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This article discusses the end of the Cold War in Southern Africa and its impact on the Apartheid Government's nuclear weapons program. The program was developed as a strategic deterrent against perceived communist threats in the region. However, with the changing political landscape, including the end of hostilities in Angola and the rise of progressive leaders like FW de Klerk, the program was deemed unnecessary and a burden. In 1989, de Klerk ordered the termination of the program and the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal. This decision, along with South Africa's subsequent commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, played a significant role in the country's transition to democracy and its emergence as a leader in promoting disarmament. [Extracted from the article]

The paper examines China’s increasing security interests in Africa. It seeks to understand the nature and scope of Chinese engagement in peace and security issues on the continent based on its engagement in international and domestic (African) politics. Through literature analysis and logical reasoning, the author intends to define the implications of China’s new role as a security provider. The paper is based on desk research using primary and secondary data and statistical and comparative analysis of official documents, academic research, and media sources. The methods include literature analysis, logical reasoning, statistical research, comparative analysis, and the inductive method to build general theorems. The paper analyses aspects of China’s security engagement on the African continent: its participation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, small arms exports, and Beijing’s sharing of technology with African partners. China’s engagement in Africa’s security helps to advance its vital economic and political interests, with limited impact on African security. Key lessons for African partners are offered. The last decades have seen an extraordinary increase in China’s economic and political ties with Africa. Security cooperation followed massive Chinese investments and thousands of Chinese nationals working on the continent. China’s security engagement in Africa protects Beijing’s interests regarding access to resources, markets, political influence, and social credibility. It has little to do with a benevolent will to help Africa deal with instability or economic underdevelopment. African partners must make necessary efforts to avoid further dependence on China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The group of three non-permanent African members (A3) of the UNSC are expected to advance AU common positions and strengthen UN-AU collaboration.[20] Similarly, the members of the EU that serve on the UNSC are obliged to defend the positions and interests of their union and coordinate their work at the UN.[21] Experiences of E10 Memberships Contributors in this section disentangle different types of E10 state memberships. The UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) have held annual consultations since 2007. The United Nations' (UN) charter endows its Security Council (UNSC) with primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. [Extracted from the article]

Stian Kjeksrud's book, "Using force to protect civilians," examines the successes and failures of United Nations peace operations in Africa. The book utilizes a novel dataset of 200 military protection operations from ten UN missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017. Kjeksrud's analysis reveals that UN troops effectively protected civilians in 76 instances, but were unable to adequately protect a significant portion of the local population in 83 cases. The book challenges the perception that the UN is unfit to use force to improve security for civilians and emphasizes the importance of tailored military responses based on an understanding of the perpetrators' motivations. However, the book's methodology is limited by the uncertainty of the dataset and potential underreporting of cases. Overall, the book provides valuable insights for policymakers interested in UN military protection efforts. [Extracted from the article]

One way of improving forecasts is through better data. We explore how much we can improve predictions of conflict violence by introducing data reflecting third-party efforts to manage violence. By leveraging new sub-national data on all UN peacekeeping deployments in Africa, 1994–2020, from the Geocoded Peacekeeping (Geo-PKO) dataset, we predict changes in violence at the local level. The advantage of data on peacekeeping deployments is that these vary over time and space, as opposed to many structural variables commonly used. We present two peacekeeping models that contain several local peacekeeping features, each with a separate set of additional variables that form the respective benchmark. The mean errors of our predictions only improve marginally. However, comparing observed and predicted changes in violence, the peacekeeping features improve our ability to identify the correct sign of the change. These results are particularly strong when we limit the sample to countries that have seen peacekeeping deployments. For an ambitious forecasting project, like ViEWS, it may thus be highly relevant to incorporate fine-grained and frequently updated data on peacekeeping troops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher educational attainment levels are associated with better public health outcomes, lower levels of income inequality, more participation in democratic instructions, and safer communities. Promoting education in war-torn societies can have an immediate impact in mitigating violence and play a significant role in preventing conflict recurrence. This study investigates UN peacekeeping missions' role in this process, positing that UN deployments to locations experiencing armed conflict lead to higher levels of educational attainment by increasing local stability, incentivizing individuals to return to school while also making renewed investment worthwhile. Testing this logic using new data on local-level educational attainment across Africa from 2000 to 2014, this study finds that conflict zones where the UN maintained peacekeeping deployments saw an increase in educational attainment when compared to those that did not, a finding corroborated by coarsened exact matching. Maintaining a modest number of UN forces is shown to increase female attainment by at least 4.89 percent and reduce gender disparity by 5.13 percent, revealing the critical role UN peacekeeping plays in restoring education in the shadow of political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peacekeeping literature has primarily documented correlations between peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and their effectiveness or has focused on the decisions of troop-contributing countries participating in PKOs. Unlike the extant research, this paper shifts the focus to the decision-making process within PKOs. More specifically, this paper focuses on the timing of peacekeeper deployment by investigating how contributor leaders are distinguished from contributor followers. To tackle this topic, I use deployment-map data from 13 UN PKOs in Africa from 1990 to 2016. When a leader country deploys to a region before other countries, the followers will thus face an incentive to free ride because waiting to deploy to the region until it is secure is less risky. In short, there is a second-mover advantage that induces other countries to delay deployment until much later in a given UN PKO's designated deployment window. This study finds that countries that could deploy more troops at their initial time of deployment and that have many previous UN PKO experiences are more likely to be leaders. Results also suggest that contributors engaging in multiple UN PKOs contemporaneously are less likely to be leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the challenges to international peace support operations organized in Africa, with topics including the governance system in Africa, United Nations peacekeeping and African Union's conflict management operations.

