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Neste artigo, discutiremos o processo que levou ao encerramento da MINUSMA, operação de paz de estabilização realizada pela ONU no Mali entre 2013 e 2023, e faremos uma breve análise conjuntural desse momento de retirada, considerando seus desdobramentos tanto em relação à situação política no país, quanto aos abusos e violações de direitos humanos sofridos pela população civil, tendo em vista que a estabilidade e a proteção de civis estavam entre os principais objetivos da missão quando foi desdobrada. Metodologicamente, o trabalho se baseia na análise qualitativa de dados sobre o desempenho da MINUSMA no Mali ao longo de seu mandato, e sobre a situação política no país hoje, com foco na ocorrência de episódios violentos e fatalidades, em possíveis avanços relacionados ao processo político de resolução do conflito e à proteção de civis. As principais fontes utilizadas foram documentos e relatórios da própria ONU, de organizações não-governamentais e institutos de pesquisa sobre o Mali, de forma geral, e sobre as atividades e o processo de retirada da MINUSMA, especificamente.

A strong partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) is essential to achieve strategic convergence, coherence and effective solutions to Africa’s complex peace and security challenges. This article analyzes the key challenges in the UN - AU partnership for peacekeeping, including the UN - AU frameworks, policies and strategies in implementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda to establish equal, full and constructive participation of women in the peacekeeping process. The authors identify key challenges in the UN - AU partnership for peacekeeping and assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms and tools of this partnership in the field of maintaining peace and security. The implementation of the WPS agenda in Africa in 2003-2022 is discussed in detail. The empirical basis for the research was drawn from the UN peacekeeping website database, official AU documents, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and AU and UN statistics on the gender composition of key UN peacekeeping missions during the period under review. This study employs quantitative methods of assessment and comparative analysis of UN and the AU statistics on women’s participation in African peacekeeping from 2003 to 2022. It focuses on the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) as a case study. The article concludes that there is a direct link between the deteriorating security situation in Africa, the effective implementation of the WPS agenda, and the level of strategic partnership between the UN and the AU.

This study considers learning in international military operations. It explores these questions: What are the obstacles to learning in a military context? How did these obstacles manifest themselves in contribution made by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) in Mali? How effective in overcoming these obstacles were the formal and informal learning processes that took place? And what does this tell us about how learning might be improved in a military context? Norway has supported the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) since 2013. The RNoAF contribution began in January 2016 and continued periodically until May 2021. The contribution consisted of a Hercules C130 transport aircraft with crew and other support personnel. The detachment from Norway consisted of approximately 60–70 women and men with backgrounds in various fields of expertise (aviators, navigators, cargo masters, technicians, security personnel, and other support personnel) required to execute the mission. Based on in-depth interviews of key personnel, this study looks at learning that took place among the various constellations of personnel from the force protection responsible for security during the operation. Much of the learning took place through last-minute efforts because of tight schedules and other pressing tasks. The study has resulted in a conceptual model for facilitating and better supporting the acquisition of knowledge through a continuous process rather than at the last minute. This will require top-down and bottom-up processes, both formal and informal.

