Abstract
This chapter, by Sierra Leonean scholar-diplomat James Jonah, provides a historical account of the origins and evolution of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, and its emergence as a major feature of Africa’s peace and security landscape. The chapter—part-memoir, based on personal experience of many of the events it recounts—charts the development of UN peacekeeping in Africa, from deployments in Egypt and the Congo during the Cold War, through an interregnum, to the establishment of operations in Somalia, Liberia, Mozambique, and Rwanda in the early 1990s. It also reflects on the politics of, and changes in, the management of UN peacekeeping on the continent, while calling for questions to be asked about new developments, such as efforts to link peacekeeping with preventive enforcement, and about the Security Council’s hesitation to provide appropriate financial and logistics support for peacekeeping by Africa’s regional organisations.
This chapter draws partly on my memoirs: James O.C. Jonah, What Price the Survival of the United Nations? Memoirs of a Veteran International Civil Servant (Ibadan: Evans Brothers [Nigeria Publishers] Limited, 2006).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On peacekeeping, see generally Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, Understanding Peacekeeping (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010); Mats Berdal, “The Security Council and Peacekeeping”, in Vaughan Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh, and Dominik Zaum (eds.), The United Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice Since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 175–204; Paul F. Diehl and Alexandru Balas, Peace Operations, second edition (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014); Michael W. Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis, “Peacekeeping Operations”, in Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws (eds.), The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 323–348; Marrack Goulding, “The Evolution of United Nations Peacekeeping”, International Affairs 69, no. 3 (1993), pp. 451–464; Joachim A. Koops, Norrie MacQueen, Thierry Tardy, and Paul D. Williams (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
- 2.
Charter of the United Nations, San Francisco, United States (US), 26 June 1945, entry into force 24 October 1945, chap. VII; see especially arts. 45–47 on the role and composition of the Military Staff Committee.
- 3.
For case studies of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations during the Cold War, see William J. Durch (ed.), The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993). See generally Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe, and Roger A. Coate, The United Nations and Changing World Politics (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), pp. 47–64.
- 4.
In reality, the Dumbarton Oaks proposals envisaged three permanent members of the UN Security Council: the US , the Soviet Union , and Britain . However, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the question arose as to whether France , at the request of General Charles de Gaulle , should also be made a permanent member of the Security Council. While US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Russian President Joseph Stalin were initially reluctant, they finally agreed to it. However, Roosevelt insisted that China should also be made a permanent member of the Council. In compensation to the Soviet Union, two of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union —Belorussia and Ukraine—were made separate members of the UN, thus giving the Soviets three seats in the world body.
- 5.
Britain is used synonymously with the United Kingdom (UK) in this volume.
- 6.
See Adekeye Adebajo, UN Peacekeeping in Africa: From the Suez Crisis to the Sudan Conflicts (Johannesburg: Fanele; and Boulder, CO, and London: Lynne Rienner, 2011), pp. 26–31.
- 7.
The Uniting for Peace Resolution, adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1950, states: “if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security”. UN General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), Uniting for Peace, UN Doc. A/RES/377 (V), 3 November 1950, pt. A, para. 1.
- 8.
UN General Assembly Resolution 1000 (ES–I), UN Doc. A/RES/1000 (ES–I), 5 November 1956.
- 9.
Brian Urquhart, Ralph Bunche—An American Life (New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 1993), pp. 264–290.
- 10.
The UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 50, UN Doc. S/RES/1950, 29 May 1948. With regard to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), key documents include: UN Security Council Resolution 39, UN Doc. S/RES/39, 20 January 1948; UN Security Council Resolution 47, UN Doc. S/RES/47, 21 April 1948; and UN Security Council Resolution 91, UN Doc. S/RES/91, 30 March 1951. The first cohort of unarmed military observers who came to compose the basis of UNMOGIP deployed to India/Pakistan in January 1949. UN Peacekeeping, “UNMOGIP Background”, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmogip/background.shtml (accessed 10 June 2017).
- 11.
