Search

"Challenging the Narrative: Documentary Film as Participatory Practice in Conflict Situations" by Cahal McLaughlin is a book that explores the use of participatory practices in documentary filmmaking in conflict settings. The book focuses on McLaughlin's own experiences in conflict areas such as the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland, Haiti, Brazil, and South Africa. McLaughlin emphasizes the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, trauma sensitivity, and efforts to mitigate power differentials in these projects. The book provides case studies of McLaughlin's methodology, highlighting the benefits for both filmmakers and participants. Overall, the book offers a valuable analysis of participatory practices in documentary filmmaking and their potential for political and social change. [Extracted from the article]

This study systematizes and analyzes the legal aspects of changes in the deployment of international peacekeeping forces over the past 50 years. The article deals with topical political and legal problems facing the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations (UN) and regional international organizations. These problems emanate from both natural institutional and artificially created factors. Overcoming the challenges ahead is possible only through the development of multilateral diplomacy, the aim of which is to achieve long-term and realizable agreements to resolve conflicts and establish lasting and sustainable peace. The study analyzes the role, effect, and potential of peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the UN and other regional international organizations to ensure international security as a timely response to legal and institutional challenges related to the interests of certain players in the world arena, where Russia and some countries in Europe and Asia have been affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyze how norms and procedures created in International Organizations spread to member states. More specifically, the analysis focuses on how changes in the training architecture for UN peace operations, driven by the Brahimi report, caused institutional and procedural changes on the administrative, political and military spheres in Brazil. Combining official documents and analytical literature, through process tracing, we find that the main causal mechanism observed was emulation, given Brazil’s desire to adapt to use the capacity building as a tool for international action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 there is an almost unanimous call for an increased number of uniformed women in peace operations from policy-makers and multilateral organizations. This continuous push for the inclusion of more women is often justified by arguments about an increased operational effectiveness related to women's 'added value': both implicitly and explicitly advocating for greater gender equality. Yet, in this article, I contend that using instrumentalist arguments to increase the number of female peacekeepers may on the contrary undermine gender equality. This is related to the risk of producing self-fulfilling prophecies whereby female peacekeepers try to live up to the high expectations by fitting into gender-stereotypes and/or by working harder than their male colleagues. Rather than increase gender equality, such efforts risk transforming the female 'added value' to an 'added burden' which male peacekeepers do not have to carry. Anchoring the study in feminist theory with the aim to understand gendered relations of power, to illustrate my argument I draw on extensive interview material from military staff and peacekeepers in South Africa, Burundi, Belgium and Niger; interviews and informal discussions with female and male peacekeepers; and participation in several policy and research workshops on female participation in peacekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peace operations of the United Nations (UN) have changed significantly since the 1990s. The turn towards "stabilisation" operations increasingly allows the use of military force against armed groups. For some troop contributing armies, this means that peacekeeping has become the first occasion on which soldiers gain combat experience. Yet, what are the consequences of this development for eventual internal public security roles of armed forces? Contributing to discussions on conditions for organisational change, this article develops a model for blending the analysis of bottom-up adaptation and top-down military innovation with studies on civil-military relations. This model is used for examining military learning that resulted from the reciprocal relationship between the Brazilian military's internal "Guaranteeing Law and Order" (GLO) operations and coercive operations against urban crime groups during the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The article finds that a complex interplay between bottom-up adaptation and top-down innovation – enabled by politicians who supported the transfer of lessons – led to a process in which internal missions and peacekeeping deployments mutually informed military change. Soldiers' adaptation to coercive operations, changes in the legal framework for internal missions, and the development of appropriate doctrine for urban operations resulted in the institutionalisation of military learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United Nations peacekeeping operations (UN PKOs) increasingly engage with local communities to support peace processes in war-torn countries. Yet, while existing research tends to focus on the coercive and state-building functions of UN PKOs, their concrete local activities with community leaders and populations remain, empirically and theoretically, understudied. Thus, this study investigates how peacekeepers' community-based intergroup dialogue activities influence communal violence. It argues that facilitating dialogue between different communal identity-based groups locally can revive intergroup coordination and diminish negative biases