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New Robust Peacekeeping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

Scott W. Lyons*
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School.

Extract

Peacekeeping, conceptually, was designed to be traditionally defensive in nature with a neutral, unarmed, multinational force maintaining or monitoring peace. The first major example of a United Nations peacekeeping force dates to the initial Arab-Israeli conflict with the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNSTO), established in May 1948. The peacekeepers were there to observe and maintain the ceasefire and assist in any terms of the armistice agreements following the initial fighting with the partition of the British Mandate in Palestine and the later declaration of the State of Israel. The Security Council Resolution “Instruct[ed] the United Nations Mediator in Palestine, in concert with the Truce Commission, to supervise the observance of the above provisions, and decide[d] that they shall be provided with a sufficient number of military observers.” UNTSO was followed by a variation, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, which was to observe and report violations of the ceasefire along the contested border. Both of these original UN peacekeeping operations are still in existence after seventy years. This original concept of peacekeeping was based upon the United Nation's principle that the organization would act to prevent conflict between states following the atrocities committed during World War II through its neutrality. However, the term “peacekeeping” is not found anywhere within the United Nations Charter. It is instead inferred under both Chapter VI and Chapter VII powers to resolve disputes.

Type
“Aggressive” Peacekeeping in The Twenty-First Century
Copyright
Copyright © by The American Society of International Law 2019 

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Footnotes

The views in this article are solely of the author in his personal capacity and do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Defense or any other U.S. government agency.

This panel was convened at 1:00 p.m., Thursday, April 15, 2018, by its moderator Scott Lyons of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, who introduced the panelists: Linda Etim formerly of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the National Security Council; Mona Khalil of MAK LAW; Bruce Oswald of the University of Melbourne; and Siobhán Wills of the University of Ulster.