Assess The Role Of Peacekeeping In Liberia

The United Nations fights for humanitarian issues through the use of peaceful dialogue between countries and leaders. The UN's powers of authorising peacekeeping, sanctions and force when absolutely necessary is given to it by the UN charter, an international treaty. They are limited by the fact that they cannot make their resolutions and policies the law, however the important conversations they start and ideas that are shared are influential upon the many powerful leaders who choose to listen.

The UN and the US government are accredited for deploring conflict situations as well as contributing humanitarian aid, and this is what these two organizations did in Rwanda and Darfur. However, the UN did not do anything to punish or prevent the genocides that took place in these two countries. The US government promised to support the peace talk’s agreement in Darfur and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts. It never kept that promise since nothing has been done. So far, the UN’s Security Council has also failed in its peace keeping mission effeorts, and is instead pressuring Sudan with words only. No solid steps have been made to bring the wrong doers into justice (Shapiro).

Although in the past, Canada vastly supported the United Nations, a peacekeeping group, Canada’s rank in the UN Peacekeeping contributions chart has decreased from the 20th to the 21st century. Canada used to be ranked 8th in 1990 sending an average of 1000 forces, whether they be police, military experts, or troops. However in comparison to the other countries that provided thousands of Peacekeepers, in the year 2015, Canada was only ranked 68th sending a total average of 116 forces. From the major decrease of Canadian peacekeepers, it is observed that Canada has scaled back their role as a peacekeeping nation, allowing Canada to uncover its peacemaker within. Secondly, United Nations added an online mediation support tool called Peacemakers. Designed for use by peacemaking professionals, the tool consists of peace agreements, knowledge for guidance as well as material involving the United Nations mediation support services. Peacemaker is used to provide information on various topics revolving around peace mission. The UN’s efforts to try to resolve the worldwide conflict are presented through UN Peacemaker. The UN added peacemaker to inform others of peacemaking, showing that it is not just peacekeeping. Thirdly, the United Nations collects money from its members, Canada may be 9th in the top ten providers, however Canada used to

Established on the banks of western Africa is a small country known as Liberia. Liberia is an astonishing country, with its history and culture. The first thing you might notice about Liberia is its African heritage. Liberia was not only founded but also colonized but freed African slaves. It is also known fact that the people are very friendly in Liberia. The culture of Liberia is amazing; some people still carve out African figurines. This country has fought a long way for its freedom. That’s why it is a wonderful land of liberty! This nation needs to be recognized and you will agree that Liberia needs to be visited at least once.

Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.

The conflict in Darfur refers to the fighting that is happening in the western region of Sudan known as Darfur. These fights have been taking place since 2003 and have continued to today. Similarities can be made to the Rwandan Genocide; there is a government funded and armed militia that is not officially supported by the government that is killing a local population. The citizens of the region of Darfur that are being killed are not Arabic, like the majority of the rest of Sudan is, however, they are more similar in culture and other aspects to the citizens of South Sudan, Sudan’s neighboring country to the south with which Sudan has had multiple wars with. Despite the fact that there is a militia that is killing citizens, there are also other militias that are fighting for the Darfuri people. These two sides have been fighting each other for close to ten years. Even though citizens of a certain group are being targeted by a militia, the conflict in Darfur is not a genocide. The United States should not get involved militarily in this conflict because it is only a conflict and not a genocide. It is a war between two groups over disputes between these groups. Instead, the United States should use diplomacy to help end the conflict happening in Darfur.

Thesis: The role of the United Nations has changed from being primarily an international peacekeeping force to primarily a humanitarian organization.

Prior to the outbreak of the genocide in April 1994, the United Nations had established the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda. UNAMIR forces consistent of just over 2,000 personnel, and was responsible for the supervision the transition from war to peace. Their responsibilities included ‘monitoring the ceasefire, assisting with demobilisation and mine clearance, and encouraging the facilitation of political and social conditions that would allow a transitional government to take control.1