against other groups, thereby reducing the risk of communal conflict escalation. This argument is tested using a novel data set of intergroup dialogue activities organized by the UN PKO in Côte d'Ivoire across 107 departments from October 2011 to May 2016. Bivariate probit and matching address the nonrandom assignment of these interventions. The analyses provide robust evidence that the UN PKO mitigated communal violence by organizing intergroup dialogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that peacekeepers reduce conflict intensity; however, effects of deployment on nonpolitical violence are unknown. This article focuses on criminal violence and proposes a twofold mechanism to explain why peacekeeping missions, even when effectively reducing conflict, can inadvertently increase criminal violence. First, less conflict opens up economic opportunities (so‐called peacekeeping economies) and provides operational security for organized crime, thus increasing violent competition among criminal groups. Second, demobilized combatants are vulnerable to turn to crime because of limited legal livelihood opportunities and their training in warfare. While UN troops may exacerbate these dynamics, UN police's peculiar role is likely to successfully contain criminal violence. Cross‐national and subnational empirical analyses show that large UN military deployments result in higher homicide rates, whereas UN police, overall, moderate this collateral effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations (UN) has been plagued by incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers for a number of years. These tragedies have had major implications for the credibility of the organisation and have hindered its ability to achieve its goals. As the organisation has struggled to address this problem, a new form of accountability has evolved: direct non-legal accountability. This article examines the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, previous responses to this problem and the emergence of this new type of accountability. Direct non-legal accountability provides a viable alternative to standard conceptions of accountability in response to the situation. Although it will not solve the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse, normative improvements could be made to these mechanisms in order to better provide some accountability to the victims of this exploitation and abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do peacekeepers operating in Haiti, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) discursively construct the local people, especially local women, and to what effect? I show a connection between peacekeepers' representations of local people, articulated in discourse, and the gendered, often sexualized interactions and transactions in peacekeeping sites. Gender plays a central role in peacekeeper discourse. It situates the peacekeeper outside, and superior to, the chaotic, dysfunctional, feminized local. At the same time, a close reading of peacekeepers' representations of local people disrupts idealized notions of peacekeeper masculinity as protective and benign, which still persist in peacekeeping circles, revealing it as something more vulnerable and brittle. The connection between discourse and (non)performance of peacekeeping duties is neither causal nor straightforward, but I argue that peacekeepers' discursive constructions of locals affect how peacekeepers interpret their mandate to protect civilians: protection becomes conditional on peacekeepers' perceptions of locals' appearance, affect, behavior, and their ability to act out an idealized role as someone "worth" protecting. The article thus brings new insight to our understandings of gender, masculinities, and protection failures in peacekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study begins by introducing the UN Secretary-General's new drive for reforming the architecture of UN peace operations and why South Korea needs to seize the moment by responding positively to the A4P Initiative. This study suggests that South Korea should explore new strategies by hosting the Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting in 2022 and preparing for delivering its strategic message to the world to become a key player in UN peace operations. This study argues that South Korea's active participation in international peacekeeping activities would not only have a positive effect on building a future-oriented U.S.-South Korea alliance but also on contributing further to bring a regional peace as President Moon's emphasis on bringing peace through political settlement has much in common with Secretary- General Antonio Guterres' principle of enhancing political strategies to advance lasting political solutions. Finally, this study strongly recommends that South Korea must explore new modes of contribution rather than sticking with boots on the ground. This study also touches upon diversification by suggesting the inclusion of civilian experts and police components to the existing military-only peacekeepers. As mentioned by the Independent Panel on UN Diplomacy, the reorganization and expansion of the PKO center also needs to be considered as a high priority. Having said that, South Korea's new strategy must start with small steps to create an initiative to earn support from many strategic partners in the field, officials from UN headquarters and receiving states. This study concludes with seven policy recommendations, hoping that South Korea transforms itself into a frontrunner for building a robust PKO and making future peacekeeping more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the acquisition of personnel for UN peacekeeping missions susceptible to free-riding by UN member states? If so, what drives this behavior and what impact does this have on obtaining required personnel for the mission? Using data from 21 missions in 13 African countries between 1990 and 2010, this article addresses whether UN peacekeeping missions experience a shortfall in personnel due to incentives