This study seeks to assess the impact of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and identify challenges facing the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The descriptive research design was adopted for this study and the data collected for this study collected from secondary sources such as textbooks, journals and other internet source while content analysis was used to analyse the data collected. This study is anchored on the institutional theory. This study revealed that the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has made significant impact in the area of peace building for instance large numbers of displaced people were able to return home, the stability in northern Mali was improved, and the number of civilians killed in the fighting was reduced. Moreover, MINUSMA helped with the peace process that led to the 2015 Accord for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, and aided the organising of the 2013 and 2016. However, MINUSMA is one of the costliest peacekeeping missions in Africa, with a budget of roughly $600 million and one of the deadliest peacekeeping support operations in the world in recent years considering the numbers of casualties recorded. Others include conflict over authority and labour allocation. In adequate personal and logistics issues are among the challenges facing MINUSMA. Lastly, this study recommended among other things that the present peace deal needs to be implemented honestly and successfully, since past peace accords' insufficient execution contributed to the revival of the problem in Mali. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special forces have always captured the imagination of the world. This comes as no surprise, as there is a lot of literature and movies on special forces available. The terror attacks on 11 September 2001 in the United States of America, and the subsequent declaration by George W. Bush of a Global War on Terrorism, has brought the special forces of the United States and other Western powers out of the shadows and into the limelight as the force of choice to combat the new security threat. It also focussed the international concern on the security threats of ungoverned spaces, failed states, and the use of terror. This in turn created a merging of failed states and counter-terrorism agendas, which resulted in a powerful new framework for humanitarian actors. Third party interventions in the form of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), to mention but one example, appeared. The subsequent deployment of European special forces to Mali in 2013 as part of MINUSMA was in an effort to restore constitutional order to the Malian government. The mission is still ongoing and thus relevant as a case study to relate the role of special forces to peace missions. The aim of the article is to explore the role of special forces in peace missions, using the role of European Special Forces in MINUSMA as case study.

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Este artículo analiza el papel de la Misión Multidimensional Integrada de Estabilización de las Naciones Unidas en Malí (MINUSMA) en la lucha contra el terrorismo y la insurgencia. Esta misión de paz es víctima directa de los ataques terroristas e insurgentes, lo que lleva a preguntarnos si los combate activamente, y a revisar si estas tareas emanan del mandato y su implementación, o si tales amenazas llevan a la MINUSMA a combatirlas como consecuencia. El artículo utiliza los elementos teóricos del contraterrorismo y la contrainsurgencia per se, así como aquellos relacionados con las operaciones de paz. Luego, mediante una metodología de investigación cualitativa, utiliza la MINUSMA como estudio de caso para exponer la evolución de las operaciones de paz y la posible expansión actual y futura de sus tareas. Esto, a través del análisis de las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad, la literatura académica y otros documentos de las Naciones Unidas. El estudio concluye que, efectivamente, la MINUSMA ha llevado a cabo tales tareas, directamente y en cooperación con la operación militar francesa. Estas tareas surgen implícitamente del mandato, con una estructura organizativa y operacional al servicio de estas, y se ven reforzadas por factores sobrevenidos sobre el terreno. Este cambio, eventualmente, acaba con su imparcialidad, con lo que aumentan los riesgos de los cascos azules, disminuyen su eficacia y perturban la doctrina de operaciones de paz de las Naciones Unidas. En conclusión, encontramos que el mandato tácito y su vaguedad no solo dificultan el análisis académico, sino también las tareas sobre el terreno y el futuro de la seguridad del personal internacional y la población de Malí y el Sahel.

The United Nations Security Council passes resolutions that invoke multiple norms including the protection of civilians (PoC), the responsibility to protect (R2P), and counter-terrorism. The fact that these norms are invoked alongside one another raises questions about how they interact. While there have been studies on the relationship between PoC and R2P, as well as R2P and counter-terrorism, as far as the authors are aware, this is the first study that analyses the interplay between all three norms. To do this, the article utilises the concept of 'norm clusters' to discuss the internal structure of PoC, R2P, and counter-terrorism prior to analysing the linkages between them. The article proposes that PoC, R2P, and counter-terrorism can be viewed as a 'human protection norm cluster' but also highlights areas of tension and overlap between the three norms. At the empirical level, the article explores these dynamics in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Although all three norms embody the value of human protection, our findings evidence, first, these norms are not given equal weight, second, they are not mutually reinforcing, and third, even though counter-terrorism plays a more peripheral role, it has a detrimental impact upon PoC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security sector reform and the protection of civilians are regular features within United Nations (UN) peace operations. However, the two areas are often distinct from one another in the mandates of missions. What then is the relationship between Security Sector Reform (SSR) and the Protection of Civilians (PoC) in contemporary missions and how does SSR impact PoC? This article aims to draw out this relationship by conducting a comparative case study analysis based on three missions that all combine a SSR and PoC mandate: the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The case studies provide a variety of examples which demonstrate elements of both convergence and divergence in the implementation of SSR and PoC. With SSR often taking place in a context of armed conflict, the current focus on human rights training and accountability is insufficient as the missions fail to achieve long-term SSR goals and instead must prioritise PoC due to the actions of the host states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to explore the main trends in German participation in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. Special attention is devoted to the period since 2014 when top German political representatives announced an increased willingness to step up German engagement in international affairs. Soon after, Germany shifted from a rather hesitant UN peacekeeper to the most significant European troop provider to UN peacekeeping operation in Mali (MINUSMA). The increased involvement of Germany in MINUSMA as a new trend is discussed.

