Abstract
Successive Australian governments have expressed pride at the country’s record in international peacekeeping. Australia has participated in 39 United Nations peacekeeping operations (UN PKO) and 16 non-UN missions. Australia participated in the very first observation mission conducted under the auspices of the UN: the 1947 diplomatic observer mission in Indonesia.1 During the Cold War, it made a significant contribution to PKO in the Middle East (United Nations Truce Supervision Organization [UNTSO]). As the Cold War came to an end, the Australian government—inspired by its activist foreign minister, Gareth Evans—began to view its role in the world in terms of good international citizenship. In quick succession, it provided leadership to the UN mission in Cambodia (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia [UNTAC]) and made significant contributions to United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM II), United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) (former Yugoslavia), and United Nations Assistance Missions for Rwanda (UNAMIR II). A change of government and the more general global retreat from UN peacekeeping brought this era to a close in the mid-1990s.2 After this time, Australia’s only major contribution of troops to UN peacekeeping was to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) in Timor-Leste.
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Notes
On this history, see David Horner, Peter Londey, and Jean Bou (eds.), Australian Peacekeeping: Sixty Years in the Field (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
For an introductory summary, see Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, Understanding Peacekeeping, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Polity, 2010).
There is a sizable literature on Australia’s self-perception as a middle power. See, for instance, James Cotton and John Ravenhill (eds.), Middle Power Dreaming: Australia in World Affairs, 2006–2010 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). Significantly, although the Labor government elected in 2007 identified strengthened ties with the UN as one of three pillars of its foreign policy, this volume does not contain a chapter on either peacekeeping or the UN.
Donald C. F. Daniel, “Recent Trends in Troop Contributions,” in Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams (eds.), Providing Peacekeepers: The National Politics of Peacekeeping Contributions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
For an account of the Australian experience at Kibeho and its long-term consequences, see Terry Pickard, Combat Medic: An Australian’s Eyewitness Account of the Kibeho Massacre (Brisbane: Blue Sky, 2008).
Lieutenant General Kenneth Gillespie, “The ADF and Peacekeeping.” Speech at the conference “Force for Good? Sixty Years of Australian Peacekeeping,” Australian War Memorial, Canberra, September 13, 2007, available at: www.defence.gov.au/media/SpeechTpl.cfm?Currentld=7061, accessed on July 26, 2012
Australian Defense Force, “Peace Operations Training Centre,” “precis,” July 24, 2012.
ADF Peacekeeping Centre, International Peace Operations Seminar, available at: www.defence.gov.au/adfwc/peacekeeping, accessed 20 July 2012.
Australian Federal Police, “IDG Factsheet,” July 2012.
See Alex J. Bellamy, “International Deployment Group,” in Roderic Broadhurst and Sara E. Davies (eds.), Policing in Context: An Introduction to Police Work in Australia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
AusAid, Humanitarian Action Policy (Canberra: AusAid, 2011), pp. 25–28.
Operation Series ADDP 3.8 Peace Operations, (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). Compare with United Nations, United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines (New York: UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, 2007). There is an unfortunate error in figure 1–2 of the Australian doctrine, which appears to show “peacekeeping” as an activity that can occur prior to a ceasefire. This figure is based on the same diagram in the UN doctrine, which shows “peacemaking” occurring prior to the conflict and peacekeeping afterward.
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© 2014 Chiyuki Aoi and Yee-Kuang Heng
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Bellamy, A.J. (2014). Australia and International Peacekeeping: Policies, Institutions, and Doctrines. In: Aoi, C., Heng, YK. (eds) Asia-Pacific Nations in International Peace Support and Stability Operations. Asia Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137366955_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137366955_2
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