CSS 2017 Solved Essay | More and More International Military Engagements by the United Nations: Is the World moving towards Peace?
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Outline
1-Introduction
Even though the UN Security Council considers its international military engagements as sources of peace and security in the world owning to successful missions and prevention from rising the Third World War, the myriad failures and inadequacies of the military engagements by the UN in establishing peace and security in many African, Asian, and Middle-Eastern countries have not only hindered peace but also escalated disputes in the affected regions.
2-Background of the UN’s Peacekeeping Role
3-Elaborating the UN’s international military engagements worldwide
4-International military engagements by the UN: A cursory glance
5-How have international military engagements by the UN failed to move the world towards peace?
- ✓Failure to prevent the Rwanda Genocide
- Case in point: The UN’s international military engagements have failed to prevent 800 thousands of killings, which happened within three months in Rwanda in 1994.
- ✓Failure to impose peace in Afghanistan
- Case in point: Heavily armed forces by the UN in the case of Afghanistan have not imposed peace and protected civil rights in Afghanistan.
- ✓Failure to prevent the holocaust in Palestine
- Case in point: The UN’s international military engagements have failed to prevent illegal occupation, ongoing genocide, and displacements of Palestinians.
- ✓Failure to stop bloodshed in Syria
- Case in point: The UN’s military engagements have failed to ensure security in Syria as over 400,000 people have killed. And five million Syrians have become refugees.
- ✓Failure of the role of the UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan
- Case in point: The UN’s mission of deployment of 7,000 thousand soldiers and 2,000 police in South Sudan to support the country’s independence has abysmally failed, resulting in a catastrophic civil war.
- ✓The Failure of the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to end the South China Sea dispute
- Case in point: According to the World Economic Forum, the UNCLOS has allowed unfair benefits to some countries and has failed to protect the marine environment.
- ✓Failure to resolve Kashmir dispute
- Case in point: The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has failed to solve the Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India, resulting in long-standing border disputes and conflicts since 1948.
- ✓The Failure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to protect the Libyans’ peace and security
- Case in point: In the post-Gaddafi-Libya, the engagement of the UNSC without the approval of the government has hindered negotiation for peace and escalated civilian war in the region.
6-Factors that determine the failure of the international military engagements by the UN in moving the world towards peace
- ✓Using veto power as a weapon for hatred and war
- ✓Preferring political self-interests of the superpowers
7-Why does the UN Security Council consider the UN’s military engagements moving the world toward peace?
- ✓Counterargument: The UN’s international military engagements successfully prevented the world from witnessing the Third World War.
- Rebuttal: Despite the UN’s achievements to some extent, the international military engagements by the UN still have failed to overcome genocide and killings in a wide range in multiple African, Middle-Eastern, and Asian nations, proving the opposite of the notion.
- ✓Counter Argument: Critics argue that the UN, through its international military engagements, has successfully countered violent extremism and the rise of terrorism in the world.
- Rebuttal: Despite utmost efforts, the UN has failed in combatting terrorism and domestic violent extremism increased in the world due to the ideological spectrum- far-right, left-right, and Islamists- leading to hate crimes.
8-Possible recommendations to ameliorate the function of the United Nations
- ✓To avoid using veto power as a tool for spreading hatred and war
- ✓To foster greater responsibility and accountability
- ✓To implement a set of systemic changes
9-Conclusion
The United Nations (UN) international military engagements, also known as the UN peacekeeping missions, have been playing a central role in peacekeeping processes, including suppressing insurgencies, terminating illegal invasions, and promoting security and civilians’ rights in the warring regions through peacekeeping operations. Although successful missions, such as those in Sierra Leone and Namibia and the prevention of another world war, are cited as evidence of the UN’s positive impact on global peace, the goals and roles of the UN for moving the world towards peace have become just folk tales due to the frequent failures of the UN’s international military engagements for decades. For instance, the Failure of international military engagements by the UN in peacekeeping operations in the Rwanda conflict led to nearly 800 thousand killings within three months in 1994, staining the prestige of the UN’s international peacekeeping operations. Similarly, the UN’s military engagements have also failed to prevent bloodshed in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Syria, leading to an increase in civilian massacres. Therefore, the result has not only been the Failure to secure lasting peace but, in many cases, the worsening of existing conflicts and the emergence of new disputes, making the UN’s international military engagements a figment rather than a fact.
