Countries with UN peacekeeping operations have more nonviolent protests than countries without UN peacekeepers, particularly if those peacekeeping missions include UN police (UNPOL)
peacekeeping
In this issue, we examine a set of articles with a great deal of regional diversity — two articles focus on peacebuilding or peacekeeping in Africa, one looks at resistance to exclusionary nationalism in Bosnia (Europe), another explores “uncivil society” in Bougainville and Timor-Leste (Asia-Pacific), and, finally, one considers military checkpoints in Iraq (Middle East). These articles heighten our awareness of the complexities and challenges involved in peacebuilding after war. All the more reason to avoid war in the first place.
Inside this issue, we examine research analyzing hundreds of civil war peace agreements that concludes that “complex” agreements are not necessarily better at keeping the peace than simpler ones. Next, we take a critical look at research on public support for military interventions and the motivations behind support for interventions conducted for “humanitarian” reasons. Third, through examining civics textbooks in Sri Lanka in the context of global peace education efforts, we consider how specific omissions and emphases in these textbooks have served the government’s goals, while failing to address the injustice and inequality still plaguing post-war Sri Lanka. Next, we discuss research finding that the primary peacekeeping tasks associated with preventing violence and protecting civilians can be effectively undertaken by unarmed peacekeepers, who are, furthermore, often able to address some of the shortcomings of their armed counterparts. Finally, the last analysis reflects on possible reasons for why past attempts at peace in South Sudan have failed, calling for more psycho-sociologically informed conflict interventions in the future.
Planning staff in EU peacekeeping and crisis management missions maintain traditional understandings of security as a gender-neutral domain in relation to which “gender issues” are seen as an afterthought—not as essential to security work itself
The United Nations doesn't have Peacekeepers, they have soldiers deployed as Peacekeepers. Peacekeeping missions are not military operations, therefore, Peacekeeper training should better reflect the peaceful mandate of the UN and abandon the militarized culture and tactics present in today's Peacekeeping forces.
Research has shown that, in most cases, armed UN peacekeepers help protect civilian lives. However, militarizing any part of a peace process is dangerous and is often met with unintended consequences.
An upcoming policy forum by the International Peace Institute will explore tensions between the pursuit of political solutions and the protection of civilians in the context of UN peacekeeping missions. Peace Science shows how the "robust" turn in UN peacekeeping has resulted in unintended consequences to civilians and the peacebuilding process.
Robust peacekeeping may succeed in protecting civilians in the short-term but has unintended effects that may jeopardize the broader work of UN missions.
Peacekeepers with the ability to enforce peace agreements are better able to build norms of trust and cooperation compared to the absence of peacekeepers.