The article discusses Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's policy for Canada's partaking in United Nations peacekeeping, selection of African country to deploy Canada's peace operations, and suggestions to not to deploy Canadian peacekeepers in Republic of Mali in West Africa due to security reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly UN peacekeeping missions are helping to implement security sector reforms (SSR), including gender reforms, targeted at the local police of host countries. This study uses the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Liberian National Police (LNP) as a way to explore whether SSR may have helped improve individual officers' professional and gender competencies. Conducting a novel lab-in-the-field experiment, we test the individual competencies of 612 LNP officers, also analysing possible determinants of these competencies. We find that most officers have knowledge about statutory crimes and evidence gathering, most officers participate in group activities, almost half are aware of gendered crimes and that male and female officers are equally competent. However, our results suggest that the reforms are at the nascent stages of working, and that more focus should be put into basic training and gender mainstreaming in the Liberian National Police, especially as new recruits are added. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

The article looks on the effectiveness of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in Africa as of June 2015. Topics include the UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire, the Security Council's renewal of the mandates for these missions, and the UN's continued collaboration with DRC President Joseph Kabila, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Also discussed is the peacekeepers' support on these individual political leaders, which compromises the UN's impartiality.

Stan Houston and Adam Houston highlight how deployment of UN peacekeepers has the potential to introduce artemisinin-resistant malaria into Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 information on continental alignments, national security and social events in Africa. Topics include United Nations (UN) Special Envoy to Libya Bernadino Leon's peace attempts in Libyan city Benghazi, the jihadist Islamic State (ISIS) group's gaining a foothold in Libyan town Darnah, and Somalia's Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed accepting a parliament vote asking him to resign. Also included are new anti-viral therapies for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

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.

While United Nations peacekeeping missions were created to keep peace and perform post-conflict activities, since the end of the Cold War peacekeepers are more often deployed to active conflicts. Yet, we know little about their ability to manage ongoing violence. This article provides the first broad empirical examination of UN peacekeeping effectiveness in reducing battlefield violence in civil wars. We analyze how the number of UN peacekeeping personnel deployed influences the amount of battlefield deaths in all civil wars in Africa from 1992 to 2011. The analyses show that increasing numbers of armed military troops are associated with reduced battlefield deaths, while police and observers are not. Considering that the UN is often criticized for ineffectiveness, these results have important implications: if appropriately composed, UN peacekeeping missions reduce violent conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the June 25, 2014 United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2164 Authorizing the Revision of the MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) Mandate, along with information on the context of the document. Topics include actions by the Malian Defence and Security Forces (MDSF), May 2014 violence provoked by the militant group Mouvement national pour la libération de l'Azawad (MNLA), and international cooperation regarding Mali's crisis.

