Class Three:

Peace Operations

Mondays 3:20-5:20

Prof: Ian Johnstone

Synopsis: Enthusiasm for peacekeeping has waxed and waned since the end of the Cold War, from exuberance in the early 1990s to disillusionment in the mid-90s, followed by an unprecedented surge at the beginning of this decade that only now is beginning to level off.  Today, there is broad consensus that peace operations are an important tool for the management of international peace and security, but also considerable hand-wringing over why expectations are not being met. Between 1999 and 2007, 13 major UN peacekeeping missions were established, along with regional operations undertaken by NATO, the European Union, African Union, ECOWAS and other organizations and coalitions. Today there are close to 250,000 peacekeepers (military, police and civilian) deployed in some 45 missions. The extraordinary growth in peacekeeping has not only strained the limits of global capacity but also highlighted diverging views on the scope and purpose of the enterprise. This course combines a thematic and case study approach to this complex aspect of international affairs.  We will look at UN and non-UN peace operations, broadly defined to include peacekeeping, peace enforcement and post-conflict peace-building.  We begin with a number of sessions on fundamentals: contemporary dilemmas, the legal framework and guiding principles. We then have several sessions on peacekeeping practice, looking at the different types of peace operations and organizations involved, using select cases as illustrations. After a mid-term exam, we turn to contemporary challenges, again using select cases to highlight the dilemmas.  The course concludes with a simulation exercise, designed to draw on knowledge garnered from the cases, themes and issues studied earlier.