MINUSMA, the UN peace operation in Mali, represents a new development in peace missions, due to the insecure transnational context in which it has evolved and its mandate to collaborate with counterterrorist forces in the region. The goal of this paper is to study this new development, using Enloe's feminist theorization of the concept of militarization. I base my analysis on an understanding of militarization as a social process that can be adapted or contested. Grounded in a qualitative methodology, I study MINUSMA and its peacekeepers in order to identify how the process of militarization takes place within/through the mission. My principal argument is that the context of robust peacekeeping, combined with the implications of collaboration with counterterrorist operations and the reengagement of NATO troop contributing countries, creates a space in which militarization is reinforced for the mission and its peacekeepers and that this impacts how they interact with one another and what practices they favour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Unesco Convention of 1954, on the protection of cultural heritage in war time, is the only legal text on this subject. It was completed by a Protocole in 1999. In 2013, the UN Security Council passed the resolution 2100 : the MINUSMA Blue Helmets operation has the mission to protect cultural and historical sites in Mali. It is new to entrust the Blue Helmets to protect cultural goods.

Examining the case of Mali, this work analyses the discursive strategies utilised by key actors to legitimise the UN's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The analysis traces the legitimisation strategies deployed in both the official and unofficial discourses surrounding the operation. Using van Leeuwen's conceptualisation of legitimisation, this work uncovers the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the dominant discourse foregrounds certain gendered harms. We argue that the primarily Western conceptualisation of the situation in Mali foregrounds the rape (of young girls) to form the strongest pro-intervention argument. Within this logic, the focus on the bodies of violated women and children aims at providing the undeniable and ultimate proof of barbarity of local rebels. This leads to an immediate need for deployment and continuation of a robust peacekeeping mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Peacekeepers deployed as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) are operating in an increasingly hostile environment, requiring them to use force regularly in order to defend civilians, themselves and, more generally, MINUSMA's mandate. Over the last few years, MINUSMA's mandate has been expanded to enable the Mission to address the growing threat posed by hostile armed groups, including terrorist armed groups, and to provide support to counter-terrorist forces. The frequent hostilities, coupled with the Mission's enhanced "robust" mandate and the rising number of demands made on MINUSMA by non-UN forces for operational and logistical support, have raised questions concerning the status and legal protection of MINUSMA's peacekeepers under international humanitarian law, and more broadly the adequacy of the legal framework applicable to modern UN peacekeeping operations deployed in a "no peace to keep" environment. This article argues that a clarification of the application of the legal framework is required in order to afford better protection to Mission personnel and to more accurately capture the situation on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A fundamental question facing global governance today is whether the UN peacekeeping regime can function with enough skilled troops to execute increasingly demanding and complicated mandates. The People's Republic of China is informally thought of as a potential lead troop-contributing country. China typically deploys non-combat enabler troops, and recently began deploying combat troops, which may have to engage in live fire to defend the mandate. The risks and costs associated with dispatching combat troops challenge the benefits that China derives from supporting peacekeeping. I first establish China's feedback mechanisms to facilitate simple and complex learning against China's peacekeeping trajectory and motivations for participation. I then address the implications of China's combat troop deployment, focusing on the UN Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in Mali and the UN Mission in South Sudan. The article draws insights from interviews with Chinese foreign policy elites and UN officials, and participant observation at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's increasing participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations reached a milestone in 2013 when Beijing agreed to send a large detachment of personnel, including combat forces for the first time, to support UN peacekeeping operations in Mali after that country fell into civil war. This commitment was also distinct in that unlike other African countries where Beijing has supplied peacekeepers, Mali is not a major trading partner with China. However, this mission has both cemented Beijing's greater commitment