Urquhart, Ralph Bunche, pp. 299–360. For one of the best accounts of the Congo crisis, see Madeleine G. Kalb, The Congo Cables: The Cold War in Africa—From Eisenhower to Kennedy (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1982).
- 12.
UN Security Council Resolution 83, UN Doc. S/RES/83, 27 June 1950; and UN Security Council Resolution 84, UN Doc. S/RES/84, 7 July 1950.
- 13.
Christian Herter, National Press Club luncheon speech, Washington, D.C., 18 February 1960.
- 14.
Address to the UN General Assembly, New York, 25 September 1961, UN Doc. A/PV/1013, para. 66.
- 15.
Louis B. Sohn and Granville Clark, World Peace Through World Law (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958).
- 16.
See Kalb, The Congo Cables; Conor Cruise O’Brien, To Katanga and Back: A UN Case History (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1966). For one of the best critiques of Dag Hammarskjöld’s role in the Congo , see Stanley Hoffmann, “In Search of a Thread: The UN in the Congo Labyrinth”, International Organisation 16, no. 2 (1962), pp. 331–361.
- 17.
In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, dated 12 July 1960, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasabuvu noted that the real cause of the internal disturbances was the colonialist machinations of the Belgians, and they accused the Belgian government of orchestrating the secession of Katanga . They further requested the urgent deployment of UN military assistance to protect their country and put an end to the secession. See UN Doc. S/4382, 13 July 1960. In his statement to the UN Security Council on 25 July 1960, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld clarified the legal basis of the Council’s decision to establish the UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC ). See UN Doc. S/PV.913, para. 25. Hammarskjöld , in recommending action by the Security Council, acted under Article 99 of the UN Charter. This was the first time that this article was invoked. On this point, see also Brian Urquhart, Hammarskjöld (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972).
- 18.
See James O.C. Jonah, “The Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the Secretariat”, in Adekeye Adebajo (ed.), From Global Apartheid to Global Village: Africa and the United Nations (Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal [UKZN] Press, 2009), pp. 67–69.
- 19.
African leaders coordinated their position on the Troika proposal with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru . Khrushchev had assumed that the bitterness of Afro-Asian states would lead them to support the Soviet position, and was disappointed when they did not.
- 20.
In August 1960, at a pan-African conference held in the Congolese capital, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba noted that the Congo did not want either the US or the Soviet Union to be directly involved in his country, and that non-alignment was the only viable policy for newly independent countries. See Kwame Nkrumah, Challenge of the Congo: A Case Study of Foreign Pressures in an Independent State (New York: International Publishers, 1967).
- 21.
Based on the principles of constitutionality and collective responsibility, the UN General Assembly , in December 1960, recognised that the expenses involved in UN operations in the Congo for that year constituted expenses of the organisation within the meaning of Article 17(2) of the Charter, and that the assessment against member states creates binding legal obligations on them to pay their assessed shares. See UN Doc. A/RES/1583 (XV), 20 December 1960. Subsequently, the General Assembly urged the permanent members (P-5) of the Security Council to make sizeable additional contribution and also Belgium , as a state directly concerned with the situation in the Congo , to make a substantial contribution.
- 22.
Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Advisory Opinion), ICJ Reports 1962, p. 151, in D.J. Harris, Cases and Materials on International Law, fifth edition (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1998), pp. 975–984.
- 23.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2006 (XIX), Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peace-Keeping Operations in All Their Aspects, UN Doc. A/RES/2006 (XIX), 18 February 1965.
- 24.
A five-part report on the work of the committee between March and May 1965 was submitted by the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly, in their capacity as its chairs. See UN Doc. A/AC.121/4. A report by the committee as a whole was presented on 15 June 1965. See UN Doc. A/5915 and A/5915/ADD.1. Another was issued on 31 August 1965. See UN Doc. A/5916 and A/5916/ADD.1. See also UN General Assembly Resolution 2053 A and B, Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peace-Keeping Operations in All Their Aspects, UN Doc. A/RES/22053 (XX), 15 December 1965.
- 25.