Before understanding the UN’s military engagements, it is imperative to understand the background of the UN’s peacekeeping role worldwide. The establishment of the United Nations in 1945 was aimed to prevent the reoccurrence of large-scale conflicts, particularly in the wake of the two World Wars. A pivotal facet of its mandate included military peacekeeping, which commenced in 1948 with the deployment of unarmed military observers to oversee ceasefires in the Middle East. Subsequently, the UN’s peacekeeping efforts evolved to encompass more intricate missions involving armed forces, with objectives, such as separating conflicting parties, safeguarding civilians, and facilitating the distribution of humanitarian aid. The principles guiding UN military interventions are crucial to their efficacy: neutrality is upheld to forestall taking sides in conflicts; consent from all involved parties is imperative to maintain legitimacy and collaboration; and the use of force is a measure of last resort, typically for self-defence or civilian protection. These principles are thus intended to reinforce the UN’s dedication to peaceful conflict resolution and the preservation of global stability.
Understanding the significance of the UN’s international military engagements begins with recognizing their operational framework. The UN Security Council leads primary peacekeeping missions to address global threats, such as insurgencies, terrorism, rebellions, and violent extremism, aiming to restore peace and security in affected regions. Comprising of 15 members, including five permanent members, the UN and more than a hundred contributor countries have deployed forces in over 71 peacekeeping missions during its 76-year history, with a two-thirds success rate. Sadly, 3767 UN militants from over a hundred countries have lost their lives in these peacekeeping missions.
Currently, the UN’s military engagements, authorized and financed by the UNSC, are operating in seven African countries, including Sudan, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and Western Sahara; an America country, Haiti; Asian and The Pacific countries, Indo-Pak; Europe, Cyprus, Georgia, Kosovo; and Middle East, Golan Heights, Lebanon, and Palestine. Moreover, the UN force currently fields around 13,500 soldiers and 2,000 police across the three eastern provinces of Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu. In February, the United Nations in February 2024 approved the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo by handing them over to the national police. However, despite intense efforts, the UN peacekeepers have failed to navigate the challenging path from conflict to peace, thus evident from Haiti’s child’s displacement report stating that every minute child is displaced because of armed violence.
However, despite the efforts and intense engagements in the warring regions, the UN’s international military engagements have still failed to achieve prevailing global peace. For instance, during the Rwandan Civil War of 1994, The Tutsis, the minority in Rwanda, have been grappled with mass genocide conceived by extremist elements of the Hutu, the Rwandan majority, leading to the civilian holocaust. In the presence of the UN peacekeepers, nearly 800 thousand people were killed within a hundred days, burying the UN’s reputation and credibility. As reported by Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the United Nations has acknowledged its failure to quickly intervene as thousands of Rwandans were killed in the 1994 genocide. Therefore, the Rwanda genocide is considered to be the start of the UN’s Failure in peacekeeping goals.
Next, after decades of tireless efforts, even the heavily armed forces by the UN have fallen flat on assisting the people of Afghanistan, a country whose citizens are yet to grapple with insecurities and humanitarian crises. In the aftermath of a long battle between Afghanistan and American troops, the government is left with economic crisis, poverty, razed fields, and extremist violence. To assist the country’s people, the United Nations Assistance Missions in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was established on 28th March 2002 by the UNSC. Although the UNSC has missions of around 1187 staff, 799 Afghan nationals, 293 international staff, 75 international UNVs, and 20 national UNVs, it has failed to prevent humanitarian casualties. According to a report released by the UNAMA, the mission’s latest quarterly report documented 5,939 civilian casualties (2,117 killed and 3,822 injured). High levels of violence continue with a devastating impact on civilians, with Afghanistan remaining among the deadliest places in the world to be a civilian. Thus, the UN’s international military engagements have fallen short of securing Afghan civilians.
Apart from this, in the case of Palestine, due to constraints created by the veto powers and structural power imbalances in the UN, the UN even has failed to deploy troops in Gaza. The UN’s fragility has prevented it from halting illegal occupations, ongoing genocide, and continuous airstrikes committed by Israel in Gaza. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported more than 30,000 Gazans killed and 61,830 Palestinians injured in Gaza. Some 70 per cent of the fatalities have been women and children. Therefore, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is another black spot on the UN’s incredibility in keeping worldwide peace.