The relationship between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) has at times been characterized by considerable conflict, mistrust, and tension, often hindering the predictability and conduct of effective peace operations. This article analyses the challenges facing UN–AU cooperation on peace and security issues and examines their partnerships in various peace operations. Specific attention is paid to the crucial cases of Somalia and Mali, which exemplify some of the positive and negative aspects of this relationship. We argue that while great power politics and the international normative context have played important roles in structuring debates about peace operations in contemporary Africa, so too have two more bottom-up factors: the specific operational and financial challenges generated by the AU's big missions in Darfur, Somalia, and Mali, and the organizational cultures and bureaucratic constraints within which both institutions have had to work. Greater focus on these bottom-up factors could bring significant improvements to the decision-making processes in Addis Ababa and New York, to operational responses, and to the conduct of peace operations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2003 the EU has launched 16 peacekeeping missions in Africa in most cases in cooperation with the UN. Therefore, this article takes an inter-organizational perspective on the EU's peacekeeping activities in Africa. Theoretically the article makes a contribution to the growing literature on inter-organizational approaches by applying niche selection and resource exchange theory to the field of security studies. The paper finds that EU missions in the past followed a targeted and niche approach in which it has played a facilitating but not dominating role in UN peacekeeping operations. However, in order to make effective use of this targeted approach the EU and UN are currently engaging in a substantial reconstruction of their relationship by building an interlocking peacekeeping architecture in which elements of resource pooling are central. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multidimensional peacekeeping has drawn the United Nations (UN) into state-building, and missions have taken on significant responsibilities for good governance. Since it aims at transforming states from fragile post-conflict situations into inclusive, well-governed societies, multidimensional peacekeeping is more complex and arguably also more contentious than traditional peacekeeping. Multidimensional peacekeeping affects the balance of power between the government and rebels and provides them with opportunities for rent-seeking. Although the potential gains are obvious, the process is bound to lead to uncertainty and controversy. Whereas the international community mainly appreciates the opportunity of comprehensive peacekeeping to create value, local actors may be more concerned with opportunities for claiming value. What will be the responses of local actors to peacekeeping given the likely impact on the distribution of power between rebels and governments and their uneven opportunities to benefit from collaborating? Using event data for post-Cold War UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, the analysis considers when peacekeeping elicits cooperation rather than conflict, focusing on (a) the authorities involved in the event, (b) the policies implemented, and (c) the role of the peacekeepers. Key findings are that government authorities are more likely to respond cooperatively to peacekeeping actions, while rebels are more likely to respond with hostility. Both the government and rebels are unlikely to contest policies that aim to strengthen state capacity, while both are more likely to contest human rights policies. Finally, rebels tend to respond more cooperatively when peacekeepers have a mainly supportive role. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Does United Nations peacekeeping protect civilians in civil war? Civilian protection is a primary purpose of UN peacekeeping, yet there is little systematic evidence for whether peacekeeping prevents civilian deaths. We propose that UN peacekeeping can protect civilians if missions are adequately composed of military troops and police in large numbers. Using unique monthly data on the number and type of UN personnel contributed to peacekeeping operations, along with monthly data on civilian deaths from 1991 to 2008 in armed conflicts in Africa, we find that as the UN commits more military and police forces to a peacekeeping mission, fewer civilians are targeted with violence. The effect is substantial-the analyses show that, on average, deploying several thousand troops and several hundred police dramatically reduces civilian killings. We conclude that although the UN is often criticized for its failures, UN peacekeeping is an effective mechanism of civilian protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From Bosnia Herzegovina and Angola to Afghanistan and Iraq, the 26th Infantry Battalion "Neagoe Basarab" (also known as The Red Scorpions) took part in all the international missions Romania pledged to contribute to. Being a direct participant, the author's recollections shed light on the meticulous preparations and difficulties encountered during the unfolding of these missions, but also on the satisfactions that they had to offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the foreign policy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following the election of President Joseph Kabila in 2006. The work of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) is noted in relation to ongoing civil conflicts. Also addressed are the DRC's position on environmental exploitation, the DRC's diplomatic positions in relation to those of the West, and security concerns in Africa's Great Lakes Region. It is said that the DRC has returned to involvement in the organization African Union.

The author offers opinions on participation by Canada in international peacebuilding efforts from 1992-2011. The involvement of Canada's armed forces in the United Nations (UN) intervention in Somalia in 1992-1993, as part of UN peacekeeping forces in Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2000-2001, in Sudan, South Sudan and the Darfur region of Sudan from 1998-2012 are cited to support the contention that the experiences have resulted in Canada's government and public opinion in that country adopting more limited goals for the role of foreign intervention in peacebuilding.