to building African partnerships as well as demonstrating its determination to move beyond "resource diplomacy" and towards a more comprehensive approach to engaging the continent. Although China has warmed to the principles of humanitarian intervention in civil conflicts, Mali has been a critical test of China's ability to participate in UN operations in a country which is still facing ongoing violence. The Mali mission is an important step in Beijing's turn towards greater realpolitik in Chinese Beijing's peacekeeping policies in keeping with its great power status. At the same time, participation in the Mali mission has been beneficial for China, not only in helping to build the country's peacekeeping credentials in Africa but also in underscoring China's increasingly distinct views on addressing intervention in civil conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coherence is a core objective in most multinational interventions and seems of particular relevance to UN peacekeeping missions with their increasing complexity and multidimensionality. Yet, coherence has rarely been studied empirically. We borrow the concept of 'fit' from organizational theory and use it to develop a conceptual framework to study coherence in peacekeeping operations. Fit is the degree of match between what is required by the mandate, on the one hand, and an institutional set-up and the implemented practices, on the other. We identify three relevant dimensions of fit to study coherence: strategic and organizational, cultural and human and operational fit. Our empirical material focuses on the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and in particular on the interplay between the intelligence components and the rest of the mission. We draw upon a large empirical dataset containing over 120 semi-structured interviews, field observations and participation in pre-deployment exercises and evaluation sessions. Our empirical analysis suggests that low level of fit across several dimensions leads to inertial and widespread frictions in the practice of peacekeeping and could potentially undermine peacekeeping effectiveness. Building on existing scholarship on micro-level approaches to peacekeeping, we hope to further the debate on organizational dynamics within peace operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's military interventions are best understood as a form of counter-insurgency politics. Counter-insurgency politics constructs a distinctive type of rule and governance through military intervention. It normalises the use of military force in the management and suppression of instability instead of resolving conflict. Its practices are not predisposed to the usual International Relations binaries, however, as counter-insurgency politics involves a multitude of global governance structures and networks countering or preventing terrorism and violent extremism. The typical binary categories used in analyses of intervention are of little use because counter-insurgency politics signals a capacity to authorise discriminations in ways that elude them. So the basis of our political and analytical judgement is shaken, as the state-international line still informs legal, moral and political judgements about intervention while also being challenged by the international politics of counter-insurgency. Mali and the Sahel are a rich and evolving case for theorising counter-insurgency politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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China has been much more involved in Africa's economy and trade than in its security. However, over the past decade or so, China has increased its participation in the United Nation's Peacekeeping Operations (UN PKOs), particularly in Africa. It has also taken steps to better protect its overseas nationals and, in 2017, established a naval base in Djibouti. This article focuses on the participation of China's People's Liberation Army in the United Nation's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) since 2013. It aims to unpack the diplomatic process that led China to take part in this mission and to analyse the form of this participation. Mali was the second time (the first being in South Sudan in 2012) that China opted to deploy combat troops under the UN banner, underscoring a deepening involvement in PKOs and an increasing readiness to face risks. Finally, this article explores the implications of China's participation in the MINUSMA for its foreign and security posture as a whole. Often perceived as a realist rising power, by more actively participating in UN PKOs China is trying to demonstrate that it is a responsible and “integrationist” great power, ready to play the game according to the commonly approved international norms. Is this really the case? