The United Nations and Peacekeeping, 1988-95 by Chen Kertcher

Author:Chen Kertcher [Kertcher, Chen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Intergovernmental Organizations, Peace, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781526139399
Google: 224CEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 41887441
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Somalia: from traditional peacekeeping to peacebuilding

Simultaneously with the interventions in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia, the UN also intervened in Somalia. The Somalia intervention was conducted in three stages, and three interventions were deployed under the authority of the Security Council. The first, called the United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I), operated from April 1992 until March 1993. The second operation, called the United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II), operated from March 1993 (when the units serving in UNOSOM I merged into UNOSOM II) until March 1995. Another operation called Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was executed from December 1992 to May 1993; UNITAF operated a multinational force under the label of Operation Restore Hope, under American and not UN command. About thirty thousand soldiers, policemen and civilians served during the height of the operation in the first half of 1993. This operation became the biggest mission ever managed by the UN up to that point.177

The Secretariat personnel and UN diplomats frequently consider the UN intervention in Somalia as a failure, for several reasons. They note that the mandates defined by the Security Council were not sufficiently clear; the allocation of forces to the operations was inadequate; the local factions did not cooperate; and much more besides.178 Boutros-Ghali argued that, despite its failures, the intervention scored many achievements. For example, he said that the intervention spurred a national reconciliation process and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. In Boutros-Ghali’s opinion, the main reason for its failures was the lack of cooperation on the part of the local Somali factions.179 This stance is also backed by Madeleine Albright, then US Ambassador to the UN.180

Most of the studies on the subject support the stance of the diplomats. Similar to the studies cited above regarding Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia, most try to draw conclusions that can be implemented in the future.181 The common denominator of these studies is that they focus on the US intervention stage while ignoring other time periods in the operation. For this reason they emphasise aspects of humanitarian aid and military intervention but do not connect them to issues of nation-building. And nation-building issues constituted a central part of the discussion on operations in Somalia even before the American intervention, as will be clarified in the course of the chapter below. Aside from references to the Agenda for Peace, the diplomats, Secretariat employees and researchers do not explain to what extent the execution of the operations in Somalia were affected by the UN discussions on the new ‘operations concept’. Moreover, existing studies do not provide a comprehensive picture regarding the various positions adopted by the members of the international community regarding the multi-purpose operations in Somalia and the actual contribution of these operations. In this section, I discuss the sequence of events unfolding in the intervention until the first half of 1993.

Somalia, a society based on large extended families (clans), had been engulfed in a civil war since 1988. During the early

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