Mark Malan Weighs In On the Future of Peacekeeping

This past week, Foreign Policy Passport and U.N. Dispatch teamed up to host an online salon discussing the future of peacekeeping in light of current crises: UN Peacekeeping: Challenges and Opportunities for the Next Administration. Refugees International used this opportunity to discuss the challenges facing peacekeepers’ ability to bring about a stable peace so displaced people can return home.

Mark Malan, Refugees International’s Peacekeeping Program Officer, joined David Bosco, William Durch, Tod Lindberg and Eric Reeves in a longer conversation of the ins and outs of some of the current peacekeeping missions. Mark’s first post for the salon centered on the current African Union mission to Somalia and the debate taking place over sending an expanded UN mission to the country:

“….The African Union Mission in Somalia managed to deploy only a quarter of its authorized strength of 8,000 due to a combination of logistical constraints, financial shortfalls, and a lack of peace to keep. With only 2,000 AU troops in Somalia and only 9,000 in Darfur, in March 2008 the UN Security Council was seriously debating the notion of deploying 28,000 UN troops to Somalia.

The widening gap between aspirations and the implementation of successful peace operations is very evident. The multi-billion dollar question is: How do we close this gap? By simply saying "enough" and retreating from the peacekeeping enterprise, as happened in the mid '90s after the last big peak in global peace operations and some nasty experiences in the Balkans and Africa? By trying to expand the available means with the likes of the US-sponsored Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), which aims to train a total of 75,000 peacekeeping troops -- mostly Africans -- by the year 2010? By commissioning another expert panel, like the one led by Lakhdar Brahimi in 2000 which produced very substantive recommendations on how to get the operational mechanics of UN peace operations right? Or by taking a really hard look at the mandate end and the peacemaking processes that precede the crafting of seemingly impossible mission mandates?”

To read the entire conversation between Mark and the other experts, check out U.N. Dispatch and FP Passport.

President’s Corner: Off the Headlines, Death and Displacement Continues in Darfur

“I am extremely disappointed at the lack of progress on all fronts in the efforts to address the situation in Darfur,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon said last week in his quarterly report to the Security Council on the deployment of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID).

“The parties appear determined to pursue a military solution; the political process [is] stalled; the deployment of UNAMID is progressing very slowly and continues to face many challenges; and the humanitarian situation is not improving.” In fact, the report notes that 60,000 additional people were displaced in the first three months of the year. It also details continuing rapes of women and girls and difficulty in getting humanitarian aid to large parts of Western Darfur.

The Darfur crisis, where an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million displaced, is now more than five years old. Despite efforts by President Bush, two heads of the UN, and a number of other world leaders, the crisis is no closer to resolution now than when it started. Indeed, what began as a fight between rebel groups in Darfur and Sudanese army and the deadly militias it arms to destroy villages, has now become a regional dispute, with increased fighting across the border between Chad and Sudan, Mr. Ban notes in his report.

Although ending the war in Darfur will never be easy, there are several moves the U.S. and other countries can take right now.

First, UNAMID continues to plea for helicopters and other necessary equipment. The U.S. should convene a Protect the People of Darfur conference and lead the world in producing the support the Darfur peacekeeping force needs. Second, that conference should take two other steps necessary to pressure both the government of Sudan and the fractious rebel groups to get to the peace table. The U.S. and its European and Middle Eastern allies should impose strict travel sanction on Sudanese government and rebel leaders until they reach a peace agreement. In addition, arms embargos on both the government and rebel groups should be closely enforced.

These two steps would help protect the people of Darfur, who are suffering while the world worries about what to do next.

--Ken Bacon

Keeping the Peace in Africa

Yesterday our peacekeeping program officer Mark Malan testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Africa, on the US Africa Command or AFRICOM. Mark voiced the concern that as it stands now AFRICOM could dangerously blur the line between a military role and engaging in more civilian responses like development projects and humanitarian assistance. These activities normally fall to humanitarian organizations whose security and access to affected populations hinges on the neutrality of their work.

In short, the concerns of the humanitarian NGOs overlap with those of Africans—to the extent that they are both underpinned by the fear of the militarization of humanitarian and development assistance, as well as US policy in Africa. An obvious way to overcome such concerns and enhance the credibility of the new combatant command, is to focus attention and effort on those non-combatant roles which are relevant, meaningful, and undeniably appropriate for the US military.

You can read Mark’s full testimony here.

Mark is also the director of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping (PEP), which works to increase peacebuilding capacity by bringing together various academics, think tanks, humanitarians, policymakers, and others. Visit the PEP website to read more about Mark’s testimony and to sign up for their mailing list.

On a related note, on Tuesday the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that authorizes the deployment of a hybrid mission to Darfur made up of UN and African Union peacekeeping troops and police. The resolution is an important step towards alleviating the violence and humanitarian crisis that has pummeled western Sudan since 2003.

The African Union currently has about 7,000 peacekeeping troops in Darfur (compared to the 14,000 aid workers there), but they are under funded and understaffed, which means that vulnerable populations like women and children receive little protection against abuses such as sexual and gender based violence.

The 26,000 peacekeepers proposed for the hybrid mission could potentially bring some sense of safety and stability to Darfur. But as Mark points out in his commentary today on the UN Resolution, the mandate for the hybrid mission, UNMID, is vague, and it remains to be seen whether the force commander and troop contributing countries will allow the peacekeepers to risk their lives in order to end the violence in Darfur and protect the civilians most in need.

The New Face of Peacekeeping

One of the more notable headlines from the past week is the arrival of the first ever all-female peacekeeping force to Liberia. The force, consisting of more than 100 Indian policewomen, has been training since September 2006. They will initially be deployed to Liberia for 6 months.

The all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) is a welcome addition to the 15,000 peacekeepers already with the UN Mission in Liberia. The female police force will help in rebuilding the Liberian National Police (LNP). Few women in Liberia currently consider pursuing a career in the national police force. This is due to lower educational standards for women in Liberia, as well as lingering negative views of the Liberian police, who have a history of corruption and took part in fighting during the country's civil war. The hope is that the involvement of the female Indian police force and a special UN education program for women interested in joining the force can reverse this trend.

With continuing reports of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers, including in Liberia, an all-female force will also hopefully make it easier for victims of abuse, particularly women and girls, to come forward and receive assistance. Refugees International’s own report on the topic, Must Boys Be Boys? Ending Sexual Exploitation and Abuse In UN Peacekeeping Missions, recommended that more women be included in peacekeeping missions, but noted that a “hyper-masculine culture that encourages sexual exploitation and abuse” has evolved in UN peacekeeping missions. The UN has made important steps to address the problem of SEA. However incidents are still taking place despite the UN’s official policy of zero tolerance. More needs to be done to ensure that UN staff in the field implement the rules set forth by headquarters.

An all-female peacekeeping force is an important step in combating the prevalence of SEA in UN peacekeeping missions. As this recent Washington Post article quotes, "Women police are seen to be much less threatening, although they can be just as tough as men. But in a conflict situation, they are more approachable and it makes women and children feel safer." The UN also reports that there are less incidents of SEA when there is a significant presence of female peacekeepers in a larger force.

More than 250,000 people were killed in the 14-year civil war in Liberia and an estimated 500,000 out of a population of 3 million were internally displaced. In 2005, RI conducted a mission to Liberia to look at the return of displaced persons in time for the presidential elections, which consequently saw the election of the first female president in Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Our findings from that mission included the need for UN peacekeepers to do more to assist internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning home. The good news is that the majority of those who were displaced during the conflict have since returned home, but Liberia still continues to need humanitarian assistance and international support.