UN peacekeeping missions suffer from cumbersome recruitment processes, high vacancy rates and a shortage of civilian staff. This article explores the bottlenecks hampering the recruitment and deployment of trained personnel, especially civilians. Paradoxically, an increased number of trained personnel has not translated into higher deployment rates. Individual factors and structural bottlenecks together accounted for half of the non-deployments. Of the latter, the informal nature of the UN's recruitment system and the central role played by personal contacts stands out. The article makes the case for an improved link between the recruitment architecture of the UN and its training programmes, and a significant overhaul of the UN recruitment architecture per se. Unless the UN and international training programmes address this paradox, the risk of training in vain will remain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mandates for UN peacekeeping operations in Africa have become more robust since the delivery of the Brahimi Report in 2000. Contrary to before, soldiers are now unmistakably expected to use force to protect local civilians in a number of UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. While this expectation of force may be celebrated, the question rises whether peacekeeping soldiers can meet the expectation. Are they ready to kill and risk their lives to protect local civilians? This question is especially pertinent to Western armed forces, which have contributed little to post-millennium UN peace operations in Africa but are explicitly called upon by the UN administration to contribute to the robust peacekeeping missions. This article discusses the question of moral and psychological preparedness in light of the possible tension between the nationalist orientation in Western armed forces and the cosmopolitan demands of UN peacekeeping operations in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This article is critical of a series of works on Chinese soft power which have garnered much attention in recent years. These works typically portray Chinese soft power, characterised by its disregard for Western models of development that propagate 'democratic governance', as a latent threat to global order. The article argues that such claims are premature, and to date there is little evidence of a systematic attempt by the Chinese to propagate a 'Beijing model' of autocratic development. These claims are substantiated by analysing China's participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, which are characterised by mandates aimed at transforming war-torn states into liberal democracies. I suggest that China's participation in these operations is a crucial component of its 'charm offensive' aimed at the West, and designed to allay fears of a 'China Threat'. The article argues that Chinese understandings of soft power are diverse and directed at multiple audiences. The tendency to 'look for potential threats' in many Western policy-informed works, however, ignores the multifaceted nature and diverse views on Chinese soft power, and clouds our ability to understand this new phenomenon in Chinese foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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India has played a major role in keeping peace in Africa through its participation in the UN peacekeeping operations in the continent. For India, being at the forefront in peacekeeping in Africa is driven by a combination of factors, the aim to promote worth peace and also safeguard its national interest. India's contributions are thus unique in the context of professionalism, humanitarian concern, and gender sensivity. However, as an important global player with growing world-wide influence, India needs to refashion and reenergize its future participatory role in peacekeeping in Africa. This article, argues that India should not be seen as a reluctant player but an active and responsible power further striving towards strengthening multinational operations and effecting sustainable peace in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the contribution and role of India as keeper of Africa's peace and security under the United Nation peacekeeping operations (UNKPO). It states that troops from India have been deployed to take part in Africa's peril missions and have endured more casualties compared to other UN peacekeepers. It notes that India had made substantial contribution to retain peace at Mozambique and has been the vanguard of Africa's antiapartheid and anti-colonial movements.

The article discusses the history of United Nations peace-keeping efforts in Africa from the Cold War era though 2006. Two interventions are examined in detail. In late 1999 UN peacekeeping troops were deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The article examines the history of the conflict and discusses the multitude of warring factions, including the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), dominant in the northeast, and the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), based mainly in the east. The article also discusses the conflict in Sierra Leone, which was primarily the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (RUF) opposing the central government. The article suggests that these conflicts were very different and required individual solutions.

Examines the challenges that the United Nations (UN) will face in implementing the recommendations of the Special Envoy's report on sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations. Policy recommendations of the report; Background on sexual violence against women and girls by humanitarian aid workers and UN Peacekeepers; Roles and standard of conduct of UN personnel; Best practices being implemented in some peacekeeping missions.

This article provides an overview of UN peacekeeping operations with special reference to the African continent. More specifically, it reflects on current UN peacekeeping operations and discusses international contributions to African peacekeeping requirements. In this regard, it focuses on the nature and profile of international involvement in the UN's most challenging missions on African soil, namely the missions in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo with a view to assessing current international trends. In addition, the article also reflects on developments among African regional organisations in undertaking operations in the realm of peace and security. Two pressing questions are especially addressed: To what extent are developed (industrial) states still involved in peace support in Africa and to what extent have African states assumed greater responsibility for providing the UN and other multinational organisations with peacekeeping personnel? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the failure of United Nations (UN) peace keeping forces to achieve their goal in Africa. Inability of peace operations to address fundamental issues that endanger the viability of African states and cause conflicts; Reason for ignorance of core complexities of interstate conflicts in Africa; Relevance of state sovereignty in Africa for security and UN peace operations.

Reflects on the United Nations (U.N.) peace keeping operations in Africa. Utilization of sub-regional arrangements such as ECOMOG in Liberia and Sierra Leone and MISAB in the Central African Republic in undertaking local peace operations; Lack of funds and logistics in sustaining regional peace operations in the Economic Community of West African States; View of Africa as the region most in need of the U.N.

The article provides a historical overview of some important UN peacekeeping missions undertaken in Africa between 1960 and 2000 including those in Congo, Mozambique, Angola, Somalia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. All the conflicts examined are cases of civil war, reflecting the changing nature of post-Cold War peacekeeping. Since the peacekeeping successes and failures of the UN are often contingent on the domestic, regional and extra-regional dynamics of conflict situations, the article examines these factors in detail in each case. Some factors have contributed to the success of the UN in Africa. These include the existence of a political accord between the waning parties and the willingness of internal parties to disarm and accept electoral results, the development of an effective strategy to deal with potential spoilers, the absence of conflict-fueling economic resources in war zones, the cooperation of regional players in peace processes, the cessation of military and financial support to local clients by extra-regional actors and their provision of financial and diplomatic support to peace processes and finally, the leadership of peacekeeping missions by capable envoys.

The article presents the report of the secretary-general of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the promotion of peace and development in Africa. It states that the Security Council investigated the reasons and possible solutions to the conflict in Africa. It also examines the peacemaking resources and diplomatic efforts of UNHCR in resolving the conflict in the country.