Overload,Not Marginalization,Threatens UN Peacekeeping

1 Cited in Judith Miller, `U.N. Security Council Relegated to Sidelines', New York Times, 14 March 1999.

2 See for instance Halvor Elvik, `FN på sidelinjen' [UN on the Sideline], Dagbladet, 21 April 1999; Michèle Griffin, `Blue Helmet Blues: Assessing the Trend Towards “Subcontracting” UN Peace Operations', Security Dialogue, vol. 30, no. 1, March 1999, pp. 43-60; Giandomenico Picco, `Keeping the U.N. Relevant by Appealing to the Young', Los Angeles Times, 11 July 1999; `Kosovo: Former General Ass'y Chiefs Fear UN Is Marginalized', UN Wire, 14 May 1999.

3 `Security Council: Annan Calls Informal Retreat', UN Wire, 8 June 1999.

4 Kevin O'Brien, `Military-Advisory Groups and African Security: Privatized Peacekeeping?', International Peacekeeping, vol. 5, no. 3, Autumn 1998, pp. 78-105; David Shearer, `Private Armies and Military Intervention', Adelphi Paper 316 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); UN Press Release SG/SM/6613.

5 Roland Paris, `The End of the UN as a Security Organization?', Washington Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 1997, pp. 191-206; Terry Terriff & James F. Keeley, `The United Nations, Conflict Management and Spheres of Interest', International Peacekeeping, vol. 2, no. 4, Winter 1995, pp. 510-535.

6 Eric Berman, `The Security Council's Increasing Reliance on Burden-Sharing: Collaboration or Abrogation?', International Peacekeeping, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1998, p. 10.

7 Cedric de Coning, `African Perspectives on Intervention: The Rising Tide of Neo-Interventionism', in Anthony McDermott, ed., Sovereign Intervention (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1999), pp. 171-190; Espen Barth Eide, `Intervening Without the UN: A Rejoinder', Security Dialogue, vol. 30, no. 1, March 1999, pp. 91-94.

8 Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, `Restructuring the UN', Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 437, 8-14 July 1999; `Peacekeeping: Security Council Reform May Be Needed', UN Wire, 28 May 1999.

9 Michèle Griffin, `Retrenchment, Reform and Regionalization: Trends in UN Peace Support Operations', International Peacekeeping, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1999, p. 13; Peter Lehmann Nielsen, `Great Powers, Institutions and Legitimacy: An Analysis of the Negotiations on UN Security Council Reform after the Cold War' (MA thesis, Institute of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, 1999).

10 In late February 2000, only 2,300 police officers out of an authorized 4,718 had arrived in Kosovo. In East Timor only 480 out of 1,640 had arrived by 31 January 2000. See `United Nations Peacekeeping Operations', Background Note, 1 February 2000 (UN Department of Public Information).

11 `UN Announces Deployment of Child Protection Advisers, Groundbreaking Development in UN Peacekeeping', UN Press Release HR/4463 PKO/85, 22 February 2000.

12 John Otte, `UN Concept for Peacekeeping Training', Military Review, vol. 83, no. 4, July-August 1998, pp. 25-30.

13 S/1999/595, 22 May 1999, para. 9; S/RES/1246, 11 June 1999; S/RES/1270, 22 October 1999; S/RES/1272, 25 October 1999; `UN Team To Set Up Bases Inside Congo', New Vision (Kampala), 13 October 1999.

14 S/2000/1289, 7 February 2000; S/2000/1291, 24 February 2000.

15 Griffin (note 2 above), p. 47.

16 `Australia, UN Mission in East Timor Sign $1.4 Billion Gas Exploration Accord', UN Newservice, 23 February 2000.

17 S/RES/1162, 17 April 1998; S/1998/486, 9 June 1998, paras 19-20.

18 S/RES/1101, 28 March 1997; S/RES/1125, 6 August 1997; S/RES/1264, 15 September 1999.

19 S/PRST/1998/35, 30 November 1998.

20 This report is available at http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/lessons/regcoop.htm.

21 Berman (note 6 above), p. 10; Griffin (note 9 above), p. 22; Nicholas J. Wheeler & Justin Morris, `Humanitarian Intervention and State Practice at the End of the Cold War', in Rick Fawn & Jeremy Larkins, eds, International Society After the Cold War (London: Macmillan, 1996), p. 160.

22 David Millwood, ed., The International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience. Study 3: Humanitarian Aid and Effects (Copenhagen, Danida, 1996), pp. 42-43, 48: note 40; Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis, 1959-1994: History of a Genocide (London: Hurst & Company, 1995), p. 293.

23 Millwood (note 22 above), p. 154.

24 Madeleine K. Albright, `After Kosovo: Building A Lasting Peace', remarks and Q&A session with the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, 28 June 1999.

25 The Contact Group is made up of France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and the USA. For an analysis of Contact Group cooperation during the Kosovo crisis, see Peter Viggo Jakobsen, `Kontaktgruppen i Kosovo: Koncert trods mislyde' [The Contact Group in Kosovo: Concert Despite Dissonances], Politica, vol. 32, no. 2, 2000 (forthcoming).

26 See `Russian-NATO Relationship Mending', Associated Press, 7 February 2000; Steven Lee Myers, `Chinese Military To Resume Contacts With the Pentagon', New York Times, 6 January 2000.

27 See Randall Richard, `NATO Official Justifies Use of Force in Talk at Brown', Providence Journal-Bulletin, 26 March 1999, p. A16.

28 UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali famously voiced this critique in July 1992 when he accused the Western powers of fighting `the rich man's war' in Yugoslavia while ignoring the collapse of Somalia. NATO's Operation Allied Force in Kosovo in 1999 has reinforced this perception among African elites. See Lynne Duke, `In Africa, Frustration and Envy Over the West's Rapid Response', Washington Post, 7 May 1999.

29 John Mackinlay, `UN Peacekeeping: Ready for Kosovo?', World Today, vol. 55, no. 6, June 1999, pp. 4-6; Thomas G. Weiss, `Humanitarian Shell Games: Whither UN Reform?', Security Dialogue, vol. 29, no. 1, March 1998, pp. 9-23.

30 As of 27 April 1999, 12 countries were members of SHIRBRIG's executive body, the steering committee: Argentina, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. Six countries had status as observers: The Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Jordan, Portugal and Slovenia. See http://www.shirbrig.dk.

31 The main contributors to peacekeeping operations during the Cold War were Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Ghana, India, Ireland, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Senegal and Sweden.

32 For a reform proposal along similar lines, see Richard Butler, `Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered: Repairing the Security Council', Foreign Affairs, vol. 78, no. 5, September/October 1999, pp. 9-12. Several states, including Denmark and Germany, advocated such changes during their opening addresses at the General Assembly's 54th session in September-October 1999.

33 Jeremy Ginifer, `Emergent African Peace-keeping: Self-help and External Assistance', in Anthony McDermott, ed., Humanitarian Force, PRIO Report 4/97 (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute, 1997), pp. 123-141.