to free-ride by contributing states. It argues that as the number of states contributing to a mission increases, contributors have a greater incentive to free-ride and make suboptimal personnel contributions, leading to greater overall shortfall in the mission’s personnel. However, this free-riding behavior can be mitigated by the economic incentives of contributor states. The findings support two central tenets of collective action theory: that free-riding by member states contributing to the mission is more prevalent when the number of contributors is larger, and when selective incentives such as economic gains are lower. These findings have implications for the strategic composition and efficacy of peacekeeping forces. More broadly, the results underscore the struggle of international organizations to obtain compliance from member states in achieving their international objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to study the UN efforts and Pakistan's role to create peace in Sierra Leone during the early years of 21st C. It examines how the civil war began in Sierra Leone when the Revolutionary United Front led by Foday Sankoh invaded the diamond riches, which was considered the primary cause of war. Sierra Leone is a state of rich natural resources but the people are the poorest of the world. The UN intervened in the conflict and successfully resolved it. Pakistan's Military helped to disburse humanitarian aid and build infrastructure in the country. The study employed mixed methods of qualitative research; descriptive, explorative and narrative. Data was collected from the primary and secondary source; UN Reports, articles, books and interviews were conducted. The research suggests that UN efforts should be acknowledged, that the UN should continue to perform positive role for global peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the efforts of the United Nations (UN), the world continues to hear news about UN peacekeepers committing crimes in the state where they are deployed. One of the reasons is that the responsibility of the troop-contributing states for the conduct of their peacekeepers is not sufficiently recognised. In order to address the issue, this article advocates for 'effective control' to be interpreted as a material ability of a national contingent commander (for troop-contributing states) or UN Force Commander (for the UN) to prevent particular conduct (criminal act). Although representing a minority of academic views, this approach derives from superior responsibility, the International Court of Justice's jurisprudence, is supported by the International Law Commission and in line with the UN's position and practice. Following this interpretation, the article concludes that in many instances unlawful conduct of peacekeepers will be attributed to the troop-contributing states and not only to the UN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particularly in African operations, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces have faced significant problems in restoring stability. In at least a few situations, unilateral national military interventions have been launched in the same countries. In the cases of Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire, the British and French interventions respectively played a significant role in re-establishing stability. Lessons from these operations suggest that if effective coordination and liaison channels are established, such hybrid unilateral-UN missions can in fact be more successful than “pure” peace operations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explains the existence of four peacekeeping operations (PKOs) in Israel despite concerns about their efforts and accomplishments. Topics covered include four PKOs including the United Nations (UN) Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). Also mentioned are fighting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the rule of engagement (ROE) of peacekeeper groups.

Denmark became a staunch supporter of UN peacekeeping during the cold war because it simultaneously served its interests and values and this winning combination meant that it relatively quickly became internalized as part of Denmark’s foreign policy identity. Denmark turned its back on UN peacekeeping when NATO took over from the UN in Bosnia in 1995. Since then Denmark has prioritized NATO- and US-led operations. The Danish shift was driven by the interest in supporting the Western great powers as well as an altruistic desire to improve United Nations Protection Force’s (UNPROFOR) dismal humanitarian record in Bosnia. This belief was also generated by the positive lessons learned from Denmark’s pioneering use of tanks in UNPROFOR. This tank deployment and subsequent participation in NATO and US-led missions created a new warrior identity. This identity and the Danish interest in maintaining a close relationship to NATO’s great powers make a major Danish return to UN peacekeeping unlikely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

B Rebels are advancing, worsening an already parlous situation. b A privately-owned radio in Central African Republic on November 15th said that the security situation in the restive north-east region was deteriorating, as Coalition of Patriots for Change ( B CPC b ) rebels consolidated their positions. I (RFI 15/11) i War Crimes Trial Three members of an armed group who on October 31st were convicted for crimes against humanity after a landmark trial in the Central African Republic have filed appeals, the court said on November 3rd. [Extracted from the article]

The article examines the United Nations' (UN) peacekeeping efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as of July 2016. A background of United Nations is provided which was established in 1945 prevent and remove threats to international peace. Also discussed are UN's establishment of the Force Intervention Brigade to disarm rebels in Congo, the role of regional organizations in addressing the rebel crisis, and military cooperation between the UN and Congo.

