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Conference proceedings: research results and approaches of advocacy to unarmed civilian protection / peacekeeping

The German Armed Forces contribute to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). This is the first time in more than 20 years that Germany has deployed a strong contingent for a United Nations peacekeeping operation, though the UN's multilateral crisis management is currently required to operate in very different conflict contexts. The Federal Government should scrutinize how Germany can participate more comprehensively and more strategically in these missions than it has done up to now. There are a number of reasons to sustain, prioritize and extend this commitment which pertains to issues of strategy, personnel policy, training and equipment. (author's abstract)

The number of uniformed personnel serving in UN peace missions reached a new record in 2016, at almost 123,000. Following grave failings of UN missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, there is growing awareness within the UN of a widening disjoint between the expectations placed upon peacekeeping forces and what they can actually achieve. One aspect of the debate relates to the question of how robustly UN missions should operate in enforcing their mandate. In some quarters the resolute use of force is seen as the key to greater success. Almost three years ago the UN sent a Force Intervention Brigade to Congo with an explicit mandate to neutralise armed groups. An assessment of its record reveals that the brigade cannot be regarded as an organisational model worth replicating, and that peace-enforcing mandates do not necessarily lead to greater success in peacekeeping. (author's abstract)

Unbewaffnetes Ziviles Peacekeeping - wie man ZivilistInnen wirksam ohne die Drohung mit Gewalt schützt. Das ist die Übersetzung des Titels des englischsprachigen Hintergrund- und Diskussionspapiers, das jetzt neu erschienen ist. Die drei Autorinnen fassen in dem Papier den Stand der wissenschaftlichen Forschung zu Zivilem Peacekeeping zusammen. Sie stellen die Grundgedanken dieses Ansatzes dar, Menschen vor kriegerischer Gewalt auf gewaltfreiem Wege zu schützen, beschäftigen sich mit der Akzeptanz dieses Ansatzes in der Politik und geben einen Überblick über die vorhandene Literatur zum Thema.

"Although prospects for peacekeeping and peacebuilding in Africa have significantly improved since the end of the East-West conflict, creating the conditions for lasting peace nevertheless remains a challenge. While liberal peace as ideological frame and strong regional security organisations (RSOs) account for positive impacts and great potential, their effectiveness remains a hope, rather than a given. This report contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of peacekeeping/ peacebuilding on the African continent by analysing the policies and activities of the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) as well as some of its member states regarding two global norms: a) Protection of Civilians (POC) as one task of peacekeeping operations and b) Security Sector Reform (SSR). Based on the examples of Darfur, Chad, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, the report finds that the similar interpretation of doctrines is promising and can be considered an indicator that a layered system of global security governance based on strong and connected RSOs could be both effective and legitimate. However, this alignment of doctrines remains fragile and does not always translate into increased effectiveness at the local level due to three classes of frictions the report identifies." (author's abstract)

Internationale Interventionen zur Friedenskonsolidierung sind seit den 1990er Jahren in der internationalen Politik in den Vordergrund gerückt. Dieser Wandel hat zu umfangreichen Untersuchungen über die Bedingungen für erfolgreiche Interventionspraktiken und die normativen Spannungen, die sie in den Zielländern oft hervorrufen, geführt. Der wissenschaftliche Diskurs hat die sich entwickelnden Ansätze der internationalen Friedenskonsolidierung in mehreren turns konzeptualisiert: Das Konzept des liberal peacebuilding wurde mit dem Fokus auf local ownership kritisch beleuchtet, gefolgt vom Ruf nach robusteren oder pragmatischeren Mandaten. Immer wieder wird auch die konzeptionelle Debatte über die verschwimmenden Grenzen zwischen Friedenskonsolidierung (peacebuilding) und Friedenserhaltung (peacekeeping) geführt. Eine zentrale Frage, die sich aus den genannten Debatten ergibt, betrifft die Rolle von Zwang in der Friedensförderung: Erleben wir eine Verschiebung hin zu mehr zwangsbasierten (robusten) Ansätzen? Oder hat die Kritik an der liberalen Friedenskonsolidierung und die zunehmende Bedeutung von sogenannten "neuen" Akteuren aus dem Globalen Süden zu einem Trend von weniger Zwang (light footprint) und einer stärkeren Berücksichtigung von local ownership und Inklusivität geführt? Aufbauend auf einem Literaturstand zur Konzeptualisierung von Zwang schlägt dieses Working Paper einen konzeptionellen Rahmen vor, um die Rolle von Zwang in der Friedensförderung zu untersuchen. Es untersucht die komplizierte Beziehung zwischen Zwang und Frieden und beschreibt die verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen von Zwang in der Friedensförderung. Der konzeptionelle Rahmen wird beispielhaft in einer Untersuchung afrikanischer regionaler Reaktionen auf Putsche als Zwangsregime veranschaulicht. Abschließend unterstreichen wir die Notwendigkeit einer systematischen Betrachtung von Zwang in der Friedensforschung und heben dessen Bedeutung für die Gestaltung der Ergebnisse und der Wirksamkeit von internationalen Interventionen hervor.

