Wrong strategies lead UN peacekeepers to fail to end conflicts.
Monday 06/26/2023
Despite the deployment of peacekeeping forces in nearly 50 conflict zones in the world, most of which are in Africa and where more than one and a half billion people live under the threat of violence, the UN organization claims that it has helped end many armed conflicts and promote reconciliation through peacekeeping operations. Successful in many crisis areas, these forces are causing widespread controversy in light of their failures in most of their operations.
The popular protests against the United Nations missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and other countries and their repercussions have raised many questions about the effectiveness of the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa in dealing with security threats and risks, as the United Nations is one of the main international actors in the field of Maintaining peace and security in Africa since the beginning of the sixties of the last century, and it has maintained the largest number of its previous and current missions in the African continent, based on the growing risks and security threats at various levels.
Mali’s demand for international peacekeeping forces to leave its territory “without delay” had a strong impact, but signs began to appear before the announcement in mid-June, at a time of growing criticism of some United Nations peacekeeping operations, especially in Africa.
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Richard Gowan: The population looks upon the UN units with skepticism and contempt Richard Gowan: The population looks upon the UN units with skepticism and contempt
On June 16, Malian Foreign Minister Abdallah Diop called for the withdrawal of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) “without delay,” criticizing its “failure” to achieve stability in the country since its arrival in 2013.
Under these circumstances, the UN Security Council, which was supposed to vote on June 29 to renew the mission’s mandate, must accept this request, according to diplomatic sources.
One of these sources told AFP that the latest draft resolution under discussion, which must be approved by the Security Council, “certifies the withdrawal” and talks about a six-month period to organize the departure of about 12,000 soldiers and policemen.
“Since the military coup in 2020, MINUSMA has been in a permanent crisis,” said Anjali Dayal, professor of international politics at Fordham University.
The United Nations has always talked about the obstacles that the ruling military council places in the face of the mission’s movement, while the latter was calling for a mission to attack terrorist groups.
Dial confirmed that the UN mission in Mali “is not the only mission in the world facing this kind of problem related to the host country,” citing several examples, including the missions deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
For his part, Patrick Labuda of the University of Zurich said, “There is a compromise crisis in several countries in Africa, but we should also not generalize too much, this decision is explained by the government’s financial priorities.”
“The population and governments are not satisfied with the services of the blue hats,” Labuda added, but “the reasons differ in each country.”
Richard Gowan of the non-governmental International Crisis Group pointed to common points between the UN missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Mali, where “the blue hats find it difficult to play an effective role in the face of the ongoing violence.” “The locals usually view the UN units with suspicion and contempt,” he said.
There have also been anti-UN demonstrations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) calling on the government to “accelerate” the departure of its mission.
The use of force is a last resort in defence The use of force is a last resort in defence
In light of the disinformation campaigns, Julie Gregory of the American think tank Stimson Center says that the United Nations has worked a lot to improve its strategic communication and communication with the population and increase public awareness of what its forces can achieve and not achieve.
In doing so, one of the three principles of peacekeeping is clear: peacekeepers are only permitted to use force as a last resort to defend themselves or the mission; they are neither a peace-enforcing nor a counter-terrorism force.
But some governments in Africa “consider the UN wasting too much time talking about human rights and not enough time eliminating problematic insurgents,” Gowan said, pointing to the alternative, the Russian armed Wagner group, as “a recipe for more chaos.” .
Gregory considered that the divisions within the UN Security Council do not help improve the situation, explaining, “I think that the levels of opposition that we see from the host countries – not all of them, but some of them – are related to the divisions in the Security Council.”
“Unfortunately, host countries use it as leverage to advance their own interests,” she added.
Laboda warned that Mali’s decision “will perhaps send a signal to other governments: if you are not satisfied, you can demand, this could reduce the room for maneuver” at the United Nations.
Reasons for failure
Although the budget for peacekeeping forces amounts to $7 billion annually, it represents less than half of one percent of all global military spending. Although the budget for peacekeeping forces amounts to $7 billion annually, it represents less than half of one percent of all global military spending.
UN peacekeeping forces often fail to achieve their main objectives in many areas of their deployment. Severine Otisser, a political science professor at Barnard College at Columbia University, attributes the reasons for its failure to several factors:
Lack of resources: It is difficult to blame the United Nations on this issue, as it depends on material contributions from its members. Peacekeeping forces’ leadership usually blames the UN Security Council for not providing sufficient resources. Moreover, the great powers do not care much about the crises for which they send the international forces in light of the limited resources available to carry out their tasks.
Although the peacekeeping budget amounts to $7 billion annually, it represents less than half of one percent of total global military spending.
It is expected that the United Nations will help solve more than a quarter of the wars in the world, depending on that budget. Even when powerful nations and troop contributors provide ample resources for a peacekeeping operation, the effort often fails. Therefore, the leaders of the peacekeeping forces believe that it is necessary to provide the necessary financial and logistical support, and more trained people, for the success of its missions to achieve peace and stability in conflict areas. It also calls for not placing restrictions on the work of peacekeeping forces, as this leads to tragic results.
* Adopting a wrong strategy: The United Nations strategy ignores dealing with ordinary citizens, and in return prefers to deal with the elites. Thus, the UN organization fails to do what it should by adopting strategies that focus on a “bottom-up” approach, which is based on good knowledge of the societies of the deployment areas, and allowing the participation of the people themselves in order to reach the best ways to promote peace.
The popular protests in the face of the United Nations missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and other countries and their repercussions raise many questions.
Some residents in the areas where the peacekeepers operate complain of their arrogance, that they do little work, and they criticize them, seeing them as a new form of colonialism. There are also some allegations of the participation of some of its soldiers in torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, which caused serious damage to the reputation of the United Nations. Based on the above, the local population often refuses to cooperate with international initiatives.
Small number of troops involved: Given that the UN does not have its own military forces, and peacekeepers operate under harsh conditions, crumbling infrastructure and corrupt officials, the number of troops involved on the ground is minimal. States are often reluctant to risk the lives of their soldiers in conflicts in which they have no interest. Therefore, it often takes months for the international organization to muster the forces it needs, and ends up with untrained and poorly paid soldiers.
Interference of officers of some countries in peacekeeping operations: The UN Security Council needs to compel troop-contributing countries to stop interfering with operations on the ground, and to require their officers to respect the chain of command. But the peacekeepers cannot blame the Security Council for all the shortcomings.
Despite all the limitations and the negative image of sexual assault cases caused by United Nations soldiers, experts stress the need not to forget the “successes” achieved by United Nations operations.
“The picture that we see of peacekeeping operations is marred by its failures, because they are clear and major failures,” Dial said.
“But it’s a fairly successful tool,” she added. Its spread is sometimes sufficient to limit the spread of conflicts and reduce the number of victims, in addition to protecting the population from the rebels.
The article first appeared on alarab-co-uk
