As nations become more interconnected and come into greater contact, conflicts are increasingly boiling over, from narco-terrorism to piracy, leading internal conflicts to spread instability to other nations and continents. Thus, preventing conflicts and maintaining stability- depending on the region- can be a hugely important role for multi-national organizations. The United Nations and other multinational organizations such as the AU have peacekeeping mechanisms, but face major challenges in exerting influence. Peacekeeping has proved unsuccessful in many cases, including Somalia, because of weaknesses in the peacekeeping operations, including the lack of clarity on when to intervene, how to intervene (strategy), and the difficulty in finding resources for missions. These challenges, I believe, can be alleviated through more operational efficiency; however, they cannot be completely eliminated because they are inherent to the nature of peacekeeping, given the nature of anarchic international politics and global governance structures.
Recommendations
- Peacekeepers should only go into a situation where there is a peace to keep
- A criteria should be developed to elaborate on how engagement should occur, based on consent and impartiality
- Nation building and peace enforcement should not be the function of multinational peacekeeping operations
- Mandates should be limited in scope and resourced appropriately
- The peacekeeping strategy used should be context specific, local knowledge is necessary
- A clear command and control structure should be established for contingents
- Resources should be more effectively acquired through institutional re-structuring to increase the incentives to support missions
- Rapid peacekeeping troop deployment mechanisms should be established
