International Peacekeeping: The Disputants' View

In: Political studies: the journal of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom, Band 38, Heft 2, S. 215-230

Abstract

International disputants often have reservations about inviting a peacekeeping body to help them contain or settle their conflict. Either or both sides might worry about certain international consequences of this course. Thus, one side might want to refrain from implying that an international issue really exists; both disputants might be concerned that a peacekeeping body could interfere with their freedom of action; and also that it could furnish critical reports about their behaviour. Then, too, there are certain adverse international possibilities which are special to potential host states. They might be conscious that having a peacekeeping body on their soil could give an impression of weakness or doubtful probity, and also of being less than fully sovereign. There are, additionally, certain domestic complications which might ensue for a host state. It could be concerned about the relations of the peacekeepers with its people, about the presence of such a group becoming a controversial political issue, and about the danger of a peacekeeping force ignoring the ground rules of peacekeeping and behaving in a manner which threatened the government's interests.