Peacekeeping Reports

Peace operations are increasingly on the front line in the international community’s fight against organized crime. This book explores how, in some cases, peace operations and organized crime are clear enemies, while in others, they may become tacit allies.

The threat posed by organized crime to international and human security has become a matter of considerable strategic concern for national and international decisionmakers, so it is somewhat surprising how little thought has been devoted to addressing the complex relationship between organized crime and peace operations. This volume addresses this gap, questioning the emerging orthodoxy that portrays organized crime as an external threat to the liberal peace championed by western and allied states and delivered through peace operations.

Based upon a series of case studies it concludes that organized crime is both a potential enemy and a potential ally of peace operations, and it argues for the need to distinguish between strategies to contain organized crime and strategies to transform the political economies in which it flourishes. The editors argue for the development of intelligent, transnational, and transitional law enforcement that can make the most of organized crime as a potential ally for transforming political economies, while at the same time containing the threat it presents as an enemy to building effective and responsible states.

Read about the book from the publisher.

From 14 to 16 June 2011, the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre’s Latin American Peacekeeping Partnership (LAPP) and the Paraguayan Peacekeeping Training Centre, El Centro de Entrenamiento Conjunto de Operaciones de Paz (CECOPAZ), jointly organized a workshop entitled Protection of Civilians in the Context of Peace Operations. This workshop originated from a seminar on Crosscutting Challenges to Complex Peace Operations that the PPC jointly held with The Uruguayan National School of Peacekeeping Operations (ENOPU) in December 2010 in Montevideo.  The protection of civilians (PoC) is a major concern in contemporary peace operations: mandates demand it and the local credibility and international legitimacy of peace operations depend on it. The workshop examined PoC from a multi-dimensional perspective, therefore allowing participants to fully comprehend the complexity of the issue at large as well as the practical implications for their respective organizations.

The workshop brought together representatives from Latin American peacekeeping training centres, specifically from their association, ALCOPAZ, as well as guest speakers from the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Refugees International, and the Uruguayan military. The workshop was structured around four themes:

1. Current Developments Pertaining to the PoC in Peace Operations: a UN Secretariat Perspective;
2. Implementing PoC Mandate: a Military Perspective from Uruguay’s Experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
3. Successes, Challenges and Gaps: a NGO Perspective;
4. An Integrated Approach to Training for PoC.

Overview

The unipolar moment, to the extent it ever existed, has now truly passed. The United States is part of a globalized world, in which the flows of goods, finance, people, and much more connect us to other countries as never before. But for all the myriad benefits globalization brings, it also means that the challenges of the coming decades—be they generated by resource competition, climate change, cybercrime, terrorism, or clas­sic competition and rivalry—cannot be solved or even mitigated by one country alone. Countries will need to cooperate on policies that extend across borders to address issues that affect them all.

In this Council Special Report, CFR scholars Paul B. Stares and Micah Zenko argue that the United States should increasingly look to international institutions—the United Nations and regional organiza­tions like the European Union, the African Union, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—as partners in conflict prevention and peacemaking worldwide. These organizations can serve as a platform for developing and enforcing international norms; provide a source of legitimacy for diplomatic and military efforts; and aggregate the opera­tional resources of their members, all of which can increase the ease and effectiveness of American peacemaking efforts.

In addition to reviewing developments relating to protection of civilians as a thematic issue on the Security Council’s agenda, including in the context of UN peacekeeping, the present report includes a statistical analysis of Council decisions in country-specific situations in 2010 and how protection issues were addressed. The Secretary-General’s reporting on protection of civilians, as well as the Council’s use of sanctions against individuals or entities committing violations against civilians are
also reviewed. The two case studies —on Côte d’Ivoire and Libya—are actually from 2011. They were included, however, because of their obvious importance. They offer contrasting perspectives on recent Council action to protect civilians and a more in-depth and comprehensive analysis than what the statistical analysis is able to provide.