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The overthrow of the Colonel Muamar Ghaddafi regime in Libya in 2011, undoubtedly paved the way for increased Islamist activities in most of the countries in North Africa and the Maghreb region. Gradually, the countries of the Sahel West Africa not only fell within the orbit of resurgent radical Islam but also began to experience an uptick in its violence. Nigeria and Mali are two states within the Sahel West African that have experienced the virulent campaign of Islamist militancy. However, although within the same West African sub-region, the two countries had different European colonial experiences; while Nigeria was colonized by the British, Mali was colonized by France. The two countries have approached the problem in specific ways and so far adopted different strategies in the bid to contain the Islamist militancy within their respective domains. Despite common membership of the regional Economic Communities of West African States, (ECOWAS), those responses reflect essentially the different colonial experiences of the two countries and their power status within the sub-region as they underline also the state of their respective economies within the general framework of their peripheral status in the international political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on the recent 'stabilization turn' in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping by inquiring into a changing set of practices by which the UN intends to 'strengthen the authority of the state.' Drawing on Piiparinen's notion of sovereignty-building as an emerging paradigm of conflict management, the study analyses the support for state authority and sovereignty in two modalities of contemporary UN peace operations - UNIFIL II and MINUSMA. While the two analysed missions significantly differ when it comes to the extent of their tasks, or the rules for the use of force, they both highlight the importance of local politics and agency in the implementations of their mandates and the need to strike a compromise between the contending visions on what form of sovereignty should be supported. By doing so, the paper points out the importance of 'local' and contextual emergence of the practices of sovereigntybuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost two years after the deployment of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in July 2013, the increasing number of asymmetric terrorist attacks targeting UN peacekeepers – in the context of a drawn-out peace process – has raised a number of questions in Mali, the sub-region, and in New York, over the relevance and adequacies of MINUSMA’s mandate and capabilities. It also raises a broader issue, of whether the consent-based UN peacekeeping tool is appropriate and can be effective in carrying out stabilization mandates in such a context and what doctrine such operations should be based on. The UN is indeed under increasing pressure from host countries and some African troop-contributing countries to go on the offensive. Member States have also increasingly recognized terrorism and organized crime as a strategic threat, and while opposed to the UN directly engaging in counterterrorism (CT) operations, some may wish to see the UN playing a greater stabilization role following the January 2013 French military intervention in Mali. However, little guidance and means have been given so far to UN missions for dealing with such threats and implementing effective stabilization mandates. The High-Level Panel on Peace Operations, which recently released its report, noted that the usage of the term “stabilization” by the UN requires clarification. This article analyses the complex and evolving nature of threats in northern Mali and implications for MINUSMA and describes the military and political tools – including mediation – so far available within and outside the UN. The article concludes that the UN is bound to move towards stabilization when and if deployed in contexts such as Mali’s if it wants to remain relevant. However, such a move should be based on an overarching UN stabilization doctrine and context-specific UN-wide stabilization strategies which are first and foremost political, and should not be confused with the reestablishment of state authority. Such a move should also be accompanied by reforms in the design of ‘lighter’ but more capable UN operations, and partnership with non-UN parallel fighting forces with shared stabilization objectives, but with a clear division of labor

La reconciliación es uno de los retos de la consolidación de la paz. El ejercicio de la soberanía por parte de las instituciones locales, puede originar diferencias con las organizaciones internacionales durante la transformación del conflicto. El desafío es coordinar estrategias y medidas en el tiempo. El proceso de reconciliación comenzó en Malí con un gobierno de transición. Durante el año 2014, el gobierno ha tratado de impulsar el proceso, en un contexto en el que se han reproducido los enfrentamientos tribales, se han dado nuevos choques entre el MNLA y las Fuerzas Armadas malíes, y dónde sigue influyendo la actividad terrorista yihadista. IBK se refirió a aspectos fundamentales para el futuro inmediato del proceso tras los acontecimientos de mayo en Kidal. Tras estos acontecimientos, las negociaciones de paz se desarrollan con la mediación argelina. La complementariedad entre la justicia nacional y la internacional será una de las claves, lo que a su vez puede interrelacionar con la potencial re-integración futura de excombatientes.

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