Essay on Peacekeeping: UN and Regional Forces for Conflict Resolution

Introduction

Peacekeeping tends to be the deployment of either the multinational or national forces to help resolve and control any potential or armed conflict between two parties or nations. In most cases, the peacekeeping missions are normally lead by the united nations; however, other regional organizations such as the European Union can also decide to conduct the peacekeeping missions whenever the need arises. The forces that are involved In peacekeeping are usually deployed with the knowledge of all the parties involved in a particular conflict, and their main focus is to ensure that there is a cease-fire or attainment of the agreed upon measures (Doyle, & Sambanis, 2006). The peace-keeping forces are usually unarmed, and they tend to use the minimum force necessary to get the needed peace in a certain area. In case a cease-fire mission has failed, peace enforcement is used whereby the military assets are used to maintain peace against the will of the parties in a certain area.

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United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

The united nation is considered to be the leading peace keeping body; however, there are no explicit united nations charter basis for peacekeeping. United nation peacekeeping operations were initiated in the year 1945 with the intention of solving the conflict between nations in situations whereby the parties involved were willing to allow the deployment of a neutral third party to assist in maintaining peace (Hultman, Kathman, & Shannon, 2013). The United Nations peace operations were organized based on the region, dates of forces deployment, the name of the conflict and the name of the United Nations operation. The UN peacekeeping operations usually offer support in many forms that include, offering power-sharing agreement, strengthening the rule of law, social and economic development and giving electoral support (Lipson, 2005). The United Nations charter offers the Security Council the responsibility and power to take action to uphold international security and peace. The united nations first peacekeeping operation was referred to as the united nations truce supervision organization that was initiated in the year 1948 with the intention of monitoring a ceasefire operation between Israel and their arable neighbors (Hansen, Ramsbotham, & Woodhouse, 2004). However, with time, the united nation has taken part in numerous other peace operations that include observer mission in El Salvador, verification mission in Guatemala Angola verification mission, operation in Mozambique, and support mission in Haiti. The increase in the number of United Nations peace-keeping operations brought about the increase or expansion of the task that the peacekeepers were expected to accomplish. Some of the new tasks that the UN peacekeepers are expected to perform include, delivering the humanitarian aid, taking part in the disbarment, protecting the civilian population, investigating the alleged human rights violations and promoting respect for the human rights.

How Belgium Practise UN Peacekeeping

In the past two decades, Belgium's contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping has been fluctuating between high levels and middle-level involvement in the entirely symbolic contributions. Belgium usually practice united nation peacekeeping in various ways that include; first; Belgium tends to be involved in various military interventions across the globe, for example, the military intervention against ISIS, and also in democratic republic of Congo (Lipson, 2005). Belgium is considered to be a key contributor in the United Nations peacekeeping operations, NATO forces, and in humanitarian and developmental assistance (Leck, 2009). The country has always been able to maintain and uphold peace and security across the globe, thus making it very committed towards taking part in the United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Secondly, Belgium tends to be committed towards enhancing the participation and involvement of women in resolution and prevention of conflict and also taking the appropriate measures of protecting girls and women during and after conflict. By doing so, Belgium is focused on fulfilling the United Nations peacekeeping task of protecting the civilian population across the world and ensuring that human rights are not violated. Belgium is able to ensure that human rights are protected through continuously assessing the impacts of arms proliferation on the sexual and gender-based violence across the globe.

