criticism of the institution, there are 74,000 soldiers currently performing U.N. peacekeeping duty in 18 different countries. Some see the rise in peacekeepers as a sign that conflicts are ending. But with the calls for the U.N. to intervene in Sudan increasing, many wonder if they will become overstretched.

Looks at conditions in Congo in March 2001, following the Rwandan army's pull back from its frontline positions in the city of Pweto, Katanga province. Efforts by Rwanda to follow the 1999 Lusaka peace accord; Congolese rebels' occupation of the vacated position; Rwanda's concerns for security of its own borders; Troop deployment in Congo by United Nations peacekeepers.

Examines prospects for peace between the African nations of Ethiopia and Eritrea, following the end of their two-year border war in December 2000. Creation of a United Nations (UN) buffer zone; War's destruction of the border town of Zalambessa; Problems which are likely to remain.

Reports on Haiti as the date approaches for United Nations peacekeeping forces to leave in late 1997. Woeful economic and political conditions; The role of restored President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; How political paralysis has prevented the arrival of millions of dollars of foreign aid; The stake that the United States has in the success of Haiti; The plans of the US to keep its military engineers in Haiti after the peacekeeping troops leave.

Reports on the investigation of atrocities committed by United Nations peacekeeping troops in the 1993 Somalia operation. The turmoil in Canada over the murder of a young Somali by Canadian troops; The investigation of Belgian troops who were photographed holding a Somali boy over a fire; The photographs of Italian troops torturing a naked Somali with electrodes and sexually abusing a Somali woman; The role of the press in exposing the travesties.

Profiles General Sir Rupert Smith, the last commander of the United Nations force in Bosnia, and his influences on decisions that the West made in 1995 with regard to ending the war in Bosnia. Smith's takeover of United Nations Protection Force, Unprofor; His ultimatums to the Bosnian Serbs; Bombing of the Bosnian Serb capital of Pale; Richard Holbrooke, United States envoy, and Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president.

Focuses on the United Nations (UN) in its 50th year. The view that the organization can still accomplish something, even if it has been embarrassed by its attempt to accomplish the impossible. The decline of the UN's reputation since the early 1990s; The UN in Bosnia; Thoughts about what the UN's role should be.

Looks at some of the steps taken by the United Nations (UN) as they pull out of Mozambique. The health clinic that was handed over to a district administrator in Machamba; The pull-out of the UN's peacekeepers at the start of 1995; The election between the Frelimo government and the Renamo rebels; Information about the number of refugees that have returned from Malawi; More.

Focuses on the Serb attacks on the Muslim enclaves in eastern Bosnia in 1995. Impact on the United Nations operations in the former Yugoslavia; Question of whether the fall of the enclaves will make a worse outcome inevitable; Role of UNPROFOR in disarming some of the Bosnian Serbs; More.

Focuses on the actions by Bosnian Serbs who are advancing through the Muslim enclaves of eastern Bosnia. Discussion of Srebrenica and Zepa; Calls from several governments for the United Nations (UN) to give up; Thoughts about the arms embargo; Support for the UN policy in Bosnia; Choices facing the United States, Britain and France; Other aspects.

Offers a look at various implications related to the inability of the United Nations, the western powers and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to save Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave in Eastern Bosnia and Hercegovina from Bosnian Serbs. Actions by Bosnian Serbs on July 11, 1995; Insight into three options facing the West regarding Srebrenica; Reaction of French President Jacques Chirac related to the issue.

Discusses the status of the United Nations' Protection Force in Bosnia with reports that the force was already on its knees prior to the collapse of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovina on July 11, 1995. Plans for the making of the United Nations reaction force; Mention of the governments who will participate in the reaction force; View that the arrival of this force raises the stakes in Bosnia.

States the the Bosnian government's military offensive around Sarajevo has halted. Attacks on June 15th-16th that were intended to test the strength of the Bosnian Serbs defenses; The Bosnian government's banning of United Nation's observers from Sarajevo's hospitals; The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR); More.

Discusses the role of the United Nations (UN) in the African nation of Rwanda. Reasons why UN peacekeeping troops and the UN mission in general are resented in this country; Actions of the Rwandan government.

Highlights the situation facing the United Nations in Bosnia and ponders whether the current optimism is quite guarded. Decision by the Bosnia Serbs to free most of the 370 hostages they took at the end of May, 1995; View of Britain and France that the strengthening of UNPROFOR is a last chance to salvage the mission; The rapid-reaction force; Need for the new force to help food convoys reach the more isolated areas.

Focuses on how Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has manipulated the representatives of the international Contact Group that is trying to attain a settlement in the war in Bosnia. Diplomacy; The pressure for an overhaul of the United Nations' military operation in Bosnia.

Looks at action in which Croatian troops took only 40 hours to recapture western Slavonia from the Croatian Serbs. The use of force in the former Yugoslavia; Thoughts about the United Nations peace-keeping operations in Croatia; Actions by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.

