{"id":265970,"date":"2018-02-20T11:30:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T16:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/the-caricaturing-of-un-peacekeeping\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:59:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:59:25","slug":"the-caricaturing-of-un-peacekeeping","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/02\/the-caricaturing-of-un-peacekeeping\/","title":{"rendered":"The Caricaturing of UN Peacekeeping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dropcap-big\">Peter MacKay has written a provocative and useful <a href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/magazines\/january-2018\/peacekeeping-is-not-suited-to-todays-conflicts\/\"><em>Policy Options<\/em> article<\/a> about the dark side of peacekeeping. While he is mostly wrong on many levels, we should be indebted to him for amassing so many of the straw man arguments in one place.<\/p>\n<p>MacKay suggests that traditional peacekeeping is antiquated and obsolete. What Lester Pearson was awarded the Nobel Prize for, a mission where peacekeepers stand between warring parties that have agreed to a truce, is no longer the most requested operation type. MacKay is without question correct that this kind of peacekeeping is mostly not what happens these days (although it still has a place). But nobody denies this! Complex, multidimensional, multipurposed modern peacekeeping has been the default framework for a very long time \u2014 and at least since the 2000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/events\/pastevents\/brahimi_report.shtml\">Brahimi Report<\/a> on United Nations peace operations. A quick read of the UN Peacekeeping <a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\">website<\/a> is warranted for those who think \u201ctraditional\u201d peacekeeping is what the UN still mostly does.<\/p>\n<p>MacKay is right in pointing out that the \u201ctragic missions in Somalia (1992-93) and Rwanda (1993-96) drastically undermined the view of traditional peacekeeping.\u201d Indeed. Looking back (25 years later!), it is obvious that UN peacekeeping has evolved as a result. In fact, about half of all missions have started since 1994, and the bulk of these are clearly nontraditional in scope and design. So why not acknowledge that evolution? Why repeat the mythology that peacekeeping is still rooted in a traditional, <a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/mission\/unficyp\">Cyprus<\/a>-era model? Nobody argues that tired clich\u00e9, except Peter MacKay, a handful of retired generals and certain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/editorials\/the-liberals-fudge-their-peacekeeping-promise-and-with-good-reason\/article36997332\/\">national newspaper<\/a> editors. We must wonder about the motivations behind repeatedly reviving a caricature of what peacekeeping is, so many years after the UN has reimagined the tasks, the mission robustness and the rules of engagement for operations.<\/p>\n<p>There is a reason why there are about 100,000 soldiers, police and civilian peacekeepers in the field in more than 15 missions and why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/sections\/what-we-do\/maintain-international-peace-and-security\/\">their duties<\/a> are now to \u201cfacilitate political processes,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/protecting-civilians\">protect civilians<\/a>, assist in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/disarmament-demobilization-and-reintegration\">disarmament, demobilization and reintegration<\/a>\u00a0of former combatants; support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/promoting-human-rights\">promote human rights\u00a0<\/a>and assist in restoring the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/peacekeeping.un.org\/en\/strengthening-rule-of-law\">rule of law<\/a>.\u201d For starters, UN peacekeeping works \u2014 not always, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cips-cepi.ca\/2014\/08\/02\/does-peacekeeping-work\/\">most of the time<\/a>. And it is undeniably cost-effective. Many of the required tasks are things that NATO (in particular) doesn\u2019t do, or doesn\u2019t do well. Maybe it can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t do them.<\/p>\n<p>MacKay mentions the \u201crapid reaction force\u201d promised by Canada at the November 2017 Vancouver peacekeeping summit. This offering shows particular promise for those of us who have for years argued for greater UN standing capacity and a permanent <a href=\"https:\/\/globalcommonsecurity.org\/drpeterlangille\/initiatives\/united-nations-emergency-peace-service-uneps\/\">UN Emergency Peace Service<\/a>. Presumably MacKay\u2019s glib passage over this subject means we shouldn\u2019t want new capabilities at the UN that respond faster, better and earlier, that might enable resolution or suppression of conflicts before they get out of hand and that might save lives and stop mass atrocities. Rapid deployment capability is a potentially major enhancement of the UN toolkit, and it might make certain kinds of NATO intervention obsolete. It deserves serious attention, not MacKay\u2019s dismissive one-liner: \u201cWe already have DART\u201d \u2014 which in any event confuses humanitarian assistance delivered by the military (and let\u2019s note the necessary caveats) with a timely <u>security<\/u> response.