UNAMID and the Legitimation of Global-Regional Peacekeeping Cooperation: Partnership and Friction in UN-AU Relations

ABSTRACT

The ‘hybrid' United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was initially hailed as a model for peacekeeping cooperation between the UN and African regional organizations. However, UNAMID soon faced contestation from different stakeholders, and the UN and the AU have now essentially abandoned the hybrid approach. The article reconstructs how the mission’s deteriorating legitimacy relates to changing self-legitimation strategies by the two organizations. The UN and the AU pursued mutual legitimation when establishing UNAMID, but later mobilized historical narratives and diverging normative standards to promote competing authority claims. The article thus advances an understanding of inter-organizational relations as inherently political.     

私营军事公司参与联合国维和之利弊分析

因私营军事公司具有军事能力强、反应快、成本低的特点，西方某些国家、学者与非政府组织主张参与到联合国维和行动及强制行动中来，以克服联合国维和体制中的弊病。目前，国际法与国内法对私营军事公司的监督与监管处于弱态，加之其具有雇佣军掠夺性本质，私营军事公司参与甚至主导联合国维和行动有违联合国宗旨与集体安全制度，且有可能成为西方国家的干涉工具，从而破坏国际和平与安全。     

中国对联合国维持和平行动的态度

中国对联合国维和行动所持有的观念不是一成不变的,其变化动因主要取决于维和行动在各个历史时期的客观表现及中国政府对其性质的主观认定。20世纪50、60年代,中国将“联合国军”看作是帝国主义的警察部队,因此对联合国维和行动保持高度警惕,并勇敢地揭露其“侵略罪行”;70年代,中国对联合国维和行动仍有提防,采取冷静观察的态度;80年代,中国政府逐渐认同维和作用,主动参与维和;90年代至今,中国在维和行动中扮演重要角色。中国政府的积极参与有助于保持维和行动的代表性和活力,有利于维和行动未来的健康发展。     

Towards UN counter-terrorism operations?

The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operation in Mali (MINUSMA) has become among the deadliest in UN history, suffering from attacks by violent extremists and terrorists. There are strong calls to give UN peacekeeping operations more robust mandates and equip them with the necessary capabilities, guidelines and training to be able to take on limited stabilisation and counter-terrorism tasks. This article conceptually develops UN counter-terrorism operations as a heuristic device, and compares this with the mandate and practices of MINUSMA. It examines the related implications of this development, and concludes that while there may be good practical as well as short-term political reasons for moving in this direction, the shift towards UN counter-terrorism operations will undermine the UN’s international legitimacy, its role as an impartial conflict arbiter, and its tools in the peace and security toolbox more broadly, such as UN peacekeeping operations and special political missions.     

维和行动中武装冲突法的适用

维和行动在最近10多年中的发展显著增强了在维和行动中适用武装冲突法的必要性.但是,适用武装冲突法不应改变维和行动的性质和基本原则.为了在维和行动中正确地适用武装冲突法,第一,要在性质上把维和行动与强制和平行动区别开来,继续坚持维和行动的三项基本原则;第二,要明确维和行动适用武装冲突法与交战行为适用武装冲突法的不同,针对维和行动的特点制定适用武装冲突法的具体规则.     

维和行动中军事命令执行的刑法保障

参与联合国维和行动是我军常态化的重要军事任务,从维和实践看,专注于保护我军军事命令执行的军事刑法已经难以适应维和行动的需要。军事刑法有必要根据我军职能任务的拓展创新发展相关理论,将我军参与联合国维和行动期间军事命令的执行秩序纳入保护范围,并将维和期间界定为战时,增设保护维和军事命令执行的相关罪名,以完善军事刑法的理论和规定,更好地满足我军参与联合国维和行动的实践需要。     

UN Troop Deployment and Preventing Violence Against Civilians in Darfur

ABSTRACT

Does the presence of UN peacekeeping force lower civilian fatalities at the local level? If it does, is it because of their coercive military capacity or for other reasons such as their roles in monitoring and reporting violent atrocities? To explore these questions, I study the deployment of peacekeeping units in Darfur and its impact on violence against civilians. Using original geocoded data of UN deployments before and after the intervention, I examine what aspects of such deployments impact one-sided civilian killings by government and rebel groups. Results indicate that deploying UN peacekeepers in an area restrains belligerent from targeting civilians. However, the military capacity of peacekeepers is not a significant predictor of violence against civilians. While their ability to defend themselves is extremely important for peacekeepers, these findings caution against the militarization trend in UN peacekeeping and seek to reshift focus on other substantive aspects of peacekeeping.     

Peacekeeping from Oceania: Perspectives from Australia,New Zealand and Fiji

Abstract

This article gives an overview of the involvement of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in peacekeeping operations with attention to motives, experience and ‘lessons learnt’. Australia and New Zealand have been strongly influenced by regional considerations and an understanding of good international citizenship. Fiji’s contribution has been determined less by regional considerations and more by its position as a small developing country whose peacekeeping activities bring economic benefits, although it could be argued that by providing a basis for extending military forces they have contributed indirectly to political instability. Police contributions have been increasingly important to Australia and New Zealand and they have advocated a stronger role for police in other situations around the world.     

The Local Legitimacy of Peacekeepers

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship and policy doctrine alike have identified local legitimacy as an important ‘success factor’ in peacekeeping – but like many such calls for greater attention to local dynamics, it is often unclear what local legitimacy actually means, how to analyse it, what causal processes are at work, and what might obstruct the operationalization of well-intentioned policy recommendations for peacekeepers to seek local legitimacy. This article aims to bring clarity to the complex concept of local legitimacy, including the ways in which insights drawn from legitimacy theory developed in very different social contexts can be adapted to the realities of the conflict societies into which peacekeepers deploy. First, it examines what it means to locate the legitimacy of peace operations at the local level, rather than the international. Second, it clarifies the causal links between peacekeepers’ legitimacy and their effectiveness, reviewing scholarship on local legitimacy and its adaptation of broader legitimacy theory. Third, it identifies three important reasons that locally legitimizing peacekeepers is so difficult in practice, distinguishing between the difficulties derived from the particular features of conflict societies and those derived from the institutional characteristics of peace operations.     

Developing Powers and the Challenge of Peacekeeping: The Example of Malawi

Abstract

Malawi’s contribution to UN peacekeeping is growing. The development of the Malawi Defence Force was stunted under Hastings Banda, but Malawi’s foreign and security policies were reoriented under multiparty democracy and the Defence Force and police personnel were engaged in peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping has had a profound effect on Malawi. It has led to the procurement of military hardware, contributed substantial sums to the national economy, and raised the income and living standards of participants. It has encouraged the adoption of UN best practice and contributed to gender integration. However, there are issues around transparency and accountability, and more partnerships with developed countries are desirable. There is also a role for the Commonwealth.