Alternatives to Ad Hoc Sovereign Forces

Abstract

This chapter summarises the historical context from which a corporate alternative eventually evolved. States’ ad hoc deployments emerged in the mid-1950s during a lengthy debate over proposals for military or paramilitary units. These forces were at first intended to address a range of tasks wider than peacekeeping as envisaged in UNEF 1.¹ The following section examines early discussions on the matter and the third scrutinises three historically prominent examples: rotating states’ units, standby forces and a permanent volunteer legion. Contract forces are introduced where a UN legion bears occasional comparison. The fourth section canvasses those curiously understated disadvantages accompanying regional peacekeeping in the context of waning Security Council authority. The fifth section explores the varied origins and purposes of a miscellany of modern rapid reaction forces; and the summary reviews the reasons for a generally unsatisfactory situation, but one that is the subject of encouraging claims explored in the following chapter.