International Peacekeeping and Overseas Deployment

Overseas military presence by third parties or states, designed to alleviate human suffering and create conditions and build institutions for self-sustaining peace. Peacekeepers often have a direct impact on the political process. Traditional peacekeeping has been organized mainly under the United Nations (UN). In the United States, peacekeeping forces are intended by the Department of Defense (DoD) to work with the diplomatic and economic efforts of other government agencies to keep the peace and protect U.S. interests.

United Nations Peacekeeping

The body in charge of planning, preparing, managing, and directing UN peacekeeping efforts is the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). The DPKO provides political and executive direction to UN peacekeeping operations and maintains contact with the UN Security Council, contributors of personnel and other resources, and parties to the conflict. The department is also in charge of administrative and logistical support for peacekeeping missions. In this [Page 370]role it must deploy equipment and services, adequate financial resources, and well-trained personnel in a timely fashion in order for a mission to be successful. The DPKO must integrate the efforts of UN, governmental, and nongovernmental actors participating in peacekeeping operations. It also provides guidance and support on military, police, mine-action, and logistical and administrative issues to other UN political and peace-building missions.

Peacekeeping operations may consist of several components, including a military component, which may or may not be armed, and various civilian components encompassing a broad range of disciplines. Depending on their mandate, peacekeeping missions may be deployed for various reasons: to prevent the outbreak of conflict or the spillover of conflict across borders; stabilize conflict situations after a cease-fire to create an environment for the parties to reach a lasting peace agreement; assist in implementing comprehensive peace agreements; and lead states or territories through a transition to stable government based on democratic principles, good governance, and economic development.

Traditional peacekeeping requires three prerequisites: the consent of the parties involved in the dispute, UN neutrality between these parties, and the use of force by the UN only in self-defense. Peace enforcement, by contrast, contemplates the active use of military force by the United Nations or other implementing agency.

In late 2004, the United Nations had ongoing peacekeeping efforts in 16 arenas around the world, including seven areas of Africa (Burundi, Sierra Leone, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia and Eritrea); Haiti in the Americas; East Timor and India and Pakistan in Asia; Cyprus, Georgia, and Kosovo in Europe; and the Golan Heights and Lebanon in the Middle East. More than 100 countries had contributed nearly 64,000 military personnel and civilian police to these peacekeeping efforts. Each of these deployments has its own mandate, although they all share the aim of creating conditions and building institutions for self-sustaining peace.

From 1948 to the present, it is estimated that $31.5 billion has been spent on UN-led peacekeeping efforts. Although the United States pays more than a quarter of the bill for UN peacekeeping operations, historically the United Nations has organized all peacekeeping missions, and none has been under the control of the United States. Partially as a result, the United States has not provided significant forces to UN peacekeeping activities since the 1993 mission in Somalia. The United Nations, in turn, has not provided forces to assist with the peacekeeping effort in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2003.

...