For a given number of troops in a peace operation, is it advisable to have soldiers from a single country, or should the UN recruit peacekeepers from a variety of donor countries? Since 1990, the number of contributors to peace operations has grown threefold, and most operations have carried the mandate to protect civilians. This article explores the effect of diversity in the composition of a mission, measured by fractionalization and polarization indices, on its performance in protecting civilians in Africa in the period 1991-2008. It finds that mission diversity decreases the level of violence against civilians, a result that holds when geographic and linguistic distances between countries are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the shortcomings in the intelligence units involved in United Nations (UN) operations including the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUSCO. Topics include the fabricated stories of a anonymous witness Mr. X. which allowed the DRC government and MONUSCO to mislead the the international community and the Congolese people and the lack of a professional intelligence agency in UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).

Recent research has investigated the relative effectiveness of peacekeeping in stabilizing postconflict states, preventing the return to armed hostilities between belligerents, and reducing civilian abuse during civil conflict. This research has shed light on important theoretical and policyrelevant issues. However, scholars have largely neglected to evaluate the role of peacekeeping in protecting civilians during the notoriously unstable postconflict period. Even after active conflict has ended, the factions often persist in abusing civilians to reinforce conflict gains, shape the postconflict environment, exact revenge for wartime grievances, or spoil peace processes. This analysis investigates the effectiveness of peacekeeping missions in protecting civilians during the post-conflict "peace." Using newly collected data on the number and type of United Nations peacekeeping personnel commitments along with civilian victimization data for all African conflicts between 1992 and 2010, we find that greater numbers of peacekeeping troops reduce anticivilian violence. By contrast, larger deployments of UN observers are positively correlated with violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia is frequently mentioned as an emerging player in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, but its role has been understudied compared to other emerging powers. Drawing on interviews with foreign and defence ministry officials, and independent analysts in Jakarta, as well as statements by Indonesian representatives in the UN and other forums, this article makes three arguments. First, although Indonesia has a long history of involvement in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs), there has been a major change in policy in the last decade, with much greater importance attached to peacekeeping. Jakarta has set itself the goal of becoming a top ten troop contributing country with 4,000 personnel deployed by 2019. Second, although Indonesia retains a strong preference for traditional "blue helmet" missions mandated by the UN Security Council (UNSC), and based on principles of host country consent, impartiality and non-use of force, its views on peacekeeping are evolving. While Indonesia has concerns about aspects of the "new" peacekeeping agenda, such as Protection of Civilians and robust peace enforcement missions, in practice it has proved to be more pragmatic than some of its rhetoric might suggest. Third, although emerging powers are frequently portrayed as conservative, Indonesia has been an advocate for a more ambitious approach to peacekeeping in Southeast Asia. It was the first to argue for an ASEAN peacekeeping force and has supported the use of regional troops to monitor peace agreements. In sum, the Indonesian case supports some of the claims made about emerging powers and peace operations but challenges others, underlining the diversity of this group of states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations (UN) in the 21st century. The UN has 16 peacekeeping operations in 122 countries as of August 31, 2015. According to the author, the demand for UN peacekeepers is still high despite its negative peacekeeping record in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The protection of civilians in peacekeeping operations is also discussed.