Critical Thinking Example: Effects of the End of Cold War on Peacemaking

In its initial stages, during the cold war, peacekeeping principle of the United Nations that was put in place to rectify and solve the stalemates among countries faced serious challenges. The major aim of the peacekeeping initiative was to maintain brittle armistices and soothe conflict areas so that the tension could be resolved diplomatically. However, during the cold war, the union could not effectively participate in collective actions since the East-West division that occurred within the Security Council because of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US. However, after the end of the cold war, peacekeeping mission was very effective since the rival countries could collectively work on one agenda.

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The end of cold war created a room for engagement in which the sides (East and West) could foster a constructive and diplomatic negotiation. It is important to note that the major role peacekeeping union was to ensure that rivals or the conflicts could be solved in together. However, this was not possible, when the perceived powerful countries or divisions could not allow such negotiations. As countries that were important and were professed as one of the most powerful nations, they were very significant for the success of peacekeeping attempts. In response to the rivalry between US and the Soviet Union, most developing countries began to defy the aims and objectives of the initiative since it could not resolve the conflicts among the foes.

With the end of the Cold War, there was no longer a necessity for UN peacekeeping actions to keep the inordinate supremacies out of the conflicts. Peacekeeping services, however, remained in demand since they were considered supportive aids to the resolution of conflicts. UN peacekeeping charges rose histrionically as a result of the varying global political scenery at the end of Cold War. In other words, with the collapse of the intense rivalry between the Soviet Union and the US, there were few but manageable conflicts. With the mighty and power of the countries that were involved in the cold war, it was quite hard for the mission to execute its mandates and responsibilities.

After the end of cold war, the perceived powerful countries such as the United States and Russia supported peacemaking. This boosted the powers of the mission since the most powerful countries were in its support. On the same note, there were several donations which included finance, war materials that were brought by such countries into the mission. Other than material assistance, there was a serious campaign for all countries to be members of the initiative, which later strengthened the mission. In that regard, after the cold war, UN peacemaking mission became stronger.

In conclusion, the end of the cold war marked a significant point of UN peacemaking initiative. First, it created a platform from which the mission could carry out its mandate easily since nations involved in the war were considered most powerful hence controlling them was a difficult task. Secondly, after the cold war, there were no serious conflicts that could avert the effort of UN mission since the most powerful countries had resolved their difference. The later conflicts were between countries that were easy to manage. Lastly, the end of the cold war brought almost all countries together hence strengthened the union.

Bibliography

Bellamy, Alex J., Paul D. Williams, and Stuart Griffin. Understanding peacekeeping. Polity, 2010.Puchala, Donald, Katie Verlin Laatikainen, and Roger Coate. United Nations politics: International organization in a divided world. Routledge, 2015.