UN peacekeeping operations (catch all)

[SWJ Blog]

A History of United Nations Peacekeeping - Thematic Bibliography

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[120mm]

I've not seen much written on how largely bureaucratic UN "leaders" manage to fail, miserably in their mission, yet continue to persist in their role, or even gain promotion.

As part of a project spanning 2012 - 2015, I encountered a particularly smelly human turd named "Martin Kobler".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Kobler

This "gentleman" has an auspicious history studded with failures, largely attributed to his incompetence and his blatantly anti-military prejudice. He is considered by many I spoke to as contemptuous of military people and disregards his military advisers.

The Wiki page briefly covers the debacle he helped make in Iraq, but it doesn't cover the disaster he oversaw in DRC.

His public statements were telling: When he was criticized for his troops being barracks bound while civilians were being massacred by LRA, he stated "We cannot be everywhere." and that "He would march his forces around the jungle continuously" until he defeated the rebels. Not surprisingly, later that week, his exhausted and frustrated troops, having finally left their barracks to "march around the jungle continuously" machine-gunned a group of cars that were stuck in a traffic jam and blocking their way.

I wish I could post the paper I wrote, here, but it's owned by my former employer.

[davidbfpo]

A short BBC report, topical as the focus is Mali:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34812600

Why the most dangerous?

Mali (Minusma) - 53 deaths

• Sudan (Unamid, hybrid mission in Darfur with African Union) - 48 deaths
• DR Congo (Monusco) - 18 deaths
• South Sudan (Unmiss) - 17 deaths
• Ivory Coast (Unoci) - 16 deaths

Source: UN figures from 2013 up to 31 October 2015, excluding deaths from illness

[AdamG]

...the people of Ajalpan had another explanation: Tired of government corruption and indifference, the mob fashioned its own justice, part of a longstanding problem that Mexican officials say is on the rise.

The killings raise difficult questions for Mexico, highlighting an alarming development: By some accounts, there were more public lynchings this past year than at any other time in more than a quarter-century. There were at least 78 lynchings last year in Mexico, more than double the number the previous year, according to data collected by Ral Rodrguez Guilln, a professor and an author of the book Mexico Lynchings, 1988-2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/wo...ings.html?_r=0

Reading music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN52vq7xmas
You're welcome.

[davidbfpo]

A "broad brush" comment on peacekeeping's effect at home, accentuated by the USA and a few others hiring so many soldiers from "developing countries" who return home with quite different ideas:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/op...ome-home.html?

[davidbfpo]

Excluding the now quite small UK contingent in Cyprus, with UNCYPF, the UK has ten military personnel wearing a blue beret. Although the UK does pay a lot for peacekeeping by others.

The price in blood others paid:

The tragic loss of 456 UK service personnel in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2016 has quite rightly dominated the media in the UK but how many of us are aware that 1,733 UN peacekeepers have also died in the line of duty during the same period?

Link:http://defenceindepth.co/2016/03/02/...-back-in-blue/

[davidbfpo]

A NYT article by Anthony Banbury, an American senior UN official who has resigned after thirty years service. Here is key reason:

But in terms of its overall mission, thanks to colossal mismanagement, the United Nations is failing.

His slim Wiki bio:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Banbury

Some harsh comments on several UN peacekeeping missions: Haiti, Mali and CAR too.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/op...ling.html?_r=0

[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

[SWJ Blog]

Whither the UN’s War in Congo?

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[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

[SWJ Blog]

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley Targeting U.N. Peacekeeping for Reform

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[SWJ Blog]

A Lesson On UN Peacekeeping – From Haiti

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[SWJ Blog]

The Best Defense Is No Offense: Why Cuts to UN Troops in Congo Could Be a Good Thing

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[SWJ Blog]

United Nations Peacekeeping Offensive Operations: Theory and Doctrine

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[SWJ Blog]

Pentagon Official: U.S. to Cut Contributions to U.N. Peacekeeping Missions

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