<\/p>\n<p>Further on, MacKay takes more than a few swipes at the UN writ large and argues in favour of NATO leadership, NATO methods and NATO hard power, military prowess and ballistic missile defence: in other words, NATO instead of the United Nations. Then he writes that military goals and mission choices should \u201cclearly be defined predominantly by the military, overseen and directed by democratically elected bodies.\u201d I think we know where this is heading: \u201cOperational decisions [should not be] thwarted or overtaken by political decisions.\u201d That sounds like the UN handing a military mission over to NATO and then letting it run its course. MacKay is opposed to the continuance of \u201ctraditional\u201d peacekeeping, but he is attracted to \u201cmuscular missions\u201d like Kosovo, which were \u201cmore in keeping with traditional military objectives.\u201d NATO\u2019s Kosovo mission, we shouldn\u2019t hesitate to mention, was judged <a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/albania\/kosovo-report\">\u201cillegal but legitimate \u201d<\/a> (and how much more chaotic would it have been in the absence of UNMIK, the UN peacekeeping operation, and a heavy presence of UN agencies?).<\/p>\n<p>Civilian authority, as it turns out, is a significant attribute that distinguishes NATO missions from UN missions. What happened in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.responsibilitytoprotect.org\/index.php\/crises\/190-crisis-in-libya\/3803-robin-collins-world-federalist-movement-canada-thinking-about-libya-the-responsibility-to-protect-and-regime-change-a-lessons-learned-discussion-paper\">Libya<\/a> (whether or not one is willing to acknowledge there was wrongdoing) was that a UN-authorized military mission was handed over to NATO. NATO leadership then morphed a civilian protection objective into regime change. There was no real outsider oversight, and UN ownership evaporated. As MacKay puts it, however, \u201cIt is speed and lethality in balance that win the day, as in the first Gulf War and Libya.\u201d Who today believes the day was won in Libya and that this was a success story? Libya is what happens when you have a military mission without an overarching political framework to build the peace. This is how we can distinguish a NATO mission from a modern UN peace operation.<\/p>\n<p>MacKay\u00a0fails to\u00a0mention\u00a0the peace process\u00a0and its fundamental role in\u00a0conflict resolution\u00a0and\u00a0mission success.\u00a0The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/group78.org\/tag\/defence-policy-review\/\">peace process is critical<\/a>,\u00a0and while\u00a0it is an unsurprising\u00a0component\u00a0of modern UN peacekeeping, it is not (yet) a NATO priority.\u00a0Surely there\u2019s an omission, at best, when\u00a0it isn\u2019t referred to\u00a0in a discussion of peacekeeping pros and cons.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-caption\">Photo:\u00a0Jean-Pierre Lacroix, United Nations peacekeeping chief, third left, arrives at Mavivi airport in Beni eastern Congo, Dec. 19, 2017. (AP Photo\/Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro)<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options<em>\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/article-submission\/\"><em>link<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em><em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em><em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0<em>et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/article-submission\/\"><em>directives<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter MacKay has written a provocative and useful Policy Options article about the dark side of peacekeeping. While he is mostly wrong on many levels, we should be indebted to him for amassing so many of the straw man arguments in one place. MacKay suggests that traditional peacekeeping is antiquated and obsolete. What Lester Pearson [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":256428,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T01:59:27Z","apple_news_api_id":"2fe0d9da-1955-49d9-88fc-e5427b9e8283","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T01:59:27Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AL-DZ2hlVSdmI_OVCe56Cgw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9360,9372],"tags":[8419],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4217],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7188],"class_list":["post-265970","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-united-nations-fr","irpp-category-affaires-internationales","irpp-tag-nations-unies"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Caricaturing of UN Peacekeeping<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/02\/the-caricaturing-of-un-peacekeeping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Caricaturing of UN Peacekeeping\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter MacKay has written a provocative and useful Policy Options article about the dark side of peacekeeping. 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