United Nations peace operations in Africa: A Cookie-Cutter approach?

Journal of Third World Studies

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 11-29

  Bariagaber, Assefaw ^a  

^a SETON HALL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL WAR; CONFLICT MANAGEMENT; ETHNICITY; GEOPOLITICS; PEACE PROCESS; PEACEKEEPING; UNITED NATIONS;

AFRICA; CENTRAL AFRICA; CONGO; SIERRA LEONE; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WEST AFRICA;

EID: 33751072360     PISSN: 87553449     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Economist. "Irrelevant, Illegitimate, or Indispensable?" February 22, 2003.
2. D. Turner. "The UN will Survive the Charge of Irrelevance," Financial Times, March 14, 2003. Sir Brian Urquhart was an insiders' insider at the UN and is familiar with many of its peace operations, including one of its earliest interventions in the Congo in 1960.
3. H. Cobban. "Unraveling not Just UN, but Centuries-Old Global System," Christian Science Monitor, March 13, 2003.
4. R. Thakur. "From Peacekeeping to Peace Enforcement: The UN Operation in Somalia," Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, 1994, pp. 387-410.
5. J. Klein. "Two Cheers for the Peacekeepers," Time, March 24, 2003.
6. This only means the UN and others were welcomed initially. However, as their stay dragged on, some of the peace endeavors had run into difficulties as in Cote d'Ivoire and the DRC.
7. L. Lawson and D. Rothchild. "Sovereignty Reconsidered," Current History: A Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, Vol. 104, 2005, pp. 228-235.
8. See, for example, Y. Bangura. "Strategic Policy Failure and Governance in Sierra Leone," Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 38, No. 4, 2000, pp. 551-577.
9. The numbers and percentages were compiled and calculated from UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, accessed on January 31, 2005 and available at: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/timeline/pages/ timeline.html.
10. J. Dobbins. et al. The UN's Role in Nation-Building: From the Congo to Iraq. (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2005).
11. A. Zolberg. "The Structure of Political Conflict in the New States of Tropical Africa," American Political Science Review, Vol. 62, No. 1, 1968, pp, 70-87.
12. D. Gibbs. "The United Nations, International Peacekeeping and the Question of 'Impartiality': Revisiting the Congo Operation of 1960," Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2000, pp. 359-382. Gibbs (2000: 362) writes there were 'no more than thirty Congolese with university degrees' at the time of independence in 1960.
13. A. Bariagaber. "Keeping the Peace - Africa," in A Global Agenda: Issues before the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations, A. Drakulich, ed. (New York: United Nations Association of the United States of America, 2003), p. 56.
14. D. Newbury. "Irredentist Rwanda: Ethnic and Territorial Frontiers in Central Africa," Africa Today, Vol. 44, No. 2, 1997, p. 214.
15. J. Clark. "Explaining Ugandan Intervention in Congo: Evidence and Interpretations," Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2001, pp. 261-287.
16. Ibid.
17. Prunier, 1999, as quoted in J. Clark "Explaining Ugandan Intervention in Congo: Evidence and Interpretations," p. 269.
18. J. Clark, "Explaining Ugandan Intervention in Congo: Evidence and Interpretations," p. 269.
19. Ibid.
20. A. Rabushka and K. Shepsle. Politics in Plural Societies; A Theory of Democratic Instability. (Columbus, OH:Charles E. Merrill, 1972), especially pp. 76-79.
21. The transformations of extractive politics into distributive politics usually occur in a competitive ethnic environment, where rival ethnic entrepreneurs outbid each other to ensure wining. For a detailed discussion, please see Rabushka and Shepsle (1972).
22. For example, the RCD-National established an alliance with its hitherto rival MLC and against other RCD factions.
23. Bariagaber, "Keeping the Peace Africa."
24. See Bariagaber "Keeping the Peace - Africa," p. 57. This does not mena that African countries never intervened in the affairs of others. The Nigerian Civil War of the late 1960s and the conflict in Chad in the 1980s are cases where African countries sided with one party or the other. However, the intervention in the DRC is unparalleled in the overtness and intensity with which many African countries intervened.