In their PRIF Report the authors focus on the various forms of resistance to and backlash against gender equality and gender-sensitive human rights in peacebuilding processes. Based on 33 interviews with key stakeholders, they explore how peacebuilders understand and perceive resistance to and backlash against the realisation of gender-sensitive human rights in peacebuilding. The report also sheds light on the counter-measures and strategies used by peacebuilders. Finally, the authors discuss the impact of feminist foreign policy on gender-sensitive human rights in peacebuilding.

"This book investigates to what extent UNSCR 1325/WPS agenda has functioned in practice, to advance women's equality and empowerment in the peacekeeping context and beyond. The book examines whether widespread implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the broader WPS agenda via gender mainstreaming in UN operations has translated into increased gender equality in peacekeeping operations, the broader UN institutional context and, by extension, the host countries in which missions are situated, via norm dissemination. The book investigates this via a review of the implementation of UNSCR1325 in the operations chosen as research sites over three snapshot years. The book undertakes a comparative analysis that scrutinizes if, how and under what conditions gender mainstreaming has succeeded as a strategy to advance gender equality by analyzing the factors/conditions that have led to successful gender mainstreaming across the operational context, and those that have impeded this outcome. The book concludes that, despite rhetorical commitments to women's equality in peacekeeping since the passage of UNSCR 1325, progress on the ground has remained minimal, and that the operational environment continues to be discriminatory against women. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, women do not participate as equal partners in peacekeeping and continue to have less access to resources and decision-making power, overall. The book interrogates that by exploring the spaces available within law, policy and practice of the UN to pursue the human rights agenda of gender equality and considers whether UNSCR 1325 has enlarged those spaces. It also points to the irony of internal UN structures failing to adequately adapt to their own gender mainstreaming mandates, while those same structures have delivered some gender equality mandates successes externally, at local levels. This book will be of interest to students of peacekeeping, gender studies, and International Relations"--

The Limits of Peacekeeping highlights the Australian government's peacekeeping efforts in Africa and the Americas from 1992 to 2005. Changing world power structures and increased international cooperation saw a boom in Australia's peacekeeping operations between 1991 and 1995. The initial optimism of this period proved to be misplaced, as the limits of the United Nations and the international community to resolve deep-seated problems became clear. There were also limits on how many missions a middle-sized country like Australia could support. Restricted by the size of the armed forces and financial and geographic constraints, peacekeeping was always a secondary task to ensuring the defence of Australia. Faith in the effectiveness of peacekeeping reduced significantly, and the election of the Howard Coalition Government in 1996 confined peacekeeping missions to the near region from 1996-2001. This volume is an authoritative and compelling history of Australia's changing attitudes towards peacekeeping

Development assistance to fragile states and conflict-affected areas can be a core component of peacebuilding, providing support for the restoration of government functions, delivery of basic services, the rule of law, and economic revitalization. What has worked, why it has worked, and what is scalable and transferable are key questions for both development practice and research into how peace is built and the interactive role of domestic and international processes therein. Despite a wealth of research into these questions, significant gaps remain. This volume speaks to these gaps through new analysis of a selected set of well-regarded aid interventions. Drawing on diverse scholarly and policy expertise, eight case study chapters span multiple domains and regions to analyse Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme, the Yemen Social Fund for Development, public financial management reform in Sierra Leone, Finn Church Aid's assistance in Somalia, Liberia's gender-sensitive police reform, the judicial facilitators programme in Nicaragua, UNICEF's education projects in Somalia, and World Bank health projects in Timor-Leste. Analysis illustrates the significance of three broad factors in understanding why some aid interventions work better than others: the area of intervention and related degree of engagement with state institutions, local contextual factors such as windows of opportunity and the degree of local support, and programme design and management.

This volume deals with women's participation in international peacekeeping operations and what those operations might consider to be the role and circumstances of women, including those of the host society. Essays include: a theoretical perspective on women and war, highlighting the difference between post-modernist and universalist approaches to women's roles in peacemaking and conflict resolution, the role of women in military operations, the implications of the high levels of sexual violence in peacekeeping operations and the UN's gender policy for peacekeeping operations.

International Peacekeeping is devoted to reporting upon and analyzing international peacekeeping with an emphasis upon legal and policy issues, but is not limited to these issues. It is recognized that in today's world there is a wealth of information available from the internet and through other sources. It is therefore the goal of this Yearbook to make this information available in one publication which both organizes and records events over the course of a year through analytical articles, a chronicle, primary documents, and a bibliography. Topics include inter alia peacekeeping, peace, war, conflict resolution, diplomacy, international law, international security, humanitarian relief, humanitarian law, and terrorism. The Yearbook is of scholarly quality but is not narrowly theoretical. It provides the interested public -- diplomats, civil servants, politicians, the military, academics, journalists, NGO employees, and serious citizens -- with a document of record, comment, and a starting point for further research on peacekeeping and related topics. This is achieved not only by the provision of 'basic documents' (on CD ROM), such as Security Council Resolutions and Reports of the UN Secretary- General, but also by expert commentaries on world events. Peacekeeping is treated in a pragmatic light, seen as a form of international military cooperation for the preservation or restoration of international peace and security. Attention is focused not only on UN peacekeeping operations, but other missions as well. This Yearbook is the continuation of the journal International Peacekeeping