APU MILH565 All Weeks Forums Latest 2019 December

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 1 Forum

Peacekeeping Introduction and UN Operations

Make sure to integrate the readings for the week.  Page numbers are helpful.  The form is (Author last name year, page).  See more about citation in the Course Materials in the Syllabus.

1.  What are the reasons for beginning the study of peacekeeping operations history with the year 1988?  Further, why is the year 2000 a watershed in UN peacekeeping reform?

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 2 Forum

Please answer the following question, incorporating our readings and course materials from the Lessons for this week.

At the end of the Cold War, when one might have expected a period of peace and stability, we see the opposite--a noticeable increase in the number of peacekeeping operations. In the five years between 1989 and 1994, the Security Council authorized a total of 20 new operations, and an increase from 11,000 to 75,000 peacekeeping troops and civilian personnel.

Peacekeepers conducted in operations including the nations of Angola, Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique, Namibia - and our case study, Yugoslavia. In addition to their mandate to keep the peace their duties included helping to implement peace agreements, train and reorganize the military and police departments, supervise elections and assist in building democratic institutions.

Question:  After completing our readings, please evaluate the degree of success of these missions overall. You may also comment on the reasons for the dramatic increase in peacekeeping operations.  How did the theories, principles, and methodologies of UN peacekeeping help or hinder the success?

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 3 Forum

Peacekeeping Transitions and Operations in Haiti

Last week we discussed the general changes that we see in peacekeeping operations from the Cold War to the post-Cold War Era. This week, please take one of the several examples which we've read about and discuss the ways in which it demonstrates the new, expanded role of peacekeepers. Do those roles bear a resemblance to what we consider nation-building? Is that an appropriate mandate for the United Nations.

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 4 Forum

The success of peacekeeping missions during the Cold War and immediately after set the bar high for continued US missions. Ultimately the US found that bar set too high, with too many expectations and the Security Council simply could not provide the resources necessary to meet all the demands for assistance which members presented.

Interestingly the types of missions changed in the mid 1990s when the UN sent troops to Yugoslovia, Rwanda and Somalia prior to the actual establishment of peace. The international community criticized these missions and the Security Council for overreaching, and placing the peacekeepers themselves in danger. When civilian casualties occurred in the presence of peacekeepers,it damaged the reputation of United Nations operations. These problems led to a period of serious reevaluation of peacekeeping policies and procedures to avoid such issues in the future.

We will read several of these reports, and this week will discuss the events which led to UN peacekeeping failures and evaluate the recommended solutions. Have they been properly implemented, and did they work?

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 5 Forum

In our last forum we explored some of the peacekeeping operations which led to serious reexamination of UN operations.  Additionally, after 2000, the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect began to take shape within the UN.  In retrospect, how might R2P have been useful as a tool for humanitarian intervention in either the case for El Salvador (1980-92) or Cambodia (1975-79)?  Would its use have changed the nature of the later peacekeeping operation and its outcome?

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 6 Forum

At the beginning of the 21st century, the UN ordered a serious examination of the peacekeeping efforts of the 1990s and suggested reforms in the so-called Brahimi Report which we will examine.

These years also saw peacekeeping operations in Burundi, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eritrea and Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Syria. Such a number of commitments meant that, UN Peacekeepers were stretched incredibly thin and were taking on increasingly diverse missions. These missions required them to develop new strategies to accomplish missions unstable environments with an ever-changing list of requirements and expectations

In this forum we should discuss the types of reforms recommended, and how they played out in the peacekeeping operations of the past decade.  What new challenges did they face? Were they successful?

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 7 Forum

Individuals can have a tremendous impact on events, including limiting atrocities. We've seen how Lakhdar Brahimi's guidance of the Panel on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations impacted its final report.  In this forum, please select one person who has been important in UN peacekeeping efforts, and discuss how he or she influenced a particular operation or overall peacekeeping policy especially as it concerns genocide.

MILH565 History of Peacekeeping - 1988 to present

Week 8 Forum

Imagine a post-conflict peacekeeping operation on the Korean Peninsula.  Given your readings from Week 8, what would be important theoretical and operational approaches for a successful operation?  What approaches might lead to failure (given your knowledge of other UN peacekeeping mission disasters)?