States that President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia will allow some of the United Nations peacekeepers to stay in his country. Why he changed his mind; What he will gain; Internal rows among the Krajina Serbs; Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic's continued refusal to recognize the legal borders of Croatia and Bosnia; Bosnian government and Bosnian Serbs rearming to prepare for a new war; Agreement between Bosnian and Croatian governments on a military cooperation pact.

Predicts that the peace that Croatia has enjoyed since early 1992 may well break down after March 31, 1995, the day on which President Franjo Tudjman says United Nations peacekeepers in his country must start to leave. The risk of plunging former Yugoslavia back into war; Pleas from America, Russia, United Nations and Germany ignored.

Discusses the United Nations' peacekeeping efforts and asks whether they can survive. Demand for retrenchment; The meaninglessness of returning to its `traditional' role; The UN's success in organizing elections and training policemen; The problem of humanitarian intervention; The inability to get together an equipped force in a hurry; New ideas from Canada on a solution to the problem.

Focuses on the United Nations (UN) in Bosnia. What the UN is doing by means of the UN Protection Force (Unprofor) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Aid provisions; Protection of minorities; Peacekeeping.

Looks at the situation in Bosnia in November, 1994. NATO's bombing of the Udbina runway on November 21st; NATO planes that attacked Serb missile batteries in north-western Bosnia and Serb-held Krajina; Reactions of a senior United Nations (UN) official.

Comments on the number of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Africa and states that Africans are beginning to feel that they should be doing more for their own continent. The involvement of troops from 22 sub-Saharan-African countries in peacekeeping activities; The peacekeeping forces in Liberia; More.

Comments on the situation in Bosnia with a particular emphasis on international monitors who patrol the border between Serbia and Montenegro and Serb-held Bosnia. United Nations actions on October 5, 1994 which eased sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro; Skepticism about the border patrol.

Focuses on the need of its own rapid-deployment force by the United Nations (UN) to be an effective peacekeeper, by citing the case of Rwanda. Condition of the world's governments, acting through the UN; Reasons for delay in sending rapid deployment force to Rwanda; Appreciation of France's soldiers for the help provided by them to Rwanda; Role of America in helping Rwanda; Reference to the Security Council summit on peacekeeping in 1992.

Discusses the confusion within the United Nations over the mandate of its 19,000-plus peacekeepers still in Somalia. The departure of American and other western troops have left a vacuum in the higher ranks of the force and a palpable sense of drift. New commander Lieut-General Datuk Aboo Samah, Malaysia; Troops no long under orders to disarm Somalis; Cost of the mission.

States the last of the 30,000 American troops left Somalia on a Muslim holiday, to lessen the risk of trouble. Comparisons with their arrival 15 months before; Comments from American Major-General Thomas Montgomery on successes; Remaining 19,000 United Nations force confused over command structure, resources and weapons; Smug self-congratulation at Muhammad Farrah Aideed's headquarters; How little things have changed; How Aideed is viewed across Somalia.

States the gloomy forecasts with regard to Somalia when the United States troops withdraw are based on two assumptions: that the Third World United Nations soldiers left will be incapable of keeping the peace and that clan war and banditry are such a part of life that the Somali warlords do not want anything better. Possibility both assumptions are false; Countries who have soldiers among the UN forces; Leading Somalis attempting to end inter-clan disputes.

Argues that while the United Nations (UN) can manage without America's troops, it cannot manage without United States' commitment and its money. President Bill Clinton's about-to-be-released guidelines on America's role in UN peacekeeping in harmony with chastened views on intervention; Desire of Republican Robert Dole to smother American peacekeeping under congressional supervision; Serious psychological blow to lose American troop support.

Looks at the discord among of the would-be peacemakers, America, Europe and the United Nations, in dealing with the war between the Croats, Bosnians and Serbs. Elimination by the mainly Muslim Bosnian forces of Croat pockets on the broken piece of land left to the Bosnians at the center of their former republic; Croats secure hold on Herzegovina; Spectre of a Croat-Serb alliance; Task of UN soldiers; Arguments against continuing `armed humanitarianism'; More.

Discusses why American troops and the United Nations (UN) are in Somalia. UN went to Somalia to end anarchy, civil war and the consequent largely man-made famine; Famine over; Violence largely ended; UNICEF-backed schools; Basic medical aid; Helping the victims of violence to help themselves; Need to persuade the hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return home; Incentives to return; Huge numbers of refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya; More.

Argues that somewhere between the harsh lessons of ex-Yugoslavia's wars and the hard, but necessary, job of revising the rules for multilateral military action is the opportunity to strike a new bargain on security. Bosnia's Muslims edged closer to accepting the partition of their country; Sorting out lesser, but no less deadly, conflicts; Increasingly debilitating when UN's most influential member helps only on terms of its own choosing; Details.

Comments on the sentiments throughout the south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital. Discontent at the American-dominated effort to capture General Mohammed Farrah Aideed, the fugitive warlord; Deaths of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, Nigerians and Somalis; Hunt for Aideed being conducted by the US Rangers, a special Delta force anti-terrorist unit; Blasting of one of Aideed's `command and control' centers on July 12, 1993; More.

Discusses current political and military developments in war-torn Bosnia. Actions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); Moves made by Bosnian Serbs; The siege of Sarajevo; Steps taken by the United Nations (UN); Additional information.