Additionally, lacking meaningful progress, the UN’s international military engagements once again have disastrously failed in ending conflicts in Syria, carrying negative consequences, including the killing of half of a million and forced displacements of eleven million Syrians. According to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Security Council has failed to intervene in Syria because of big power divisions, Russia in particular. The mentioned statement clearly proves that the UN needs hands to hold while operating in war-torn areas. Thus, the UN’s international military engagements have been trainwrecks in Syria, proliferating bloodshed in the region.
Moreover, regarding the South Sudan matter, even by deploying 7 thousand soldiers, 2 thousand police, and civilian peacekeepers to support the independence, the United Nations Missions IN South Sudan (UNMISS) has remained off-track for achieving the peace goals, leading to further mistrust of the host government and the civilians in the UN. As a result, the UN’s Failure has burst rumours that blame the UN for supporting the rebellion group, Riek Machar, inciting the Sudanese against the UN and igniting protests that have demanded the resignation of the UN Chief. Moreover, a former military adviser to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, cites an overall lack of leadership, preparedness and integration within UNMISS, judging the command and control arrangements inadequate and citing a risk-averse culture among UN peacekeepers. Therefore, the UNMISS’s conduct in keeping peace in South Sudan is disappointing, invalidating the UN’s credentials in the international arena.
Further, in the case of the South China Sea (SCS), which holds a twofold claim: historical claims and provisions by the UNCLOS, the law and order imposed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has yielded no fruits. To unzip, the UNCLOS, aiming to lay law and order in the world’s seas and oceans and manage the uses of their resources, has been adopted in 1982 by the UN. However, the objectives have not been achieved again as the UNCLOS has failed to prevent excessive water claims, protect the maritime environment, benefit some countries economically, and answer the controversies concerning shipping in the South China Sea, intensifying territorial claims and intrastate conflicts. Besides, the UNCLOS has been ratified by 168 parties, the US and EU in particular. According to the World Economic Forum, the UNCLOS has allowed unfair benefits to some countries, and has failed to protect the marine environment. Thus, the UNCLOS has been unable to establish law and order in the SCS, adversely affecting not only the economic benefits but also the security of the region.
Adding more to it, following the outbreak of India and Pakistan hostilities in 1947, the UN Security Council’s active mission named the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) is being engaged in the region, aiming to overcome the conflict. Controversially, the mission has adversely failed in mandating conflict between two rival nations, India and Pakistan, and resolving the Kashmir Issue, giving way to insurgencies, civilian massacres, and long-standing border disputes. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights remarked, “The political dimensions of the dispute between India and Pakistan have long been centre-stage, but this is not a conflict frozen in time. It is a conflict that has robbed millions of their basic human rights and continues to this day to inflict untold suffering.” Thus, the ongoing conflict in Jammu and Kashmir has strained the credibility and capability of the UN’s international military engagements.
Last but not least, the UN’s undefinable military engagements in the case of the post-Gaddafi-Libya have adversely affected the region, escalating the conflict. To elaborate, as the engagements were sudden and without the approval of the Libyan government, the negotiation for peace was hindered, resulting in state collapse and the spread of chaos and anarchy in the entire region. As a result, the war was prolonged, and the engagements were considered a failure in the International Community and to the principle of the responsibility to protect. Thus, the UN’s military engagements have been the factual cause behind Gaddafi’s death and the state’s collapse, making the UN responsible for the intensification of the suffering in the region.
Unfortunately, despite its glory, the UN possesses a dark side that leads the UN to fail in its goals. Initially, there was no sign of integrity and collaborative effort among the United Nations member countries. The United Nations has internal rivalries, political restraints, and systemic crises. Furthermore, the superpowers prefer self-geopolitical interests while spreading peacekeeping operations in the affected regions. As remarked by Bayo Ogunrotifa Ayodeji, a biographer at the London University, the UN Security Council intervenes in conflicts where their interest is at stake. They become reluctant in cases where they are not interested, even if human rights are being violated. “The problem is that the UN Security Council is a forum for the domination of powerful superpowers which can sometimes solve secondary issues where fundamental (primary) interests are not at stake”. Thus, the political interests of the superpowers determine the failure and success of the peacekeeping operations in the affected regions, hindering the pure aim for global peace.
