The military is generally considered to act as a professional when it comes to retreating forces from military battleground or international conflict areas. At the same time recent national experiences with the withdrawal of national troops from international peacekeeping operations are filled with disappointments and crises. In this article the authors question the idea that these disappointments and crises are simply due to problems of reduced military competence or military morale. They argue that the military is still the alleged expert who knows how to perform military retreats and other military actions. At the same time they show that network-like decision-making structures that are inherent to the deployment of troops in international peacekeeping missions, have become a major obstacle for the military to act in its own right. The lessons that government can learn from the military experience are firstly, that decisions for national public cutbacks should be accompanied by a more in-depth (re)consideration of public (key) tasks than up to now was considered appropriate, and secondly, that more trust should be shown in the skills, knowledge and motivation of professionals to delineate and constrain the boundaries of their own fields of expertise.
Ova teza treba da istraži vezu između motiva, ciljeva i principa kanadske spoljno-političke agende, u odnosu na njen učinak na području očuvanja i izgradnje mira na Zapadnom Balkanu. Vremenski opseg obuhvata period od 1991. do 1999.godine. U vezi sa pojašnjenjem ovog pitanja, posebno se elaborira idejna osnova te spoljno-političke agende, zatim njeno formiranje kroz viziju međunarodne pozicije Kanade u međunarodnoj politici i na kraju kontekstualizacija te vizije u spoljno-političku misiju Kanade u regiji Zapadnog Balkana. Teza na teorijskom nivou uključuje istraživanje savremenih trendova u oblasti bezbjednosti, uticaja ideja na spoljnu politiku, proces kreiranja i realizacije spoljno-politikih strategija kao i istraživanje učinka spoljno-političkih akcija u kontekstu očuvanja i izgradnje mira. Naučni cilj ovog istraživanja je evaluacija učinka onog dijela kanadske agende ljudske bezbjednosti koji se odnosi na učešće u međunarodnim mirovnim misijama na Zapadnom Balkanu tokom devedesetih godina prošlog vijeka. Teza se zasniva na činjenici da kanadski pristup i doprinos regionalnoj bezbjednosti, posmatran iz ugla teorijskog pravca ljudske bezbjednosti, u regiji Zapadnog Balkana nije dovoljno istražen na naučnoj osnovi. To se posebno odnosi na učinak kanadskih snaga u okviru međunarodnih mirovnih misija u Hrvatskoj, BiH i na Kosovu, u odnosu na kanadsku agendu ljudske bezbjednosti. Naučni doprinos ovog rada bio bi u naučnoj sintezi međunarodno afirmisane agende ljudske bezbjednosti i njenoj kontekstualnoj primjeni kroz djelovanje kanadske mirovne misije u Regiji. Društveni doprinos ovog rada ogleda se u činjenici da se na temeljan način skreće pažnja stručnoj javnosti na kanadski doprinos izgradnji mira na Zapadnom Balkanu, na osnovama liberalnog internacionalizma. ; This thesis aims to explore the links among the motives, purposes and principles of the Canadian foreign policy agenda, with respect to its impact in the field of preserving and building peace in the Western Balkans. The timeframe covers the period from 1991 to1999. With regards to the clarification of this issue, particularly elaborated is the conceptual basis for this foreign policy agenda, then its shaping through the vision of the international position of Canada in the global politics and finally the contextualization of this vision into the Canadian foreign policy mission in the Western Balkans. On a theoretical level, the thesis includes the research into contemporary trends in the field of security, the impact of ideas on foreign policy, the development and implementation of foreign policy strategy, and it also explores the impact of foreign policy actions in the context of preserving and building peace. The scientific objective of this research is appraisal of the effect of that part of Canadian human security agenda relating to participation in international peacekeeping missions in the Western Balkans during the nineteen nineties. The thesis is based on the fact that the Canadian approach and contribution to regional security, observed from the perspective of the theoretical line of human security in the Western Balkans region has not been sufficiently explored from the scientific point of view. This is especially true of the effect of the Canadian troops in the international peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, in relation to the Canadian human security agenda. Scientific contribution of this work would be in the scientific synthesis of the internationally-established human security agenda and its application through contextual actions of Canadian peacekeeping mission in the region. The social contribution of this work is reflected in the fact that the attention is drawn to the expert public in a fundamental way to the Canadian contribution towards peacebuilding in the Western Balkans, on the bases of liberal internationalism.
