Why Does Peacekeeping Succeed or Fail? Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone
Modern War and the Utility of Force, edited by Jan Angstrom and Isabelle Duyvesteyn, (New York, Routledge, 2010)
24 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2012
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
Why do some UN peacekeeping missions succeed and others fail? Why did the mission in Sierra Leone produce peace and that in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not? These two UN missions have had unambiguously divergent outcomes, with violence ending in Sierra Leone and the DRC being “the killing fields of our times.” This paper seeks to explain the factors that contribute to these starkly different outcomes, with an eye towards understanding the conditions under which force is likely to be effective in the peace enforcement setting. Comparing the cases of the DRC and Sierra Leone produces two-related insights on peacekeeping. First, the presence of too few, poorly equipped, and too constrained peacekeepers will cast doubt on the likely success of a particular peacekeeping force. Second, an overly ambitious or ambiguous political objective — one that hopes peacekeepers can make peace amidst spoilers outside the peace process — also creates an environment ripe for failure. Both speak to the utility of force and its interplay with the political process.
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