Likewise, veto power has been the major obstacle in passing resolutions and making effective decisions for operating peace missions. For instance, in the UN, a resolution requires no veto from the permanent members of the UN to pass; accordingly, a veto from any member would fail the resolution and hinder the operations process. Similarly, in Palestine’s case, owning to the veto cast by the United States, the Security Council failed to recommend the full membership of Palestine in the UN, leading to long-term massacre and disaster in the region. Therefore, veto power in the UN hinders the UN’s success in moving towards peace.
Stepping ahead, critics, including the UNSC, honourably claim the UN’s international military engagements as the lifeline for global peace and security due to efforts in preventing the Third World War and global famine. Furthermore, according to the UN, dozens of conflicts have been successfully ended, such as those in Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mozambique, and Namibia. However, on the other side of the coin, the international military engagements by the UN still have failed to overcome genocide and intensifying conflicts in multiple African, Middle Eastern, and Asian nations. The current horrifying situation in Gaza, Syria, and Haiti is a glaring example of the UN’s inadequacies in moving the world toward peace and security.
In addition, critics argue that the UN, through its international military engagements, has successfully countered violent extremism and the rise of terrorism in the world. The Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), a resolution adopted by the UNSC on terrorism and extremism, has led the UN to deter 9/11-like terrorist attacks. However, despite utmost efforts, the UN has failed in combatting terrorism and domestic violent extremism increased in the world due to the ideological spectrum- far-right, left-right, and Islamists- leading to hate crimes. Therefore, the dark phases in the UN still hinder international military engagements in the effort to move towards peace.
Nonetheless, to move the world towards peace by just engaging the international military, the UN should adopt prominent and structural measures in its system, particularly by seriously considering the veto right. The right to veto should be restricted and not be a weapon for hatred and war when it is used in legitimate and susceptible cases, including genocidal attacks, destruction, and humanitarian crises. For this purpose, agreements and ratification of two-thirds of the UN member states in any reform of the UNSC in the General Assembly must be assured, guaranteeing a balance of power in the UNSC. Therefore, nailing strict amendments in the veto right and giving way to member states can undoubtedly vouch for the peace of most regions in war.
Moreover, transparency, accountability, restructuring reforms, and improvement of work are the benchmarks for the UN’s success in maintaining peace. In case of Failure, the permanent members and contributing states should be held accountable and penalized for unnecessary deployments, vicious methods, and internal rivalries. According to a formal statement by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UNSC reforms are necessary to make the UN system active again. Leaving the fates of 7 billion people up to the justice of five countries was neither sustainable nor fair. A council structure based on democratic, transparent, accountable, effective and fair representation has become necessary for humanity beyond choice. Therefore, without transparency and accountability, the effectiveness of the UN’s missions remains a mere dream.
Additionally, there is a need for overall systemic changes at the heart of the UN to meet the modern challenges. To achieve this, three notions can strengthen the UN’s operations, encompassing repositioning the UN’s development to ensure progress, pursuing reform management that simplifies processes, and restructuring methods through technological advancement. To elaborate, the three pillars are responsible for heading up the UN’s work in prevailing security, ensuring gender parity, allocating efficient budgetary, investigating human rights abuses, and humanitarian and development assistance, as stated by the Better World Campaign (BWC), a non-partisan organization. Thus, systemic changes interlinked with the above pillars deliberately assist international military engagements in moving the world towards peace.
In conclusion, while the United Nations has played a pivotal role in international peacekeeping efforts, its military engagements have often failed to achieve lasting peace in many conflict-ridden regions. The UN’s involvement in areas such as Rwanda, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Syria has been marked by significant shortcomings, resulting in prolonged conflicts, civilian casualties, and regional instability. Despite its successes in preventing global wars and resolving some disputes, the UN’s peacekeeping missions have struggled against internal power dynamics, political interests, and the misuse of veto power, which have hindered their effectiveness. Moving forward, the UN must address these structural and political challenges to enhance its capacity to foster global peace and security.
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