Developing a United Nations Emergency Peace Service


Book Description

This book makes the case for a standing UN Emergency Peace Service. With this one development - effectively a UN first responder for complex emergencies - the organization would finally have a rapid, reliable capacity to help fulfill its tougher assigned tasks. To date, the UNEPS initiative has encountered an unreceptive political, fiscal, and security environment. Yet overlapping crises are now inevitable as are profound shifts. This book presents an insightful review of the worrisome security challenges ahead and analysis of two recent high-level UN reports. It addresses the primary roles, core principles, and requirements of a UNEPS, as well as the arguments for and against such a dedicated UN service. Further, it reveals that the primary impediments and lessons learned also help demonstrate what may work and, equally important, what won't. With modest support, the book shows, the next steps are feasible, although it's important to recall that ideas, even good ideas, don't work unless we do.




UN Emergency Peace Service and the Responsibility to Protect


Book Description

This book examines the attitudes of political, military and non-state actors towards the idea of a UN Emergency Peace Service, and the issues that might affect the establishment of this service in both theory and practice. The United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) is a civil society-led idea to establish a permanent UN service to improve UN peace operations as well as to operationalise the emerging norm of the ‘responsibility to protect’ civilians from atrocity crimes. The UNEPS proposal has received limited support. The book argues that interest in, and support for, the UNEPS proposal is determined by perceptions that it would erode state sovereignty, the extent to which the principles of the proposal are consistent with actors’ views on the world and perceptions on whether UNEPS will realistically be capable of contributing to the workings of the UN and regional peacekeeping systems in areas that are seen to be deficient. This book makes the case for localising the UNEPS proposal so that it is more consistent with attitudes of those consulted for this research. It concludes that the development of a series of less ambitious proposals could be the first steps to creating a rapidly deployable service with the mandate to prevent atrocity crimes. This book will be of much interest to students of peace operations, the Responsibility to Protect, international organisations, IR and security studies.




The Responsibility to Protect


Book Description

Responsibility to Protect: Research, bibliography, background. Supplementary volume to the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty




Protection of Civilians


Book Description

The protection of civilians which has been at the forefront of international discourse during recent years is explored through harnessing perspective from international law and international relations. Presenting the realities of diplomacy and mandate implementation in academic discourse.




The United Nations, Peace and Security


Book Description

Preventing humanitarian atrocities is becoming as important for the United Nations as dealing with inter-state war. In this book, Ramesh Thakur examines the transformation in UN operations, analysing its changing role and structure. He asks why, when and how force may be used and argues that the growing gulf between legality and legitimacy is evidence of an eroded sense of international community. He considers the tension between the US, with its capacity to use force and project power, and the UN, as the centre of the international law enforcement system. He asserts the central importance of the rule of law and of a rules-based order focused on the UN as the foundation of a civilised system of international relations. This book will be of interest to students of the UN and international organisations in politics, law and international relations departments, as well as policymakers in the UN and other NGOs.




The Responsibility to Protect


Book Description

This book presents the views of various international law and human rights experts on the contested meaning, scope of application, value and viability of R2P; the principle of the Responsibility to Protect . R2P refers to the notion that the international community has a legal responsibility to protect civilians against the potential or ongoing occurrence of the mass atrocity crimes of genocide, large scale war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. R2P allows for intervention where the individual State is unable or unwilling to so protect its people or is in fact a perpetrator. The book addresses also the controversial issue of whether intervention by States implementing R2P with or without the endorsement of the United Nations Security Council constitutes a State act of aggression or instead is legally justified and not an infringement on the offending State’s sovereign jurisdiction. The adverse impact on global peace and security of the failure to protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes has put in stark relief the need to address anew the principle of ‘responsibility to protect’ and the feasibility and wisdom of its application and this book is a significant contribution to that effort. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.




Confronting Evil


Book Description

This groundbreaking book from one of the foremost leaders in the field presents a fascinating continuum of research-informed strategies to prevent genocide from ever taking place; to avert further atrocities once mass murder occurs; and to prevent further turmoil once a society learns how to rebuild itself.




The Use of Force in UN Peace Operations


Book Description

One of the most vexing issues that has faced the international community since the end of the Cold War has been the use of force by the United Nations peacekeeping forces. UN intervention in civil wars, as in Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Rwanda, has thrown into stark relief the difficulty of peacekeepers operating in situations where consent to their presence and activities is fragile or incomplete and where there is little peace to keep. Complex questions arise in these circumstances. When and how should peacekeepers use force to protect themselves, to protect their mission, or, most troublingly, to ensure compliance by recalcitrant parties with peace accords? Is a peace enforcement role for peacekeepers possible or is this simply war by another name? Is there a grey zone between peacekeeping and peace enforcement? Trevor Findlay reveals the history of the use of force by UN peacekeepers from Sinai in the 1950s to Haiti in the 1990s. He untangles the arguments about the use of force in peace operations and sets these within the broader context of military doctrine and practice. Drawing on these insights the author examines proposals for future conduct of UN operations, including the formulation of UN peacekeeping doctrine and the establishment of a UN rapid reaction force.







UN Emergency Peace Service and the Responsibility to Protect


Book Description

This book examines the attitudes of political, military and non-state actors towards the idea of a UN Emergency Peace Service, and the issues that might affect the establishment of this service in both theory and practice. The United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) is a civil society-led idea to establish a permanent UN service to improve UN peace operations as well as to operationalise the emerging norm of the ‘responsibility to protect’ civilians from atrocity crimes. The UNEPS proposal has received limited support. The book argues that interest in, and support for, the UNEPS proposal is determined by perceptions that it would erode state sovereignty, the extent to which the principles of the proposal are consistent with actors’ views on the world and perceptions on whether UNEPS will realistically be capable of contributing to the workings of the UN and regional peacekeeping systems in areas that are seen to be deficient. This book makes the case for localising the UNEPS proposal so that it is more consistent with attitudes of those consulted for this research. It concludes that the development of a series of less ambitious proposals could be the first steps to creating a rapidly deployable service with the mandate to prevent atrocity crimes. This book will be of much interest to students of peace operations, the Responsibility to Protect, international organisations, IR and security studies.