Status of Personnel, Use of Force, and International Law of Armed Conflict in the Context of New United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

Jeffrey Walker

Jan. 1998 · Harvard univ cambridge ma

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With the end of the Cold War and the resurgence of dormant ethnic and intrastate conflicts within many nations, the demands for international forces to keep the peace, ensure humanitarian relief, and secure democratic institutions in splintering states around the world have increased dramatically. The United States has significantly increased its own involvement in United Nations operations. At the same time as demands for forceful intervention have increased, events in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, and other troubled areas around the world have revealed shortfalls in the developed world's ability to deal the non-traditional missions of nation building, securing humanitarian rights, and large scale peace enforcement operations. A fundamental question arises in the face these new operations: how well do rules developed during the era of limited classical peacekeeping fit these new missions? Can the old rules still apply in this new age of peace operations? Part of the problem in applying classical peacekeeping rules today is that they are a mishmash of guidelines on when to intervene, and once decision to intervene is made, what the rules on the use of force should be. The issue of regulation of the use of force in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions is covered. A third important issue, the legal status United Nations forces engaging in new types of expanded peace operations and their resulting obligations under the international law of armed conflict, is also discussed.