UN peacekeeping operations (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

A book review spotted today via twitter of 'The fog of peace: a memoir of international peacekeeping in the 21st century'. By Jean-Marie Guhenno. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...346.12564/epdf

Here is one passage:

The fog of peace is not only one of the very best books to have been written about UN peacekeeping for a long time; it is one that also offers profound insights into the political, practical and moral dilemmas and challenges presented by international eorts, through the UN, to address the causes and consequences of violent conflict in the early twenty-first century.

[davidbfpo]

An article on the very few, four Casspir MRAP vehicles deployed in Mali, with the Chadian-Guinean contingent:http://armamentresearch.com/the-cass...nusma-in-mali/

The Casspir is part of the South African "family" of COIN vehicles from the "bush wars" of the apartheid era. In Mali they are not so heavily armed.

[davidbfpo]

I know South Sudan is lurching, again, into a civil war, but just spotted a Tweet two days old from People's China Daily:

1 Chinese peacekeeper killed, another 6 injured in continuing fighting in Juba, South Sudan, July 10

Not seen that in the BBC's reporting.

Updated from the BBC's long backgrounder on the fighting includes:

Two Chinese UN peacekeepers and one South Sudanese UN worker were among those killed in the fighting.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36772762

[davidbfpo]

I have always wondered whether South Korea, with its large military, was a UN troop contributor:

As of June 2016, the ROK Armed Forces had 1,108 soldiers supporting peacekeeping missions in 13 countries.

Here is the answer:http://blog.keia.org/2016/07/south-k...urrent-status/

Oddly the official ROK Foreign Affairs website states in January 2016:

...a total of 647 Korean military officers have been deployed to 6 different PKO missions.

The vast majority (officers and men) were then in South Sudan and The Lebanon
Link:http://www.mofa.go.kr/ENG/policy/pko...enu=m_20_50_10

[davidbfpo]

A WoTR article, with a mass of links, plus two graphs:http://warontherocks.com/2016/10/pla...ent-extremism/

A key section:

Nearly two-thirds of U.N. military peacekeepers and 90 percent of total U.N. personnel deployed today operate in countries experiencing sustained violent conflict rather than a negotiated truce. In other words.....there is no peace to keep in many of these conflicts.

Contingencies for peacekeeping operations are increasingly complex and call for robust capabilities to impose security instead of relying on the permission of opposing parties.

[davidbfpo]

A long WSJ article on China's apparent sudden learning that peacekeeping comes with the loss of life:http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-di...ets-1479250248

Note the 'one child' policy makes a death even harder for a family.

A recent UN report on the South Sudan failure commented:

..did not operate under a unified command, resulting in multiple and sometimes conflicting orders to the four troop contingents from China, Ethiopia, Nepal and India, and ultimately under-using the more than 1,800 infantry troops at UN House... This included at least two instances in which the Chinese battalion abandoned some of its defensive positions

Report, ten pgs:http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/sudan/Public_Executive_Summary_on_the_Special_Investigat ion_Report_1_Nov_2016.pdf
Link to quote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37840961

[davidbfpo]

Catching up with my reading and finally read a 2015 IISS Adelphi Paper 'Spolier Groups and UN Peacekeeping' by Nadin, Cammaert & Popvoski.

A good read, especially on armed groups in modern warfare, although as the UN repeatedly proves - as shown in South Sudan - it has many faults. Yes, the UN depends on it's members willingness to contribute forces willing and able to act.

See:http://www.iiss.org/en/publications/...cekeeping-7715