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An examination of Canadian peacekeeping operations in Somalia during the 1990s is used to argue that the increase in peacekeeping missions in the post-Cold War period demands an analysis of problems related to using people trained to kill other human beings in peace operations. This "militarized masculinity" often leads to war crimes that, in the case of Somalia, destroyed the myth that Canadian forces were morally pure & altruistic. Peacekeeping mission restrictions such as firing weapons only in self-defense run counter to dominant notions of military purpose. These missions are often ridiculed by members of the traditional military culture who were trained to do battle. The resulting tensions can have disastrous consequences like the 1993 brutal murder of Somali teenager Shidane Abukar Arone by two Canadian soldiers that shocked Canadian citizens who had never seen their soldiers accused of atrocities. The incident challenged the longstanding belief that "Americans fought wars" but "Canadians made peace." The need to acknowledge the reality that soldiers do not always make the best peacekeepers is emphasized. J. Lindroth

Examines recent Canadian analyses & discussions of peacekeeping in the context of international relations debate between idealism & realism, the latter as viewed from Hans Moregenthau's perspective to which the author subscribes. Conceptual ambiguity surrounding peacekeeping is addressed, seeking some clarification from the distinction between troop deployment under Chapter VI of the UN Charter & deployment under Chapter VII. At issue is how the government & citizenry of Canada came to support peacekeeping with such thoughtlessness that the criteria developed to guide sensible decision making could be thoroughly ignored. A long-term factor underpinning this situation is the extent to which peacekeeping has supported a persistent myth of Canadian identity that centers on a rejection of the US. The short-term factor involves changes in the Canadian armed forces resulting at least partly from foreign policy ideals that generally removed from or contrary to the realities of power & interest. Thus, the abandonment of realism for the idealism that motivates Canada's pursuit of peacekeeping is seen as contributing to the disintegration of the Canadian armed forces. J. Zendejas

"Since the Cold War, peacekeeping has evolved from first-generation peacekeeping that focused on monitoring peace agreements, to third-generation multidimensional peacekeeping operations tasked with rebuilding states and their institutions during and after conflict. However, peacekeeping today is lagging behind the changes marking our time. Big Data, including social media, and the many actors in the field may provide peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations with information and tools to enable them to respond better, faster and more effectively, saving lives and building states. These tools are already well known in the areas of humanitarian action, social activism, and development. Also the United Nations, through the Global Pulse initiative, has begun to discover the potential of 'Big Data for Development', which may in time help prevent violent conflict. However, less has been done in the area of peacekeeping. UN member states should push for change so that the world organization and other multilateral actors can get their act together, mounting a fourth generation of peacekeeping operations that can utilize the potentials of Big Data, social media and modern technology-'Peacekeeping 4.0.' The chapter details some of the initiatives that can be harnessed and further developed, and offers policy recommendations for member states, the UN Security Council, and UN peacekeeping at UN headquarters and at field levels." (author's abstract)