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) pose a significant threat to UN peacekeepers. This article argues that the UN needs to draw on the lessons from multinational engagements such as Afghanistan to identify, generate and deploy counter-IED technology to UN peacekeeping operations in a more systematic manner. It examines lessons emerging from the application of counter-IED technology in past multinational operations in order to identify areas to expand capabilities and mitigate risks in addressing the threat in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. First, it examines the evolving nature of the IED threat. Second, it surveys some of the lessons emerging from the use of technology in multinational engagements such as the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Third, it explains some of the approaches already in place in UN peacekeeping operations. Fourth, it identifies potential challenges and limitations to employing more technology solutions to counter IEDs in UN peacekeeping missions, offering some thoughts on areas requiring broader reform to address the growing IED threat in UN peacekeeping missions. It concludes that technology can improve force protection, intelligence and the medical support available to peacekeeping missions to prevent and mitigate the effect of IEDs, thereby strengthening the safety and security of peacekeeping personnel, enhancing mission mobility, and improving the effectiveness of mandate implementation when it comes to the protection of civilians and early peacebuilding efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A basic but as yet unachieved goal for UN missions is to know the exact locations of their peacekeepers at any given time. Such tracking would help field missions plan operations, avoid and respond to ambushes, kidnappings and friendly fire incidents, rapidly send reinforcements and retrieve wounded peacekeepers, ultimately saving lives. Improved effectiveness could be obtained from ‘precision peacekeeping’, where soldiers, police and civilians are deployed to precise locations and events, while operational leaders follow their movements. Fortunately, tracking technology has improved considerably so that commercial solutions for real-time tracking of personnel and vehicles are now available at lower cost and increased accuracy and sophistication, while being more user-friendly. The advances in phone and vehicle tracking systems are reviewed here to identify the benefits, drawbacks and challenges, especially any political ones, for the United Nations. The world organization can benefit from modern blue mission tracking, without having to develop costly, customized solutions. Such initiatives have few technological or financial hurdles but the politics and institutionalization of continuous positional surveillance needs policy modernization, guided by a nuanced understanding of technological empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses how United Nations peacekeeping operations are harnessing geospatial technology, including high-resolution satellite imagery and geographic information systems (GIS), in the furtherance of peace and security. We argue that it is strengthening the ability of peacekeepers to accomplish their mandated tasks, including the demarcation of international boundaries, support for the negotiation of peace agreements, stabilization, the protection of civilians, human rights monitoring, electoral assistance, support for the extension of state authority and the provision of humanitarian assistance. However, it remains to be seen how and to what extent UN peacekeeping can continue to grow and expand its geospatial capabilities. We identify several challenges of an operational and political nature that tend to impede its utilization. A key question in this regard is whether politics will prevent peacekeepers from exploiting recent advances in geospatial technology. We conclude and synthesize our argument by developing a simplified framework for determining when and under what conditions peacekeepers can effectively harness geospatial technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

United Nations peace operations are deployed in greater numbers to more difficult operating theatres in response to more complex conflict situations than ever before. More than 100,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed in missions mandated under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to use 'all necessary means' to protect civilians from direct harm as well as to achieve a host of other tasks such as supporting the (re)building of state institutions, facilitating humanitarian aid, and overseeing compliance with ceasefire agreements and political commitments. With increasing regularity, UN peacekeepers are instructed to complete these tasks in contexts where there is no peace to keep or where peace is fragile. To understand these changes, and the implications for UN peace operations, this article examines three key transformations: the emergence of the protection of civilians as a central mission goal (and accompanying principles of due diligence); a subtle move away from peacekeeping as an impartial overseer of peace processes towards the goal of stabilization; and a so-called 'robust turn' towards greater preparedness to use force. It identifies the challenges posed to contemporary UN peacekeeping operations by these transformations and evaluates the UN's efforts thus far to make peacekeeping fit for purpose in the twenty-first century, noting that while significant progress has been made in areas such as policy and guidance, force sustainment and deployment, and the application of force enablers, there remains a considerable way to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the geopolitical dynamics associated with the African Union (AU) and United Nations hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID) from the start of the Darfur conflict in 2003 until the time when UNAMID became fully operational in 2011. It provides an overview of the complex forces and geopolitical dynamics that