THE UNITED NATIONS AND CONFLICT IN AFRICA SINCE THE COLD WAR

This article is a brief review of the United Nations' experiencein the prevention, management and resolution of conflict inAfrica between the end of the Cold War and mid-1998. It describesthe various partners with whom the United Nations has workedfor these purposes and the different functions involved—peacemaking,peacekeeping, electoral assistance and humanitarian relief.It assesses frankly the results the United Nations has achieved,giving it low marks for peacemaking (most peace settlementsin Africa have been mediated by non-UN actors) but higher marksfor peacekeeping (both the traditional variety and, especially,the new breed of multi-functional peacekeeping operations tohelp implement negotiated settlements), electoral assistanceand humanitarian operations. It examines critically the feasibilityof using multinational forces to protect humanitarian operationsin the middle of continuing conflict. It concludes by statingthe case for an integrated and properly coordinated approachby the international community as a whole to problems of conflictin Africa, and elsewhere.     

EUROPE AND THE PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY IN POST COLD WAR AFRICA: HOW SERIOUS IS EUROPE AND FOR WHAT REASON?

The ending of the Cold War brought new topics on the agendaof the international aid donors. Questions of democracy andhuman rights were voiced with rising intensity not least bythe European Union and by individual European countries. However,when it came to implementing the ambitious principles, boththe EU and the bilateral donors lacked a ‘serious’commitment. This is indicated by European policies towards SouthAfrica, Kenya, Niger and Algeria. The policies of the Europeanstowards Africa in the 1990s have primarily been influenced bysecurity concerns and thus by the narrow national interestsof individual donors. This is particularly manifest in the caseof France which has a dominating position within the developmentcooperation of the EU. Thus, only in very few exceptional instancesis it in the national interest of European donor states to promotemoral issues such as democracy and respect for human rights.In the 1990s such themes have become little more than the rhetoricof politicians and treaties, just as it was during the ColdWar.