25. The exploitation of the mineral resources of the DRC by the intervening parties has been well-established by the UN-appointed Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For more on this, please consult UN, S/2003/1027, October 23, 2003. For expressions of serious concern by the Security Council at the link between the illegal exploitation of DRC resources and the continuation of the conflict, please consult UN, S/Res/1457 (2003), January 24, 2003.
26. UN, S/Res/1279 (1999), November 30, 1999.
27. UN, S/Res/1291 (2000), February 24, 2000.
28. It also appears that Laurent Kabila never forgave the UN for the role it played during the 1960 Congo Civil War that ended with the asassination of Lumumba, with whom he sided.
29. UN, S/Res/1484 (2003), May 30, 2003.
30. For the series of Security Council resolutions authorizing increased troop strenth, please see the folowing UN documents: S/Res/1291 (2000), 24 February 2000;
31. S/Res/1445 (2002), December 4, 2002;
32. S/Res/1492 (2003), July 28, 2003;
33. and S/Res/1565 (2004), October 1, 2004.
34. UN, S/2002/1005, September 10, 2002, pp. 8-9.
35. A Bariagaber, "The United Nations ans Somalia: An Examination of a Collective-Clientelist Relationship," Journal of Asian and African Studies Vol. 31, No. 3-4, 1996, pp. 162-177.
36. See note #25.
37. Y. Bangura. "Strategic Policy Failure and Governance in Sierra Leone," pp. 551-577.
38. I borrow this term from Huntington (1993) only to emphasize the ethnic nature of the conflict in the DRC, and not to imply, as Huntington did, any "civilizational" differentiation between the various parties in the DRC. See Huntington, S. "The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3, 1993, pp. 22-49.
39. I. Abdullah. "Bush Path to Destruction: The Origin and Character of the Revolutionary United Front/Sierra Leone," Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1998, pp. 203-235.
40. UN, S/Res/1270 (1999), October 22, 1999.
41. UN, S/Res/1289 (2000), February 7, 2000.
42. UN, Res/1346 (2001), March 30, 2001.
43. See Bangura, "Strategic Policy Failure and Governance in Sierra Leone," p. 576.
44. Bangura, "Strategic Policy Failure and Governance in Sierra Leone," p. 574.
45. There was another rag tag group known as West Side Boys. It suddenly came into the picture, terrorized the population for a few months, and went out the same way it came in.
46. See D. Freeman et al. "Operation Restore Hope: A USCENTCOM Perspective," Military Review, Vol. 73, No. 9, 1993, pp. 61-72.
47. For mandate revisions, please consult the following UN documents: S/Res/ 751 (1992), April 24, 1992;
48. S/Res/775 (1992), August 28, 1992;
49. S/Res/794 (1992), December 3, 1992;
50. S/Res/814 (1993), March 26, 1993;
51. S/Res/897 (1994), February 4, 1993.
52. Bangura, "Strategic Policy Failure and Governance in Sierra Leone," p. 574.
53. My proposal complements those outlined in the recent and influential UN- Commissioned document - A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, which the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change has authored. Please see United Nations. A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility. (New York: United Nations, 2004), especially the sections on Peacekeeping (pp. 66-71) and Peacebuilding Commission (pp. 83-84).
54. This does not mean all is well for UN intervention. Sudan, for example, continues to resist UN takeover of the AU mission in Darfur. However, at present, opposition to UN and major power intervention is much less intense compared to, say, some 30 years ago.
55. Please see, N. Itano, "As US Troops Arrive, Peace Hits Liberia," The Christian Science Monitor, August 15, 2003.
56. See, for example, J. Obat. "Somali President Appeals for Peacekeeping Troops," Epoch Times, November 19, 2004. Available at: http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/4-11-19/24490.html.
57. China View. "Annan Says AU Agrees to Hand Over Darfur Force to UN," March 11, 2006. Available at: www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-11.