affected the deployment of UNAMID and shaped its unique hybrid character. It mainly highlights those primary geopolitical factors that hindered the full deployment of UNAMID. It is concluded that this period was a showcase for the newly established AU and its support for its member states, as well as a new approach for the international community to maintain international peace and security in alliance with regional organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peacekeeping operations have been identified as the most effective and efficient solution to the highly intractable problem of civil war recurrence; yet, only about 38% of civil wars receive peacekeeping assistance. To explain what determines whether an intrastate conflict receives a deployment of peacekeepers, we note that peacekeeping operations are costly endeavors requiring significant material investments. Focusing on the United Nations and its peacekeeping operations, we argue that because a relatively small group of states decides about (and funds) possible deployments, the supply of United Nations peacekeeping operations likely reflects the interests of these states. Specifically, we hypothesize that trade ties between the five permanent members of the Security Council and civil war states are among the factors that influence the decision to authorize United Nations peacekeeping operations. Testing the argument over the post-World War II and post-Cold War periods reveals that the economic interests of the permanent five members of the Security Council play a key role in explaining which civil wars receive United Nations peacekeepers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper aims at studying the international rules which have to be applied for the purposes of determining whether a certain conduct taken in the context of a UN peacekeeping operation must be attributed to troop-contributing states or to the UN. I will also consider whether, and under what circumstances, the same conduct may be attributed to both subjects. It argues that because of their dual status as organs of both the UN and the sending state, the formal status of peacekeeping forces within the UN system can hardly be regarded as decisive for purposes of attribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the absence of Brazilian troops to the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) peacekeeping operations from 1967-1989. Topics discussed include the establishment of Brazil's military dictatorship, the lack of contribution to peacekeeping missions, and beginning of political liberalization in 1970.

African states today are strongly encouraged by the United States (US) and other members of the international community to play a more central role in confronting crises on the continent. Indeed, in recent years African armed forces have increasingly served as the backbone supporting various peacekeeping operations in the region. It is important to add that the international community has frequently tried to facilitate the deployment of African armed forces with aid and training. From this reality, the following study goes beyond the current literature by focusing on the international factors behind African participation in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in Africa. In doing so, this research focuses on US military aid and foreign troop training from 2002 to 2012, and its impact on African deployments into UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. As can be expected, such third-party help appears to be an important motivating factor encouraging African troop deployment into crises on the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UN peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali were in 2013 given peace enforcement mandates, ordering them to use all necessary measures to ‘neutralise’ and ‘disarm’ identified groups in the eastern DRC and to ‘stabilise’ CAR and northern Mali. It is not new that UN missions have mandates authorising the use of force, but these have normally not specified enemies and have been of short duration. This article investigates these missions to better understand the short- and long-term consequences, in terms of the willingness of traditional as well as Western troop contributors to provide troops, and of the perception of the missions by host states, neighbouring states, rebel groups, and humanitarian and human rights actors. The paper explores normative, security and legitimacy implications of the expanded will of the UN to use force in peacekeeping operations. It argues that the urge to equip UN peacekeeping operations with enforcement mandates that target particular groups has significant long-term implications for the UN and its role as an impartial arbitrator in post-conflict countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a digest and documentation regarding United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions such as the UN's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). UN Security Council Resolution 2149, which incorporates the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Support Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) and the Africa Union-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic, is examined, along with justice and the rule of law.