Historical Background of Belgium and Its Contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

Historical Background of Belgium

Belgium became an independent country in the year 1830; after being colonized by Germany during World War I and ii (Meijer, 2012). Belgium has prospered and developed in the past half century as a modern, and technologically advanced European country and also a member of the European Union and NATO. The tension that existed between the Dutch-speaking Flemish individuals of the north and the French-speaking Walloons that lived in the south led to constitutional amendments, thus granting the country formal recognition. In the year, 1948, Belgium became a cosignatory of the Benelux customs union together with Luxembourg and Netherlands (Meijer, 2012). This group later became the Benelux economic union in the year 1958, and the treaty was renewed (Meijer, 2012) and revised under the title of the Benelux union in the year 2008. Belgium later became a founding member of NATO in the year 1949 and later joined the other groups such as the European economic community in 1957 (Gijselinck, Langenhove, van der Zee, Sleegers, Philtjens, Kleinberger, & Engelborghs, 2012). Politically the nation was once polarized or affected by matters regarding religion; however, in the recent decade, the country has also faced tremendous divisions over unequal development and difference of languages. The on-going antagonism within the country led to the change of a unitary Belgian state to a federal state, which also triggered numerous government crises. The region is now divided into three regions that include; Flanders, which is in the northern part, Wallonia in the southern part, and bilingual Brussels, which is in the middle part of the country.

Belgium Contribution to the United Nation Peacekeeping Operation

Belgium has various contribution rationales to the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Some of these contributions include; first, political rationale. This was mainly in terms of domestic politics, prestige, and influence. In most cases, Belgium contribution was as a result of the political balancing act. The country has continuously offered its participation and support in the bigger European Union and NATO operations that were controlled by the United Nations (Weiss, 2018). Secondly, normative rationales, the Belgium government usually stress it normative commitment towards multilateralism and towards the united nation system at large. Belgium has always been a vocal supporter and protector of civilian, which is one of the obligations of the United Nations peacekeeping mission. Thirdly, security rationale. Belgium has highly been involved in upholding peace and security in various parts of the world. For example, Belgium was able to partner with the European Union to improve security and stability in the southern neighborhood. On the other hand, Belgium contribution to the UNFIL is considered to have taken a more active objective in the de-escalation efforts experienced in the Middle East (Gibbs, 2000). Fourth, institutional rationale, the involvement of Belgium in MONUSCO, whereby Belgium provided air support using the strategic and tactical frights with the intention of maintaining peace in the area. The country is usually ready to offer any of its military support or effort whenever needed to maintain peace in certain. By offering the needed support during peacekeeping missions, the country is able to increase its military operational experience and also help to test the military officers to the limits.

References

Doyle, M. W., & Sambanis, N. (2006). Making war and building peace: United Nations peace operations. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://cgt.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Making-War-and-Building-Peace.pdf

Gijselinck, I., Van Langenhove, T., van der Zee, J., Sleegers, K., Philtjens, S., Kleinberger, G., ... & Engelborghs, S. (2012). A C9orf72 promoter repeats expansion in a Flanders-Belgian cohort with disorders of the frontotemporal lobar degeneration-amyotrophic lateral sclerosis spectrum: a gene identification study. The Lancet Neurology, 11(1), 54-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(11)70261-7

Gibbs, D. N., (2000). The United Nations, international peacekeeping and the question of 'impartiality': revisiting the Congo operation of 1960. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 38(3), 359-382. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00003384

Hultman, L., Kathman, J., & Shannon, M. (2013). United Nations peacekeeping and civilian protection in civil war. American Journal of Political Science, 57(4), 875-891. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/af5c/b57159b1220974d85a670596a03a9689e1ef.pdf

Hansen, W., Ramsbotham, O., & Woodhouse, T., (2004). Hawks and doves: Peacekeeping and conflict resolution. In Transforming ethnopolitical conflict (pp. 295-319). VS Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-663-05642-3_15

Leck, C., (2009). International responsibility in United Nations peacekeeping operations: command and control arrangements and the attribution of conduct. Melb. J. Int'l L., 10, 346. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/messages/downloadsexceeded.html

Lipson, M., (2005, March). Interorganizational coordination in complex peacekeeping. In Unpublished draft prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/messages/downloadsexceeded.html

Meijer, R., (2012). The literature of the low countries: a short history of Dutch literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. Springer Science & Business Media. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/ciec.2003.4.2.4

Weiss, T. G., (2018). The United Nations and changing world politics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429494314