On UNMOGIP, see generally Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, “The Security Council and the India-Pakistan Wars”, in Lowe et al., The United Nations Security Council and War, pp. 324–345; Christy Shucksmith and Nigel D. White, “United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan”, in Koops et al., The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, pp. 133–143.
- 26.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2308 (XXII), UN Doc. A/RES/2308, 13 December 1967.
- 27.
UN Security Council Resolution 186, UN Doc. S/RES/186, 4 March 1964.
- 28.
In this context, it is worth noting, for example, UN General Assembly Resolution 33/114, adopted in December 1978, which reiterated the General Assembly’s conviction that “peace-keeping operations of the United Nations, conducted with the consent of the host country and respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, consistent with the Charter, are an essential function of the United Nations, though not a substitute for the peaceful settlement of disputes and therefore of a temporary nature”. UN Doc. A/RES/33/114 , 18 December 1978, preamble.
- 29.
US intelligence had determined that the Soviet Union was shipping nuclear weapons to Egypt.
- 30.
UN Doc. S/11052/Rev.1, 27 October 1973.
- 31.
UN Security Council Resolution 340, UN Doc. S/RES/340, 25 October 1973; and UN Security Council Resolution 341, UN Doc. S/RES/341, 27 October 1973.
- 32.
Jonah, What Price the Survival of the United Nations?, pp. 115–120.
- 33.
See James O.C. Jonah, “The Military Talks at Kilometer 101: The UN’s Effectiveness as a Third Party”, Negotiation Journal 6, no. 1 (1990), pp. 53–70.
- 34.
UN Security Council Resolution 350, UN Doc. S/RES/350, 31 May 1974.
- 35.
UN Security Council Resolution 425, UN Doc. S/RES/425, 19 March 1978; and UN Security Council Resolution 426, UN Doc. S/RES/426, 19 March 1978.
- 36.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, UN Doc. S/RES/1701, 11 August 2006.
- 37.
UN Security Council Resolution 751, UN Doc. S/RES/751, 24 April 1992.
- 38.
Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council, UN Doc. S/24480, 24 August 1992; and UN Security Council Resolution 775, UN Doc. S/RES/775, 28 August 1992.
- 39.
UN Security Council Resolution 794, UN Doc. S/RES/794, 3 December 1992.
- 40.
The so-called “CNN effect”—a term used in the context of the US intervention in Somalia—refers to the effect of 24-hour media coverage on the making of foreign policy.
- 41.
Jonah, What Price the Survival of the United Nations?, p. 460.
- 42.
Jonah, What Price the Survival of the United Nations?, pp. 324–333.
- 43.
On the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia, see, for example, Adekeye Adebajo, Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria, ECOMOG, and Regional Security in West Africa (Boulder, CO, and London: Lynne Rienner, 2002).
- 44.
UN Security Council Resolution 866, UN Doc. S/RES/866, 22 September 1993. On UN peacekeeping in West Africa (including Liberia), see generally Adebajo, UN Peacekeeping in Africa, pp. 139–170; Comfort Ero, “UN Peacekeeping in West Africa”, in Adebajo, From Global Apartheid to Global Village, pp. 283–304.
- 45.
UN Security Council Resolution 797, UN Doc. S/RES/797, 16 December 1992.
- 46.
In the large body of literature on the Rwandan genocide , there are two accounts, in particular, written by competent UN functionaries who were in Rwanda in 1994: Canadian General Roméo Dallaire, who was commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR); and Cameroon’s Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, who was Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Rwanda. Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2003); Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, Le patron de Dallaire parle: Révélations sur les dérives d’un général de l’ONU au Rwanda (Paris: Duboiris, 2005).
- 47.
See previous note.
- 48.
UN Security Council Resolution 872, UN Doc. S/RES/872, 5 October 1993.
- 49.
See also Margaret Vogt, “The UN and Africa’s Regional Organisations”, in Adebajo, From Global Apartheid to Global Village, pp. 251–268.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jonah, J.O.C. (2018). A Life in Peacekeeping. In: Karbo, T., Virk, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62201-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62202-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)