The data on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in UN peacekeeping missions show a sharp decline between 2006 and 2007 which has yet to be explained in the relevant literature. This article partially closes that gap by examining one measure which was introduced to improve investigation processes and deter possible perpetrators, the conduct and discipline units (CDUs). Using a mixed methods design, the quantitative analysis shows that overall, the introduction of a conduct and discipline unit in missions is negatively and significantly correlated with the number of SEA allegations. The case study of MONUC/MONUSCO corroborates these results, indicating that deterrence measures likely contributed to the reduction of the number of allegations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While malicious acts by insurgents, rebels and tribes have attracted considerable attention in recent years; peacekeeping fatalities are most often caused by accident and illness. Yet despite this, malicious acts remain the major focus of journalistic reporting and academic study. This article places malicious acts into a broader context and highlights the more pressing threats posed by accident and illness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the nature and impacts of two intervention radio programmes broadcast on Radio Okapi - the radio service of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) managed by the Swiss-based Hirondelle Foundation. A matched randomized rechnique was used to assign Rwandan Hutus and Congolese autochthons in South Kivu province to listen to one of the two programmes within their naturalistic contexts for thirteen months. Autochthon control groups listened to Gutahuka, while Hutu control groups listened to Dialogue Entre Congolais. At the end of the treatment, participants' perceptions of barriers to peace, descriptive and prescriptive interventions; victimhood and villainy; opportunities for personal development and civic engagement were assessed in sixteen focus groups across four towns. Two critical findings have emerged from the study: first, hate contents are not only ones that are overtly hateful - messages targeted at specific groups for the purpose of achieving behavioural change can lead to alienation and hostility towards the target group by non-target groups exposed to the messages; second, contextually associated individuals or social groups do not always have homogenous interpretation of media messages. At the core of audience engagement and interpretation is the idealogical orientation of messages that audiences are exposed to and how such messages interact with local epistemes including historical and subjective realities. The paper concludes that media intervention contents that purvey a narrative without first understanding how it interacts with other epistemic narratives and metaphors on ground, run the risk of deepening rifts between groups and escalating the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a model for assessment of peacekeeping operations. Peacekeeping operations began in 1948, under the authority of the United Nations in order to provide and sustain a peaceful environment throughout the world. International organizations such as the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the African Union undertake peacekeeping operations in different geographical regions of the world. However, they lack some aspects of the assessment process. There were studies conducted previously in order to determine the principles of the assessment process of peacekeeping operations but none of them presented a comprehensive solution. Therefore, in this study, a clear, comprehensive and detailed assessment model was proposed, which may be applied in future peace operations and shed more light on the subject for future researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of peacekeeping studies in the behavioural tradition, namely those driven by a theoretical orientation to explain causal relationships and ones in which those theoretical arguments are tested by reference to historical cases, often in a large-N and statistically dependent research design. Critiques of existing studies focus on how the importation of theoretical approaches and the availability of data have conditioned existing research. Several pathways for future research are outlined, including better theoretical development, broader and more varied indicators of peacekeeping success, greater attention to unintended consequences, adoption of spatial frameworks of analysis, and paying greater attention to non-UN operations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 intensified international scrutiny of the war against Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen (Movement of the Warrior Youth). This article analyses the current state of affairs with reference to the three principal sets of actors in this war: Al-Shabaab, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and its international partners, and the various actors currently involved in building the Somali Federal Government's security forces. It argues that although the newly reconfigured Al-Shabaab poses a major tactical threat in Somalia and across the wider Horn of Africa, the movement is becoming a less important actor in Somalia's national politics. As Al-Shabaab loses territory and its popularity among Somalis continues to dwindle, other clan- and region-based actors will become more salient as national debates over federalism, the decentralization of governance mechanisms beyond Mogadishu and the place of clannism will occupy centre stage. As a consequence, AMISOM's principal roles should gradually shift from degrading Al-Shabaab towards a broader stabilization agenda: encouraging a national consensus over how to build effective governance structures; developing an effective set of Somali National Security Forces; and ensuring that the Federal Government delivers services and effective governance to its citizens, especially beyond Mogadishu in the settlements recently captured from Al-Shabaab. As it stands, however, AMISOM is not prepared to carry out these activities. More worryingly, nor is the Somali Federal Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]