States that the United Nations (UN) has yet to find the right balance between its peacekeeping and humanitarian services. Why until recently, such missions were the stuff of happy diplomatic and idealist thinking; How a recent string of failures suggests that peace-enforcement and relief are incompatible.

The article discusses the role of the international forces now stationed in Somalia. The UN mandate that authorized the American-led "Operation Restore Hope" talks of providing a secure environment for relief operations. That has happened, more or less. Death rates plummeted as food flooded in. Yet disease remains a big killer and the deluge of wheat and maize has depressed prices fix farmers struggling back to their fields. The second, implicit, part of the mandate--to disarm the country--has not been addressed. Somalia is still not secure. The warlords, who agreed in March to form a transitional administration, are still the main players. Peace-loving Somalis, anxious to start rebuilding their shattered country, are still hiding in the shadows. Much of the blame for this lies with the Americans who shied away from disarming Somalia's bandits and instead took guns from soft targets: small businessmen and relief-agency bodyguards.

Reports that as allied air forces in the Persian Gulf attack targets in Iraq, and large-scale intervention in ex-Yugoslavia still looks possible, military planners in the United States, Britain, France and even Germany have been looking at the possibility of sending more western troops to both places. Defense cuts putting a large strain on military; Possibility of a large ground war in Iraq.

The article focuses on Democratic Republic of Congo. The more active role in counterinsurgency by armed forces of the United Nations (U.N.) against the M23 revel movement in the eastern region of the country is discussed in terms of its impact on foreign relations between Congo and Rwanda and the possibility Rwanda might intervene in support of M23.

The article focuses on the United Nations' (UN) decision to deploy 3,000 soldiers to fight rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Topics include the significance of the decision due to it being the first time the UN has deployed its own armed forces, the moral and ethical questions surrounding the decision, and if the UN is risking its reputation as a neutral global peacekeeper.

The article focuses on the Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations peacekeeping forces in the region have succeeded in creating a modest level of stability in its endemic ethnic conflict and civil war. Integration of Tutsi and Hutu militia forces into Congo's army has created tension, as have refugees from conflicts in Rwanda and Uganda.

This article reports on political developments in Sudan, where the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region drags on unabated. Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, has allowed in a limited number of United Nations peacekeepers but not enough to stop the brutality against the estimated 2 million refugees. China, which had avoided intervening until recently, has been credited with altering Sudan's stance on the peacekeepers.

The article reports on the status of the April 9, 2007 elections held in East Timor. The political competition between the Fretlin party and José Ramos-Horta is described. Social conditions describe the population as largely impoverished despite significant oil wealth. Disagreements within the army and United Nations spending are also covered.

The article discusses the complications involved in organizing an international peacekeeping force to patrol southern Lebanon. United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701 created such a force in its accords between Israel and Hizbullah. A force of 15,000 is planned. Political and historical considerations are making it difficult for countries to agree on their duties and there are worries the UN may become an occupying force.

The article focuses on the United Nations, which may overstretch its resources if it engages in peacekeeping efforts in Darfur, taking over from the African Union. According to New York University's Center on International Cooperation, the number of troops deployed by the UN worldwide has nearly quintupled since 1999, from 12,700 to over 60,000.

Reports on Congo, which held a referendum on December 18, 2005 after decades of dictatorship, war and chaos. Though the results are still trickling in from across the country, it seems that over 80% of Congolese have accepted a draft constitution that sets up new institutions, paving the way, with luck, to a functioning government and bureaucracy. But, more important, the vote was also a relatively successful dry-run for a clutch of delayed local, parliamentary and presidential elections that must be held by the middle of this year. The United Nations believes that Congo's elections are the most complicated it has ever been involved in, and it is easy to see why. Congo is vast, two-thirds the size of western Europe, but it has scarcely any decent roads. Material for the referendum had to be air-lifted by helicopters, ferried by dug-out canoes and carried through the jungle on people's heads. The UN also maintains nearly 17,000 soldiers in Congo. They are supposedly trying to control the thousands of militiamen who were used by various factions in the country's civil and other wars, and who continue to roam around the east of the country.

The article reports on the activity of United Nation peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN force in Congo, known as MONUC, has a reputation for standing idly by as civilians are slaughtered.However, since nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were murdered by a tribal militia in the north-eastern region of Ituri last month, that seems to be changing. A detachment of Pakistani blue helmets was sent to shut down a base used by the militia concerned, the FNI. In the ensuing firefight, between 50 and 60 militiamen were killed. It was the fiercest battle the UN had fought in Congo since the 1960s. MONUC's new commander, a cigar-smoking Dutch general called Patrick Cammaert, is promising more of the same. Congo's war officially ended in 2003, but parts of the country remain lawless and bloody. Ituri is home to five militias, tribally-based but often motivated more by loot than ethnic solidarity. After a brief lull last year, fighting between the Hema and Lendu tribes has rekindled in recent months. In January, Congo's transitional government invited five of Ituri's militia bosses to become generals in the still-chaotic national army, in the hope that they would encourage their troops to disarm.