Peace enforcement

Last updated November 24, 2024

Peace enforcement is the use of various tactics, most notably military force to compel peace in a conflict, generally against the will of combatants.^[1]^[2] Peace enforcement missions permit the use of non-defensive armed force, unlike peacekeeping operations. Only the United Nations, through its Security Council per Chapter VII of its charter, has the ability to authorize peace enforcement missions.^[3]^[4]

Peace enforcement differs from peacekeeping in that peace enforcement activities are generally used to create a peace from a broken ceasefire, or to enforce a peace demanded by the United Nations.^[1]^[3] Peace enforcement requires more military force than peacekeeping, and is consequently carried out by heavily armed forces.^[1] However achieving lasting peace through peace enforcement is limited, as such missions do not address the underlying problems which caused conflict.^[5] While peacekeeping missions utilize personnel from several countries, peace enforcement forces often originate from one state or a small coalition of states.^[6]

Perhaps the two most prominent examples of peace enforcement are the Korean War and the Gulf War. In both cases, a country invaded another as part of an illegal war of aggression, only to be repulsed by a UN military coalition.^[3]

Peace Enforcement Missions

Notable Peace Enforcement Missions Include:

The Korean War took place between 1950-1953, the UN was involved in this peace enforcement mission by enforcing peace through military engagement. Establishing Chapter VII of the UN Charter allows the UN Security Council to authorize military action when peace is threatened. Other examples of peace enforcement missions could include, the Gulf War the primary "peace operation" involved was led by the UN and involved the international community. They sought to enforce Iraqi withdrawal via UN Security Council resolutions and international condemnation. However, these measures failed, leading to the launch of Operation Desert Storm, a military coalition campaign to liberate Kuwait. NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999, is seen as an example of peace enforcement despite not being directly sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

Africa

The United Nations and African Union have both executed peace enforcement missions in Africa. The African Union undertakes peace enforcement operations through utilizing the African Standby Force.^[7]

The United Nations Security Council often proposes peace enforcement mission partnerships to the African Union for authorization, and the African Union must request permission from the Security Council to execute peace enforcement operations.^[7] The United Nations has relied on the African Union to counter conflict outbreaks and enforce stability. The United Nations is then tasked with peacetime consolidation.

The UN Stabilization Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a peace enforcement mission targeting armed rebel groups such as M23.^[7]

Central Asia

Peace enforcement missions in central asia include the Afghan ISAF operation.

Middle East and North Africa

Operation Unified Protector is a peace enforcement operation executed in Libya during the 2011 Libyan Civil War.

Criticisms of Peace Enforcement

Critics of peace enforcement using United Nations peacekeeping forces include infringement on UN peacekeeping ethical standards of impartiality, intervention violating standards to only enforce an existing peace, and the use of non-defensive force. Distinguishing between operations conducted by the United Nations versus those which have been authorized by the United Nations Security Council has been a proposed solution. However, the use of UN peacekeeping forces for peace enforcement missions remains under scrutiny, and critics argue that regional organizations such as the African Union and the Arab League should be tasked with the execution of enforcement missions.^[8]

The United Nations has proposed peace enforcement missions as a means to combat intrastate conflicts in countries such as Ethiopia, Cameroon, Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. However, these countries have relied upon internal conflict resolution tactics and have not requested for enforcement operations to be conducted.^[9]

Related Research Articles

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. Its powers as outlined in the United Nations Charter include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The UNSC is the only UN body with authority to issue resolutions that are binding on member states.

Peacekeeping comprises activities, especially military ones, intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare.

A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force nor a person engaged in hostilities.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone from 1999 to 2006. It was created by the United Nations Security Council in October 1999 to help with the implementation of the Lomé Peace Accord, an agreement intended to end the Sierra Leonean civil war. UNAMSIL expanded in size several times in 2000 and 2001. It concluded its mandate at the end of 2005, the Security Council having declared that its mission was complete.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which was established by the United Nations Security Council in resolutions 1279 (1999) and 1291 (2000) to monitor the peace process of the Second Congo War, though much of its focus subsequently turned to the Ituri conflict, the Kivu conflict and the Dongo conflict. The mission was known as the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo or MONUC, an acronym of its French name Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République démocratique du Congo, until 2010.

Military operations other than war (MOOTW) are military operations that do not involve warfare, combat, or the threat or use of violence. They generally include peacekeeping, peacebuilding, disaster response, humanitarian aid, military engineering, law enforcement, arms control, deterrence, and multilateralism.

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) is the organ of the African Union in charge of enforcing union decisions. It is patterned somewhat after the United Nations Security Council. The PSC is also the main pillar of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), and works with other pillars of the APSA in order to promote "peace, security and stability in Africa". The specific goal of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) is the "prevention, management and resolution of conflicts". To achieve these goals, it involves subsidiary organizations such as the Military Staff Committee and the Committee of Experts.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation established in September 2003 to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Liberia following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003). At its peak it consisted of up to 15,000 UN military personnel and 1,115 police officers, along with civilian political advisors and aid workers.

The Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was a United States-led, United Nations-sanctioned multinational force which operated in Somalia from 5 December 1992 until 4 May 1993. A United States initiative, UNITAF was charged with carrying out United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 to create a protected environment for conducting humanitarian operations in the southern half of the country.

The use of force by states is controlled by both customary international law and by treaty law. The UN Charter reads in article 2(4):

All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".

The African Standby Force (ASF) is an international, continental African, and multidisciplinary peacekeeping force with military, police and civilian contingents that acts under the direction of the African Union. The ASF is to be deployed in times of crisis in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, serves as the Force's Headquarters. Douala, Cameroon, was selected in 2011 as the site of the AU's Continental Logistics Base (LOGBASE).