Sierra Leone had been considered a fragile state even before its civil war from 1991-2002, this is because it had “weak capacity and will to provide security and deliver services to its population” (Pickering, 2009, p20). The decade during the civil war was overwhelmed by huge human rights abuses, lack of coherent governments, weak social security structures and masses of violence (Evoe, 2008, p2).. A number of peace efforts were generated by international institutions, none of which were extensively effective throughout all of Sierra Leone. Despite these difficulties, the intervention in Sierra Leone is considered a noteworthy success for the United Nations peacebuilding mission. The main objective of peacebuilding missions is to ‘rebuild’ failing and weak states (Cubitt, 2013, p91) and to “prevent violence from recurring in countries that are just emerging from civil conflict” (Paris, 2002, p637). The UN mission in Sierra Leone is widely regarded as an example of successful peacebuilding in a war torn country. The mission facilitated a transition from, a failing state to a moderately peaceful state. This mission is held as an example of successful intervention, and is often used as a means to justify the benefits of UN peacebuilding and peacekeeping missions.

Romeo Dallaire, the UN general during the Rwandan genocide, asked for U.N help many times. Unfortunately his attempts for help were denied, because his plead for help went against the original mandate for being there in Rwanda in the first place. The mandate was that the peace keepers were supposed to keep the peace not make peace. My personal opinion was not that the international institutions are weak, but that the affiliated parties responsible in those international institutions are. The inaction of the United States in Rwanda has been the result of an entire native population to be wiped from this

Upon its withdrawal in 1995, the UN left Somalia in mostly the same state it was in in 1992. The mission created the idea in future involvements not to cross the “Mogadishu line” from peacekeeping to war-fighting (Clarke). UNOSOM 2 also suffered 154 fatalities as well as major problems stemming from the complexity of its mandate and command and control issues, confusion over the appropriate rules of engagement (RoE), lack of effective intelligence gathering capabilities, and the huge challenges involved in a predominantly military mission being tasked with inherently political goals

The fact that the United Nations failed to prevent the Rwandan genocide is unavoidable. Nevertheless, due to this atrocious event, the UN has learnt an important lesson so that it can avoid further more of genocides. The Rwandan genocide consisted around 800,000 Tutsi’s that got massacred by the Hutu extremists for 100 days. After the UN reflected and learned from the massacre in Rwanda, the UN announced to establish and work as Responsibility to Protect; To intervene when a country is involved with atrocious acts, such as genocides (Bryce-Pease, 2014). Romeo Dallaire, a former general of the United Nations Mission In Rwanda, argues that the UN has not learnt much or reformed its peacekeeping methods, since many conflicts still exists (Bryce-Pease,

Develop rapidly deployable U.S. military forces to prevent mass atrocities. The US administration can provide specific guidance to the military in its National Security Strategy to plan and train its rapidly deployable forces for genocide- and mass-atrocity-prevention missions. US already has a rapid deployable force which has to be tuned for the multilateral and UN missions. sharing responsibilities will enhance the UN Security Council's credibility and legitimacy for conflict prevention and response.

International peacekeeping efforts are a relatively new feature in military strategy. They have their roots in earlier conflicts, most notably the First Schleswig War between Denmark and Prussia in 1849-1850. A combined force of 3,800 troops from both Sweden and Norway with the intent of maintaining law and order and keeping the peace were assembled, while an armistice was worked out. This set the precedent for peacekeeping operations that would become more commonplace in the twentieth century. After the First World War, the League of Nations was established, the predecessor of what would later become the United Nations. The League was established in large part to hopefully avoid another world war as devastating as the Great War, as it was called. The League of Nations ultimately disbanded, giving way to the United Nations, but peacekeeping operations increased and evolved to encompass broader and more complex conflicts, including civil wars, which were ignored by the League out of respect for a nation’s sovereignty. This brief summary will address how peacekeeping operations evolved over time and how these operations, or a specific operation, shapes the view of peacekeeping operations by the American people.

The United Nations, with its rigid moral and political limitations against force, has become a benchmark of peace and a social achievement of modern times. From war torn Europe, the United Nations developed from five major powers with an initial goal to prevent the spread of warfare through peaceful means and to establish and maintain fundamental human rights. Through the past fifty years, this organization has broadened its horizons with auxiliary organizations from peace keeping missions to humanitarian aid, to economic development. However, in a modern example of ethnic cleansing, the UN faces new a new role as a bystander as its power is bypassed by NATO forces. The UN, however, promises to be an