"Whether an engineer, a doctor, a politician or a mother, everyone practices evaluation every day of their life. One evaluates whether the rice has finished cooking, whether the proposed law will address the problem at hand, which diagnostic tests to do in response to the patient's symptoms and whether the bridge design is adequate for extreme weather conditions. Each of these evaluative acts has a purpose in mind, requires information, and assesses that information against the context and against standards (explicitly and implicitly), in order to catalyze an action. Although everyone has this inherent familiarity with evaluation, in a professional setting it often becomes rife with misunderstandings, complexities and challenges. Therefore, it is useful to start with first principles - what is evaluation? Definitions abound within the professional evaluation field, with many of the major evaluation theorists having developed their own variations (Patton 2008; Rossi et al. 1999). Almost all of these have at their core a set of common characteristics: the systematic nature of the process, competent data collection methodology, and assessment or valuing of the findings. Overlaying these characteristics with peacebuilding, one can define evaluation for our purposes as the use of social science data collection methods (including participatory processes) to investigate the quality and value of programming that addresses the core driving factors and actors of violent conflict or supports the driving factors and actors of peace (Church 2008). In this definition, 'quality' refers to the caliber of the implementation; including the conflict analysis from which a peacebuilding strategy is derived, the planning as well as the implementation process (a blend of logistics, tactics and peacebuilding technique). 'Value', on the other hand, inquires into the changes associated with the intervention and their significance to the target population in terms of stopping violence or building peace. Both quality and value are essential components of program evaluation. This chapter explores the state of the art of evaluation in peacebuilding. After reviewing recent developments (section 2) and current practice (section 3), it proposes that peacebuilding evaluations are generally not delivering accountability and learning in the manner in which they should for two primary reasons. First, the average evaluation is not grounded in the basics of good evaluation practice. Significantly more attention is given to responding to peacebuilding's perceived `distinctiveness' and the challenges this distinctiveness raises than to ensuring that the basics are covered (see section 4). The second reason is that the core drivers of evaluation - accountability and learning - are rarely held at the heart of the process (see section 5). Section 6 gives some recommendations for improving evaluation in the peacebuilding field, followed by a short conclusion. Methodological challenges, of which there are many, are not covered in this chapter. While the field needs to address these challenges in a thoughtful manner, the issues of quality and the motivations behind evaluation are at the foundation of evaluation practice. No improvements in methodology will fundamentally change the contribution of evaluations if these issues are not adequately addressed." (excerpt)

"Colonial and post-colonial rulers often failed to transform African countries into true nations. Therefore, political violence, instability and civil wars endured, prompting external intervention. Peacekeeping and the nature of conflicts changed, forcing the UN to shift and expand its field operations from 'traditional' missions involving strictly military tasks, to complex 'multidimensional' enterprises designed to ensure the Implementation of comprehensive peace agreements and assist in laying the foundations for sustainable peace. The AU is working vigorously to strengthen its capacity and partnership with the UN, but many peacekeeping forces are not self-sustainable, lack suficient logistics and need external support for basic equipment, and medical supplies before deploying. Emphasis should be put on military capabilities, the quality of personnel, Force multipliers, effective deployment, closing gaps between goals and reality, the political will by stakeholders and on managing the ongoing conflict instead of elaborate/expensive outside initiatives." (author's abstract)

"Martina Fischer's article gives an overview of the problems of reconstruction, rehabilitation and (re)integration in war tom societies. In the context of post-war situations reconstruction turns out to be an ambiguous or even contradictory concept: it is considered as useful by some actors and others refuse the notion that society can and should be reconstructed. The author argues that (re)integration of refugees and displaced persons is one of the main challenges and precondition for conflict transformation. Support and intervention from external actors are all too often reduced to material reconstruction of houses and infrastructure whereas the need for rebuilding communities is forgotten. In order to move from reconstruction to constructive conflict transformation and peacebuilding, joint efforts are needed which combine development approaches, economic perspectives and empowerment of local actors for civil society issues, peace-education and social work. In order to make third party intervention effective, co-ordination of activities is needed. Positive and negative lessons can be drawn from the Balkans." (author's abstract)

"Martina Fischer's article gives an overview of the problems of reconstruction, rehabilitation and (re)integration in war tom societies. In the context of post-war situations reconstruction turns out to be an ambiguous or even contradictory concept: it is considered as useful by some actors and others refuse the notion that society can and should be reconstructed. The author argues that (re)integration of refugees and displaced persons is one of the main challenges and precondition for conflict transformation. Support and intervention from external actors are all too often reduced to material reconstruction of houses and infrastructure whereas the need for rebuilding communities is forgotten. In order to move from reconstruction to constructive conflict transformation and peacebuilding, joint efforts are needed which combine development approaches, economic perspectives and empowerment of local actors for civil society issues, peace-education and social work. In order to make third party intervention effective, co-ordination of activities is needed. Positive and negative lessons can be drawn from the Balkans." (author's abstract).