The United Kingdom is a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706, adopted on August 31, 2006, after recalling previous resolutions on the situation in Sudan, including resolutions 1556 (2004), 1564 (2005), 1574 (2004), 1590 (2004), 1591 (2005), 1593 (2004), 1663 (2006), 1665 (2006) and 1679 (2006), the Council expanded the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) to include deployments in Darfur to enforce the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The United Nations Peacekeeping efforts began in 1948. Its first activity was in the Middle East to observe and maintain the ceasefire during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Since then, United Nations peacekeepers have taken part in a total of 72 missions around the globe, 12 of which continue today. The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.

Peacekeeping by the United Nations is a role of the UN's Department of Peace Operations as an "instrument developed by the organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace". It is distinguished from peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peace enforcement although the United Nations does acknowledge that all activities are "mutually reinforcing" and that overlap between them is frequent in practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1528</span> 2004 resolution on Côte dIvoire

United Nations Security Council resolution 1528, adopted unanimously on 27 February 2004, after recalling resolutions 1464 (2003), 1479 (2003), 1498 (2003), 1514 (2003) and 1527 (2004) on the situation in Côte d'Ivoire, the council established the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) for an initial period of twelve months.

The United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) is a military formation which constitutes part of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). It was authorized by the United Nations Security Council on 28 March 2013 through Resolution 2098. Although it is not the first instance in which the use of force was authorized by the UN, the Force Intervention Brigade is the first UN peacekeeping operation specifically tasked to carry out targeted offensive operations to "neutralize and disarm" groups considered a threat to state authority and civilian security. In this case, the main target was the M23 militia group, as well as other Congolese and foreign rebel groups. While such operations do not require the support of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), the Force Intervention Brigade often acts in unison with the FARDC to disarm rebel groups.

The Mission of the Representative of the Secretary-General in the Dominican Republic (DOMREP) was a peacekeeping operation established in 1965 by the UN to observe the ceasefire agreement between the two de facto authorities in the Dominican Republic during the Dominican Civil War. DOMREP was instructed to report any breaches of the agreements between the Constitutionalists led by Juan Bosch and Francisco Caamaño, and Loyalists commanded by Elías Wessin y Wessin and backed by the United States. Once the new Dominican constitutional government was formed, DOMREP withdrew.

References

1 2 3 Kaplan, Richard. "Peacekeeping / Peace Enforcement | Encyclopedia Princetoniensis". Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-determination. Princeton University. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
↑ "Terminology". United Nations Peacekeeping. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
1 2 3 Nau, Henry R (2015). Perspectives on International Relations . Washington DC: CQ Press. ISBN 978-1-4522-4148-7.
↑ Lundgren, Magnus (2016). "Conflict management capabilities of peace-brokering international organizations, 1945–2010: A new dataset". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 33 (2): 198–223. doi:10.1177/0738894215572757.
↑ "CHAPTER III -- PEACE ENFORCEMENT". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
↑ Howard, Lise Morjé (2015). "Peacekeeping, Peace Enforcement, and UN Reform". Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. 16 (2): 11 – via JSTOR.
1 2 3 de Coning, Cedric (6 February 2017). "Peace enforcement in Africa: Doctrinal distinctions between the African Union and United Nations". Contemporary Security Policy. 38 (1): 145–160.
↑ Karlsrud, John (2015-01-02). "The UN at war: examining the consequences of peace-enforcement mandates for the UN peacekeeping operations in the CAR, the DRC and Mali". Third World Quarterly. 36 (1): 40–54. doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.976016. ISSN 0143-6597.
↑ "The Relaunch of Peace Enforcement: How can the New Agenda be Implemented?" (PDF). ZIF Center for International Peace Operations: 14. 26 April 2024.

 10. https://academic.oup.com/book/58132 "The Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary"  11. "The Crisis in the Central African Republic" by Conciliation Resources

https://www.c-r.org/news-and-insight/peace-and-progress-central-african-republic-hinge-securing-space-dialogue

External links

OPERATIONS OTHER THAN WAR. VOLUME IV "PEACE OPERATIONS"

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[:0-1] 1 2 3 Kaplan, Richard. "Peacekeeping / Peace Enforcement | Encyclopedia Princetoniensis". Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-determination. Princeton University. Retrieved 2015-11-07.

[2] "Terminology". United Nations Peacekeeping. Retrieved 2024-10-14.

[:1-3] 1 2 3 Nau, Henry R (2015). Perspectives on International Relations . Washington DC: CQ Press. ISBN 978-1-4522-4148-7.

[4] Lundgren, Magnus (2016). "Conflict management capabilities of peace-brokering international organizations, 1945–2010: A new dataset". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 33 (2): 198–223. doi:10.1177/0738894215572757.

[5] "CHAPTER III -- PEACE ENFORCEMENT". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2015-11-07.

[6] Howard, Lise Morjé (2015). "Peacekeeping, Peace Enforcement, and UN Reform". Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. 16 (2): 11 – via JSTOR.

[:2-7] 1 2 3 de Coning, Cedric (6 February 2017). "Peace enforcement in Africa: Doctrinal distinctions between the African Union and United Nations". Contemporary Security Policy. 38 (1): 145–160.

[8] Karlsrud, John (2015-01-02). "The UN at war: examining the consequences of peace-enforcement mandates for the UN peacekeeping operations in the CAR, the DRC and Mali". Third World Quarterly. 36 (1): 40–54. doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.976016. ISSN 0143-6597.

[9] "The Relaunch of Peace Enforcement: How can the New Agenda be Implemented?" (PDF). ZIF Center for International Peace Operations: 14. 26 April 2024.

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