There is no agreed definition of peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is a technique which was developed by the United Nations to help manage and resolve armed conflicts first between
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states and later within states (Goulding 1993). Classical or traditional peacekeepers separate combatants at a physical distance thereby preventing accidental clashes of opposing forces thus inhibiting minor incidents that could result in major conflict. Traditional peacekeeping does not involve military enforcement measures but entails the active participation of United Nations personnel in helping to control and resolve actual or potential international conflicts or internal conflicts which have a clear international dimension (Ibid.). This view is supported by Goulding (1993) who defines peacekeeping as follows:
Field operations established by the United Nations, with the consent of the parties concerned, to help control and resolve conflicts between them under United Nations command and control, at the expense collectively of the member states, and with military and other personnel and equipment provided voluntarily by them, acting impartially between the parties and using force to the minimum extent possible (Goulding 1993:455)
Mullenbach (2005:529) views peacekeeping as constituting “a military and/or civilian personnel deployment by one or more third-party states, under the auspices of a global or regional organization, into a conflict or post-conflict situation for the purposes of preventing the resumption of military hostilities between two parties and/or for the purpose of creating an environment conducive for negotiations between two antagonistic parties.” The International Peace Academy (IPA) defines peacekeeping as:
The prevention, containment, moderation and termination of hostilities between or within States through the medium of a peaceful third party intervention organized and directed internationally using multinational forces of soldiers, police, and civilians to restore and maintain peace (IPA 1974:11).
Basing on the above definitions it is clear that there is no agreed definition of peacekeeping hence it has evolved to assume certain characteristics and responsibilities that were never envisaged at its conceptualization.
The need for UN peacekeeping operations arose after the Charter had already entered into force, when the nature of international conflicts could not be addressed through the mechanism provided for in Chapters VI and VII of the Charter. According to Diehl (1988:486) the provisions provided for in Chapter VI, concerning the pacific settlement of disputes, were considered inadequate and the Security Council stalemate resulting from the use of the veto powers effectively signalled an end to collective security as a viable option for settling international conflict since the permanent members of the Security Council could not agree on collective measures provided for in Chapter VII. The proliferation of decolonized states in the developing world increased the demand for peacekeepers to manage the transition to statehood.
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Jackson (1990) argued that sadly these decolonized states are not truly sovereign, but only
“quasi-states”. Such an argument seems to suggest that these newly decolonized states are liable to outside intervention if they fail in their duties of state governance, especially safeguarding human security (Lang 2010:335). The evolutionary nature and characteristics of United Nations peacekeeping operations seem to buttress the controversial views expressed by Jackson (1990) that decolonized states are indeed “quasi states” susceptible to interference in their internal affairs by outsiders. According to Wedgwood (1995:634), the concept of UN peacekeeping is deeply connected to strategic conflict management where a need arose to
“neutralize and quarantine quarrels with strategic potential” to spread across the affected region or even beyond, hence the selectivity in the conflicts that attracted the attention and intervention by the UN peacekeepers.
Peacekeeping troops are deployed in the classical sense first with authorization of the Security Council and the consent of the host governments and/or the main parties to the conflict after the fighting has stopped rather than before or during the conflict. Diehl (1994) observes that in classical peacekeeping, troops deploy, occupy and patrol a given area while acting as an interposition force between protagonists. This means that ideally, peacekeepers have neither military offensive role nor the offensive capability to engage the protagonists. The goal of peacekeeping was to provide a buffer zone between hostile forces and prevent dangerous shooting and provocative incidents that could escalate hostilities and permanently jeopardize the cease-fire agreement (Diehl 1994:6). Peacekeeping has traditionally involved primarily a military model of observing ceasefires and the separation of forces after interstate wars, compared to current practice where it is involved in complex operations that include the military, civilian police and civilian organizations, working together to build a presumed firm foundation for sustainable peace (The United Nations Today 2008:780). In theory, this sounds like an ideal and worthwhile undertaking that primarily aims at alleviating the suffering of affected populations, which unfortunately is not the case in real practice as will be demonstrated in the case studies that are covered in this thesis.
William Durch (1993) observes that peacekeeping supplements other efforts and initiatives targeted at conflict management and resolution such as diplomatic and political initiatives.
These initiatives are applied in the self-help system of international politics with the help of
“disinterested” outside assistance that is meant to assist parties to a conflict disengage themselves from fighting. Durch further observes that United Nations peacekeeping missions may include in their mandate in ascending order of complexity and intrusiveness:
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…uncovering the facts of a conflict; monitoring of border or buffer zones after armistice agreements have been signed; verification of agreed-upon force disengagements or withdrawals;
supervision of the disarming and demobilization of local forces; maintenance of security conditions essential to the conduct of elections; and even the temporary transnational administration of countries (Durch 1993:3-4.).
In this regard, peacekeeping is designed to be a confidence building initiative that provides a means and opportunity for nations or factions “exhausted of war, but suspicious of one another’s intentions to live in relative peace whilst they explore lasting and durable areas of agreement to live in peace after the withdrawal of the peacekeepers” (Ibid.).
The term ”peacekeeping” was first used during the deployment of the first United Nations armed peacekeeping mission in Egypt in 1956, the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF).
The exact origins of peacekeeping operations remain contested (Goulding 1993:452). In terms of having developed a systematic approach to solving interstate and intrastate disputes, it is commonly agreed that the UN invented peacekeeping missions although the phenomenon did not originate with UN or even its predecessor, the League of Nations. Pre-UN prototype
“peacekeeping” was a system originally designed to deal with interstate conflicts as part of the broader conflict and dispute management systems applied by powerful nations dating back to ancient times (Heldt and Wallensteen 2007:4). The next section attempts to trace the origins of peacekeeping from ancient times up to the formation of the League of Nations.