Partner Op-Eds

The U.N. Mission in Syria: Heading for Heroic Failure?

By Richard Gowan

Center on International Cooperation

When the United Nations sends peacekeepers to war zones, there are often excessive expectations about what they can achieve. By contrast, pessimism surrounds the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), which is supposed to oversee a ceasefire and create space for talks between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and its opponents.

Published May 15, 2012
The Value of Building Peace

By Michael Graham

United States Institute of Peace

This past year has offered fresh proof that the world we live in is ever dynamic. Fundamental change can come from something as extraordinary as a fruit vendor’s act of defiance in Tunisia to popular revolts by reform movements across the Middle East. At the same time, a decade of war and the weak U.S. economy dictates that there must be new ways to think about the role the U.S. will play in the world in the coming years.

Published March 29, 2012
RI Blog: In Peacekeeping, size does matter

By Ron Capps

Refugees International

One of the things that we look at regularly on the peacekeeping team is how peacekeeping missions evolve over time. Some of the missions standing today have been in operation for far longer than you might imagine.

Published May 16, 2011
Is the UN becoming a warrior?

By Jonathan Power

These days I pick up the paper or switch on the news and find that the UN is fighting one battle here and another there. The UN never used to fight quite like this. It was the peacekeeper.

Published April 26, 2011
UN Keeping the Peace in Ivory Coast

By Peter Yeo

Better World Campaign

In the Ivory Coast today, what is standing between a mere political crisis and full-scale civil war are about 9,000 lightly armed UN Peacekeepers. Since the outbreak of violence in mid-December, these peacekeepers have played an indispensible role protecting the rightful winner of a presidential election and reinforcing this fragile nation’s democracy.

Published January 21, 2011
Why is there still a Kivu problem?

By Thierry Vircoulon

International Crisis Group

After his electoral victory in 2006, President Joseph Kabila promised that he would restore peace in what was the epicentre of the Congo wars: the Kivu provinces. More than four years later, the region seems no more stable than before.

Published November 23, 2010
Peacekeeping and the protection of civilians: an issue for humanitarians?

By Damian Lilly

Humanitarian Practice Network

Published October 31, 2010
Politicians take note: American voters support the UN

By Peter Yeo

Better World Campaign

Published October 22, 2010
Liberia: The Forgotten Experiment In Nation-Building

By Benjamin Flowers

Henry L. Stimson Center

Published October 19, 2010
Improving Security Through Accountability: Exploring Options For Transitional Justice In The DRC

By Madeline England

Henry L. Stimson Center

Last week the United Nations released a mapping report of human rights violations committed from 1993 to 2003 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The report's ultimate objective was not to expose the Rwandan army's role in perpetrating abuses-as has been popularly portrayed-nor even to document abuses, which occupy only a portion of its more than 500 pages. Rather, the desired objective is accountability for those abuses, and the report therefore explores potential for transitional justice in the DRC.

Published October 8, 2010

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