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Protecting Strangers: Reflections on a Cosmopolitan Peacekeeping Capacity

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Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention

Part of the book series: Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century ((HSIC))

Abstract

This chapter examines the emergence of a cosmopolitan military capacity to respond quickly and effectively in cases of violent intra-state conflict and mass atrocity crime. The chapter explores the arguments for the creation of a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS), aimed at providing an autonomous capacity for peacekeeping and civilian protection operations. Whilst the UNEPS concept makes an interesting and timely contribution to the debate on a standing UN army, it is weakened by overly optimistic claims about the force’s capabilities and its ability to function independently from national militaries. The chapter suggests that, whilst not necessarily abandoning the focus on autonomous UN peace operations capacity, attention must similarly be dedicated to exploring the scope for cosmopolitan-minded militaries, drawn from UN member states. Whilst problems of political will and the potential souring of relations between key Security Council members are likely to provide significant barriers to more concerted action from national militaries, gradual shifts in national military practice provide encouraging indicators of changing shared ideas about military practice and normative responsibilities to civilians beyond state borders.

An earlier version of this chapter was presented at a workshop on ‘Rapid Reaction Peacekeeping’ at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford on the 8th July 2013. The conference report, published online by Global Policy, yielded interesting responses from Collins (2013) and Herro (2013). Their comments, along with those from Robert Zuber and the other members of the editorial team, have been very helpful in the development of this piece. Naturally, errors and omissions are my own.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cosmopolitanism, in the understanding of this chapter, refers to policies and practices founded on a sense of cross-border moral solidarity, which sees non-citizens as worthy of near equivalent ethical significance as co-nationals.

  2. 2.

    This might be varyingly arranged as a military, police or gendarme configuration, depending on the specific circumstances.

  3. 3.

    Russia and China have vetoed draft resolutions S/2011/612 (October 2011), S/2012/77 (February 2012) and S/2012/538 (July 2012), all concerning Syria.

  4. 4.

    The initial amounts quoted by Langille (2002, p. 98) are of a start-up cost of $1.2 billion, followed by annual running costs of $760 million.

  5. 5.

    Although some air and sea transport capacity would be needed by a UNEPS-like force, there would be little requirement for strike aircraft, air superiority fighters, and naval surface or submarine warfare vessels. Consequently, expenditure in naval and air capacity would be markedly lower than for a national military with responsibilities to protect the state’s airspace and littoral area.

  6. 6.

    Langille (2002, pp. 98–99) uses a comparison with the hugely expensive US B-2 bomber programme.

  7. 7.

    I am grateful to Robert Zuber and Annie Herro (2013) for alerting me to this formulation.

  8. 8.

    The 2010 MARO Handbook is noteworthy here (see Sewall et al. 2010).

  9. 9.

    In February 2014, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India were the top three contributors of personnel to UN peace operations. Italy was the biggest single contributor from Europe or North America but only the 24th largest globally. See http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2014/feb14_2.pdf (accessed 25th March 2014).

  10. 10.

    Joint project by University of Essex, Exeter University, the University of Texas-Dallas and YouGov. Initial findings presented at a Foreign Policy Centre events, Houses of Parliament, 11th March 2014.

  11. 11.

    See UN Security Council Resolution 2149, 10th April 2014, S/RES/2149.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, History and Politics, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, London, KT1 2EE, UK

    Jonathan Gilmore

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  1. Jonathan Gilmore
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Correspondence to Jonathan Gilmore .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Coventry, Coventry, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

    David Curran

  2. www.trudufraser.com, New York, New York, USA

    Trudy Fraser

  3. VA, Virginia, USA

    Larry Roeder

  4. and Armed Conflict, Global Action to Prevent War, New York, New York, USA

    Robert Zuber

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Gilmore, J. (2015). Protecting Strangers: Reflections on a Cosmopolitan Peacekeeping Capacity. In: Curran, D., Fraser, T., Roeder, L., Zuber, R. (eds) Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention. Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16372-7_2

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