Hawks and Doves: Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War both the concept and practice of United Nation (UN) peacekeeping have undergone substantial changes. While deployments during the Cold War generally operated under the principles of impartial, non-forcible intervention with the consent of the conflict parties and the precondition of an agreed peace, more recent peacekeeping missions have, increasingly, been undertaken in the context of internal wars. As a consequence, these principles have come under an ever-increasing strain and the UN’s performance in recent missions has made it subject to severe criticism. It has variously been accused of doing too little, as in Bosnia, or too much, as in Somalia. In response to these criticisms, new thinking about peacekeeping has evolved on both the national and international (UN) levels. The caution about peacekeeping, which arose especially after the experience in Somalia, has been reviewed, favouring new doctrines that seek to combine a more robust approach with an increased capacity for peacebuilding.