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Peace operations / Conference Report

Present and Future of Peace Operations

01/06/2007 By Mariano Aguirre Ernst

Some of the world’s most unstable and violent countries, from Haiti to Côte d’Ivoire and Southern Lebanon, are watched over and policed by the United Nations.

Rarely used until the end of the Cold War, and then discredited by the disasters in Rwanda and Bosnia of the 1990s, UN peace-keeping missions have since become the sole legitimate solution to relentless conflicts and state implosions. There are now 18 operating around the world, involving some 100,000 UN personnel.

Drawing on a major two-day international conference on current and future peacekeeping operation, which took place in March 2007 in Madrid, this report analyzes the huge challenges facing overstretched UN planners, military personnel dropped into barely pacified war zones, national political leaders struggling to reassert their authority, and civil society activists seeking deep and lasting changes in divided societies.

With a focus on four case studies, including Afghanistan, it asks whether the current model of  eacekeeping can resolve its many contradictions, and generate substantial improvements in the world’s hotspots.

With the support of:

 

 

 

 

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Publishing groups

Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis

Keywords

Afghanistan Fragile state Haiti Ivory Coast Latin America & Caribbean Lebanon Middle East NATO Peacekeeping Security Council Sub-Saharan Africa UN

Related publications

• The United Nations and Spain in Haiti

Bio author: Mariano Aguirre Ernst

Mariano Aguirre has been Director of the Centro de Investigación para la Paz, in Madrid, and Coordinator of programmes on peace and conflicts at the Ford Foundation, in New York. Mariano Aguirre publishes articles in various media in Spain and internationally such as OpenDemocracy, Le monde diplomatique, El Correo, La Vanguardia, Maniere de voir, AlertNet, Enjeux Internationaux, Temas, El País, Política Exterior, Debate, BBC World Service, Radio Netherland, Radio Nacional de España, Radio France International, Mediterranean Politics and CNN Spain.